Category: hmm… thoughts

  • The move is done!

    Today was the last day of our lease at the old place. We really only had two items left that had to be retrieved. We had the base of our yard swing. Kristen loves this thing so I knew we had to get it taken care of right away. And we had our old car. Yeah, the one with the blown engine.

    Tonight we went over there to get both. The swing seemed like the easy thing, so we loaded that into the back of the truck, no problem. Next, we charged the battery on the Camry for a while and after about 30 minutes of trying I got it started.

    That’s when the race was on. Rather then pay $50 to tow the car I decided to drive it! Now, you need to know two things to appreciate this lunacy. First, we moved from the top of one hill to the top of another. So it was down 400 feet of elevation and back up the other side. (About a mile total) Second, the engine was running on two cylinders. That means there were two other cylinders busted and making huge bangs while the other two chugged along like a lawn mower.

    So, down the hill and off we go. The brakes are super soft since I hadn’t driven the car since October. Yeah, big hill and bad brakes. Smart move.

    Then, pulling onto University, I hear a nasty sound. As if a busted engine isn’t bad enough, the swing had fallen out of the back of the truck and was being dragged. I kept driving my car go-kart towards the house while Kristen figured out the swing. It was a freaky moment as we go separated. Not good.

    I pulled into the bottom part of our neighborhood so I could check on Kristen. She was fine, just getting everything secure. So I started driving up through the streets with my loud banging engine. Driving up a steep hill with full knowledge that your car could stop at any moment is kind of fun. Not only was I trying to snake through my neighborhood, I was keeping an eye out for places to ditch in case I had pull over and call for a tow.

    A few minutes later I pulled into our driveway and turned off the engine. A couple minutes after than Kristen arrived.

    Kristen and I were giddy in completing our task. We knew we did something dangerous and it came out OK. The kids were nervous about the whole thing but after a few minutes were willing to celebrate with us. I told Paul, “Sometimes to do things adventurous you do it not knowing it’s going to be fine. That makes the adventure more fun.” He told me “OK” but I don’t think he was convinced.

    Craziness over? Of course not! I needed to move the car a few feet to the right so we could park next to it in the driveway. Of course, the car wouldn’t start so we had to push it. Yeah, good times right there.

    This was one of those nights where we shared a lot of laughs. Most importantly, our move is now officially over.

  • St. Patrick’s Day Prayer for Missionaries

    st-patrickEach year I’m shocked that few Christians latch onto Saint Patrick‘s Day as a holiday to celebrate international missions. I think it comes from few people knowing Patrick’s story. They have heard the lore that he scared the snakes out of Ireland but forget the facts. Patrick (of Wales) was trafficked as a boy to Ireland to work for a rich person. Later, he left Ireland and returned home. Through a series of events Patrick became convinced that his life’s mission was to return to the place of his captivity and set spiritual captives free. For the rest of his life he worked tirelessly to establish Christianity on the island. Through some inginuity and fancy friends Patrick was eventually able to help start 500 churches across the once resistant land. As time would tell, Ireland would become the place which “protected” Christianity during the Dark Ages. Luck of the Irish or providence of God? I chose providence!

    While drunks everywhere salute St. Patrick as the god of Guinness I celebrate him as the example of all believers to chase wildly the call of following Christ wherever you are lead.

    With that in mind, here are the missionaries I’ve been lifting up in prayer today. These are the heroes in my life who willingly accept the crazy challenge of changing the world.

    – Dan & Barb Evans. My former youth pastor and his wife run a hospitality house for military personnel in Alaska.

    – Eric & Michelle Stapleton. Kristen and I have been friends with them since college. They spend their days translating the Bible in a remote area of the island nation of Vanuatu.

    Of course, the staff of our church are all missionaries. (They raise support as they plant this church.) Today I’m praying for Stephen & Bradford Phelan, Edgardo & Elizabeth Avila, Christine Brinn, Chris and Anastasia Brewster, and the whole team at World Impact who have joined forces with Harbor.

  • A Dare for Pastors

    lunch

    I am daring you and your staff to take this challenge. I promise you it isn’t as dangerous as it sounds. In fact, I think it may just fundamentally change the way you interact with the people in your ministry.

    Here’s the dare.

    Lock every staff person out of your church building for a work week. From the senior pastor to the part time guy to the janitor. Instead of going to the office and doing your normal thing for 7 work days I am daring you to put all that “work” aside for a work week and a couple of days to spend that time getting to know 10 people who go to your church in their native environment.

    Here’s how it works.

    1. Instead of getting up and going to the office, split your day in half. In the morning you’ll spend a half-day with a first shift office worker and in either the afternoon or evening you’ll pull a half shift with a blue collar worker. Trust me, you’ll find a bunch of volunteers. It’ll be fun for everyone. Repeat this for 5 days so each staff member gets to see 10 of your church attendees in their work environment for half a day.

    2. Run your ministries that week in the most stripped down way possible. Just wing it for a week… you’re professionals, you know you can wing a week. Tell the pastor to talk about his week or something. The preacher absolutely doesn’t get special treatment in this. Heck, download a free sermon from open.lifechurch.tv and tell the band to play last weeks songs on Sunday. This dare will make your ministry better, I promise.

    3. When that week is over schedule an off-site meeting with your entire church staff for Monday and Tuesday. It’ll take 2 days to debrief this.

    3a. Spend the entire first day (with a lunch paid for by the boss) sharing your experiences. What did you do? What was unexpected? What went crazy? Who works their butt off? Who has the easy job? Why do people do what they do? Who is the most servant hearted? You get the idea.

    3b. Spend the entire second day (bring a bag lunch) determining how getting to know people in their native environments changes how you minister to people, families, children, and students.

    4. Send thank you notes to every single person you visited. Let them know how much you appreciated the time with them, how much you learned, etc.

    Money back guarantee! Since this project isn’t costing you anything I promise to refund you fully if you take this dare and learn absolutely nothing.

    Go ahead, spend time with your people at work. I double dog dare you!

    For those taking the dare. Let me know if your staff is doing it. I’d love to pray for you all. Also, let me know how it went. Leave a comment here or drop me an email, mclanea@gmail.com.

  • Why Church Hopping is Bad

    By Scott Kinmartin via Flickr
    By Scott Kinmartin via Flickr

    The second fastest way to make a church leader roll their eyes is to ask, “How do you minister to homeschool kids?” The fastest way to make a church leader roll their eyes is to ask, “Do you have any church hoppers?”

    Let me give you 5 reasons why church hopping stinks!

    1. It’s turning church programming into a commodity. Church hoppers bring their families to church like they would a trip to McDonald’s. Pastors can spot these folks coming a mile away. They are checking everything out, looking for the best kids program, the best worship band, etc. There is a difference between an earnest shopper and a professional hopper… ask them how long they’ve been looking!

    2. It’s turning preaching into a commodity. No pastor wants you to come to their church because you think they are a good preacher. There’s a little devil on the shoulder that says, “You want them, they love you.” But people who are coming to hear a good sermon are only there for the show. Make them buy tickets!

    3. It’s turning your community into a commodity. I’m always amazed to find people driving 20-30 minutes to a church. It’s as if they were in complete denial that a good church would turn them loose in their own town? (Even if the churches are lame in their opinion.) If God put you in that community, go to a church in that community, make it unlame.

    4. It’s turning the people of the church into a commodity. It’s funny when you talk to a church hopper about “their old church.” They are quick to point out what they don’t like there and they do like here. I’ve noticed these folks are happy bystanders. Ask them to join a small group and see what happens. It’s a trip.

    5. It’s treating churches like a commodity. A little repetitive, eh? It can’t be said more clearly. The problem with hopping from church to church is that it tends to value “church” by the elements that make it up instead of jumping in with two feet. No staff member wants to be judged by numbers, no church deserves to be judged by the programs they offer. And it’s ultimately a sign of shallow spiritual growth when you fail to commit to a local church for the long haul. Yep, it’s messy. Why? Because it’s full of people just like you!

    What advice do I recommend to church leaders when they encounter church hoppers? Call them out. (Privately) Invite them to shop but not hop. Speak truth into their life. Don’t placatte them and their silly requests. “We’d stay if you had a cry room with a video feed.” “We’d stay if you had a better college ministry.” My advice is for church leaders to be comfortable enough with who they are and their churches vision to kindly invite hoppers to keep on hopping!

    Catering to the saved is a distraction from reaching the lost.

  • Fast Tuesday update

    Two weeks into lent, fasting is going great.

    The first week was great. I felt fantastic. It was a time to slow down and walk with God through Scripture and stuff. Plus, I didn’t feel like ending the fast after 24 hours so I kept it going until late afternoon. It was awesome!

    Week two was almost the opposite. I never felt good. My mind was very cloudy all day. The day felt like it spun out of control. And I was hungry all day long. I’m not a “fasting expert,” but I’ve done plenty of one-day fasts and yesterday was my most bizarre. Yesterday was pure discipline. No joy in it at all.

    Two weeks and two different experiences. I suppose that is to be expected. Thinking of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the desert… I’m sure there were days that were good and bad as well.

    I’m looking forward to next weeks fast.

  • Rock that Quirky Church

    dsc_0211I think some of my harsh criticisms of the evangelical church come from a love of our church. The mission of Harbor Mid-City is one that is quirky by design.

    We have a hyper-qualified staff brought together despite significant theological difference who lean into that tension for the sake of the Gospel in the neighborhood. For my theologically savvy readers (aka Kristen) we have staff people from PCA, Salvation Army, Baptist, pentecostal, emergent-types, traditional evangelical and hard core liturgical backgrounds. In most communities these folks wouldn’t even get together to pray for one another… much less chose to work at the same church!

    Toss on top of that theological stuff the language issues we experierience every week and you will start to see the quirks pop out. We offer the same service in both English and Spanish, meaning there are painfully long times of translation. But this is San Diego and people are used to hearing both languages on the radio and TV… so that’s no big deal. We also have a population of people who speak Korean, Vietnamese, and Swahili. Sometimes our worship music is in those languages. In fact, there tend to be as many non-English songs as English ones.

    Ready for this? It gets more quirky as the design of the church allows minority cultures to have equal voice in our services. What that means is that we’re more worried about celebrating our worship service in a way that lifts up Latin American, Mexican, African American, Southeast Asian, and African cultures above the dominant white evangelical culture.

    OK, one more quirk. There is a huge hodgepodge of socio-economic situations in our church as well. You have working class poor next to college kids from San Diego State. And you have immigrants next to upper-middle class folks who live just north of the church.

    Is it perfect? No. Do I agree with every last bit of the theology? Absolutely not! Are there things about the church I really dislike? Yes! Am I comfortable in the service? Rarely. Are the messages challenging and encouraging to where I am at in my walk with Jesus? Not often. Do they offer all of the things I need for my family? No, children’s ministry is just getting organized. Youth ministry is in a pre-formational stage.

    So why do we go? We go because we believe at the core of our being that there is tremendous strength in that diversity. I am not arrogant enough to believe that my evangelical expression of theology and worship is superior. I love to worship in a place that agrees on the essentials while allows gray areas to be interpreted through the lens of culture.

    Don’t get me wrong. This place is solid theologically. In fact, I’m convinced that Harbor expresses in their worship many best practices of things believed across Christianity. This hodgepodge isn’t just the brain child of idealists. It is the brainchild of idealists who are stupid enough to think that it will work, have the training and experience to make it happen, and have a core of people at the church who are dreaming the same dream.

    In these quirks I see tremendous hope for the Gospel across our country. Lives are changed as they are surrendered to Jesus. And as I think about it, much of what I rebel against here on the blog about evangelicalism is because I see Harbor doing something right while most of evangelicalism is doing it wrong.

  • Why Do Church Leaders Count?

    counting-sheep

    If ministry is about people and not numbers, why do we count people?

    I’ve been going to church a long time. I’ve visited and been a part of probably a dozen churches. Typically, churches count heads either during the offering time or during the sermon of the Sunday morning services. And counting is a big part of everything else that goes on in a church as well. How many in Sunday school, how many at youth group, how many in the choir, how many pastors, how many chairs are unused, how many people cars in the parking lot, how many donuts, how many old ladies, how many envelopes were in the offering… the counting never stops.

    People in churches: I find it devaluing to be counted. If that’s you… communicate to your leaders to stop counting you. When people have to sit on the floors because the preaching or program is so good, we’ll know to give to a building campaign. Until then numbers mean squat. Tell your staff to focus on who does come to church and not how many more they need to reach a goal or propose their next fund raising campaign.

    People on church staffs: Stop counting stuff. Find something better to talk about in your team meetings. If you’re judging everything by a number then you’re judging things by the wrong denominator. I’m all for measuring success and failure. But find a measurement device that isn’t butts in seats or dollars in the plate. Don’t give me that crap about the parable of the 99 sheep. That’s not why you’re counting! Counting heads, cars, envelopes isn’t about finding lost sheep... it’s about ego.

    Admitting that is the first step towards recovery.

    You can have a church that doesn’t count. It’ll work. Trust me. Next time someone asks you how many ____ come to ____, tell them you don’t know.

  • YS Podcast

    Hard to believe that this is the 28th episode of the re-launched YS Podcast. I like that we’ve kept it simple, short, and all about youth ministry.

    I’ve talked to Sean a bunch of times about this piece. His ministry helps youth groups around the country buy airtime on local radio. Not event spots… but real ministry time. A very cool concept and surprisingly cheap. The second segment is from Tic… obviously! I love what he says about Lent and taking care of yourself. I know I need to hear this type of thing and I’ve already watched it a couple of times.

    The most consistent feedback I get from the show is from the closing. It always amazes me, but at least once a week I’ll get a voice mail, email, or Facebook message says… “I needed to hear that my ministry matters this week.” All that to say, if you know a youth ministry volunteer or paid staff member take a couple of minutes this week to express to them how they are making a difference in your church and community. Don’t assume they feel appreciated.

  • Fast Tuesday, Temptation

    fast_tuesdayA full week into Lent, today marks my first Fast Tuesday. Not sure if “pumped” is the right word to use for entering a period of fasting, but I am prepared to enter this season of preparation.

    I woke up thinking about this passage:

    Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

    The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

    Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.”

    The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

    Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”

    The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written:
    ” ‘He will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you carefully;
    they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

    Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

    When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Luke 4

    Lent is deeply rooted in the 40 days fast Jesus observed in the desert as he prepared for his earthly ministry. I think it’s amazing how many times I’ve come into Lent and missed the meta-narrative of what Lent was preparing me for. Lent is a 40 day fast of preparation of the observance of Easter… duh, right? Wrong! There was a two-fold point to Jesus’ 40 days of preparation, wasn’t there?

    Point one: Pay the penalty of sin with death, making a way for man-kind to have a relationship with God. (Bringing the Gospel message to us individually)

    Point two: Open the door for all believers to act as agents of God’s mercy, regardless of earthly decension. Previously, this belonged only to the tribe of Aaron. (Bringing the Gospel message to the whole earth.)

    Lent isn’t meant to just prepare me for Easter. It’s also to remind me to continually prepare for my lifelong ministry as a believer. Conversely, my role as someone called to “professional ministry” is to not only call people to the cross, but to prepare and encourage God’s people to act as agents of the Cross wherever they go.

    So Jesus went to the desert to fast and prepare for his ministry. And while fasting the devil tempted him along three lines a Messiah would be tempted. I’m a pretty self-reflective guy… and I don’t think the temptations I face are anything like those. But let me share some of the tempatations I wrestle with as a ministry leader.

    The temptation to attack. Part of that giftedness is a strong sense of what ought to happen in just about any organization I’m exposed to. (Schools, libraries, sports teams, churches, work, families, game shows, and even organizations I’m not tied to, just curious about.) The temptation is stop trying to gently reform and just nail 95 Theses to the wall and walk away. There is a big difference between pushing something to get better and being rude. And while being a jerk is often times more effective at fixing things it hardly reflects a Gospel-driven approach. So I feel constantly tempted to say things in ways that aren’t helpful, blog about things in an attacking manner, etc.

    The temptation to invest in the wrong things. Anyone who knows me knows that I struggle deeply with balance. I tend to fall in love with something to the point where things get out-of-whack… thus messing up the thing because of a lack of balance. For example. There were about 2 years in Romeo where things were very balanced. Home life was great, work life was great, and working with the golf team helped me keep both in check while somehow making both better at the same time. Then, I allowed a pressure from work to push me out of helping with the golf team. That was my centering activity and from that point on life spun further and further out of control. Had I just stood up to that pressure and resisted the temptation to allow myself out of balance, who knows what would have happened? I need to resist that temptation continually as it comes.

    The temptation to lead instead of serve. I don’t know if I’m the only one who notices this, but a lot of church leaders have a jacked up view of leadership. They lead with ego, talent, and brute force. Unfortunately for them, Jesus called us to lead by serving others. (see John 13) I have to admit, it’s a huge temptation to try to lead things in the way I see church leaders being successful! I want to ram-rod my will on others all the time. But as we see in the Gospels and the early church in Acts… Jesus’ ministry came to conquer the hearts of mankind. You can’t conquer a persons heart by force… in case you didn’t know, that doesn’t work.

  • Social Networking 101

    social-networking-101

    Yesterday, I had a crazy thought. Big surprise, I know. It was listening to a story on KPBS about how all of the community colleges in California are jam packed with laid off workers trying to learn new skills. And I started thinking… that’s a lot of small businesses… that’s a lot of people looking for jobs… that’s a lot of people with time on their hands.

    What if I offered a class in social networking? Something that covered entry level and helped get people started without looking like a moron? Spend 5 sessions covering stuff like creating accounts, building a network, etiquette, promotion, style, generating content, creative commons, etc. The weekly sessions would cover:

    – Facebook

    – Blogging

    – Twitter

    – YouTube, Flickr, and other media sites

    – PhotoShop/just enough for your social networking needs

    Do you think people would actually pay for something like that? I’m thinking it’d be fun to do it tutor-style. Small group of people, meet at my house, 30 minutes of instruction plus an hour or so of practice.

    I know there is a need for this because I’m constantly helping my friends already. While I don’t mind helping my friends at all, it makes me think that there is a large population who wants to learn how to do those things for themselves or their business who just need someone to sit down and explain things, then show them how to get started.

    Of course, I am already silly with stuff to do. So I don’t think I’m really serious about this… but it does have me thinking.