Category: hmm… thoughts

  • Gift Cards at Planned Parenthood?

    I’m no prude, but this is just plain odd. You can now buy gift certificates for Planned Parenthood. The intention is to use them for birth control, STD screenings, and other typical health care provided by Planned Parenthood. While not the intention you can indeed use them for abortions. Talk about a weird gift in the stocking the Christmas, “Look honey, I prepayed for you just in case you need one while away at college!“

  • What a difference a letter makes

    One of the many funny things that happened in Nashville occurred Sunday night during our general session. As our bloggers are describing what our speaker, Danielle Strickland of the Salvation Army, is talking about I took it upon myself to head over to twitter to share a quick insight into what I was thinking.

    Danielle Strickland is taking us to the deep end of the poo tonight.

    Of course, I meant “pool” but the damage was done. It was one of those typos that you’re friends repeat often. I got “the poo” all cleaned up on twitter and the live blog, yet the joke wouldn’t die. Thankfully, everyone knew it was a typo so the poo never hit the fan… since we’re in the land of the pun.

    It just goes to show you. Every letter matters when communicating. You may be trying to take people to the deep end of the pool, but miss the “L” and they’ll head straight to 7th grade science class.

  • Giving Thanks


    My family isn’t one that will likely go around the table and share what they are thankful for. But that doesn’t mean I am lacking gratitude this Thanksgiving. Here’s a few things I’m especially thankful for.

    #1 I am thankful for my red hot smokin’ wife, who is a stone cold fox, and two kids, Walker and Texas Ranger. (Oh wait, that’s Ricky Bobby…) I am thankful for Kristen, Megan, and Paul. They bring immense, intense, wild, fight-club-worthy joy to my life.
    #2 I am thankful for all things San Diego. From our neighborhood, to our new church family, to my friends at YS, to the beachy goodness, to all things Mexican food and sushi.
    #3 I am thankful for getting to invest in the lives of so many youth workers around the globe. Marko expressed this much better than I could, check out this video.
    #4 I am thankful for Youtube, who just started offering widescreen video and all the fun I will have with that.
    #5 I am thankful for Steve and all my friends at Apple Computer, I’m glad I finally saw the light.
    #6 I am thankful for Snickers. Dang they are good.
    #7 I am thankful for Facebook and all of the old friends I’ve reconnected with.
    #8 I am thankful for Andy Marin. I praise God that He has raised up a man willing to stand in front of 5,000+ people and proclaim himself, “The gayest straight man in America.” I’m happy to call him a friend and I join him in praying that the church would continue to love the GLBT community.
    #9 I’m thankful for Free Speech, that I don’t have to worry about getting sued if I call someone’s ideas stupid.
    #10 I am thankful the thousands of “mmm’s” I heard at NYWC this fall as speaker’s spoke truth into leaders lives.
    #11 I am thankful for the genius feature on iTunes.
    #12 I am thankful for the Chargers, Irish, Wolverines, Spartans, and any other sports team I care about in 2008 sucking so I could concentrate on other things.
    #13 I am thankful for the dress code at YS.
    #14 I am thankful for horchata.
    #15 I am thankful for pretty things, like Gmail’s new themes, sunsets at Ocean Beach, and odd wildlife in our backyard.
    #16 I am thankful for Wii Fit as there is nothing quite like watching your 5 year old do yoga.
    #17 I am thankful for former students. They encourage me, join my crazy conversations, challenge me, and inspire me to keep going as I watch them stumble towards faith.
    #18 I am thankful for a lot of things, big and small this year.

    How about you, what are you thankful for?

  • Fair Warning

    Starting tomorrow, I have about a week off. Since my move to San Diego I have not taken a break and in many ways I am just ready to chill and do nothing.

    At the same time, Kristen knows well, that when I have significant time off I get bored and create things. And since I am a dork my inventions are typically internet related. And that last statement reveals why my post is titled, fair warning.

    What am I creating? I have 3 new websites planned in my head that will get birthed during this time off. And for the first time in a long time, these new websites won’t have anything to do with youth ministry or even Christianity. Here’s what will hatch out my soul and be shoved down the throats against your will because of their unbelievable awesomeness:

    _ something on San Diego living

    _ something about life

    _ something about death

    Does this need to be said? None of them have anything to do with my job.

  • Quick check-in

    I’m always amazed at my inability to blog from NYWC. I think it’s a combination of my insane schedule and a lack of good internet connectivity. More importantly, I feel like I don’t have much to share while in the midst of NYWC since I’m soaking it in so deeply.

    So here are some random thoughts in no particular order.

    – I’m looking forward to getting season one of “NYWC as a YS staffer” out of the way. 2008 has been a major learning curve for me. I feel like I admit ignorance way too much. I look forward to 2009 because I’ll be more useful beyond what I was able to handle here. I know that is gray and fuzzy, I don’t want to bore anyone with details.

    – I’ve said this before but I want to say it again, people are people no matter what they do. I’ve had some stirring conversations with speakers and authors… but I’ve also had very similar conversations with people who don’t write or speak for a living.

    – Nashville is a great convention location. I love the arena environment!

    – A ton of people asked me if the convention gets boring having gone to all 3. No, not boring. Not really repetitive. If it were boring I would need to find a new job.

    – I have huge respect for convention volunteers. My only frame of reference is a PGA Tour event. I think it’s a lot like that. Simply put, if we didn’t have the volunteer we couldn’t do it. Thanks to our volunteers!

    – I’ve gotten more sleep than in Pittsburgh. The reality is that my body is just waking up at 5:30 AM Pacific time. My roommate, Andy Thompson, thought I was kidding. With no alarm I woke up at exactly 5:30 on Friday morning. Today I woke up at 5:27.

    – Security at the Sommet Center is a little crazy. They are diligent, to say the least.

    – Is it really Christmas shopping season?

    – It’s true. I’m staying over on Monday night so I can get a good nights sleep before going home. I felt like my recovery process after Pittsburgh was elongated by my lack of chillaxing.

    – I’m looking forward to checking out the details of Obama’s transition team when I get home.

    – Mark Yaconelli, pictured above, brought the funk today.

    – I am thankful for Ian [Dude] Robertson. Every time I do an interview I am praying I don’t ruin it. It’s happened, it’s embarassing and every shoot makes me wish I knew more about the camera.

    – Just heard this on the Nashville news, “NASA astronaughts are working on their hardest project ever, they are installing a device that will make drinking water out of urine.“

  • Jonestown: Unchecked Religious Power

  • Don’t Bail Out US Automakers

    All of a sudden, the czar’s of the old guard Big 3 are interested in Washington again. (By Big 3 I mean Ford, GM, and Chrysler, not the real big 3 of Toyota, Honda, and Ford.) The news is full of stories of their CEO’s begging for federal bailout money to keep afloat. I can hear the words from here, “We only want $25 billion.” They probably each took their own corporate jets over there and are staying at $10,000 per night suites.

    Here’s why giving the Big 3 $25 billion is a bad idea:

    #1 Their problem isn’t bad loans, it’s bad labor contracts. I lived in Detroit for 5 years and I was totally sickened by labor practices. Over the last few generations an entitlement attitude has run rampant among workers. In short, until they can clean house and only keep the best workers regardless of union status or seniority any bailout will just be wasted on pouring more money into a broken vessel. Most people don’t know this, but they pay people not to work! They want federal dollars to keep paying people not to work! For $25 billion we need a federal right to work law. People should have a choice whether to join a union or not. Closed shops should be outlawed in every state… especially Michigan. Face a fact… unions were great at one point, but have helped bankrupt the auto industry.

    #2 Their problem isn’t bad loans, it’s over-generous retirement plans. In the last few year’s they have gotten wise and started buying people out. But the Big 3 are levied with a tax their competitors don’t pay… pensions. (Most have been structured on 401k plans since day one.) Until they can shed those pension problems the federal government shouldn’t give them a dime. I don’t think that they should just fore go the pensions. I think, once and for all, they should sell those debts off and let someone try to make a buck on distributing those dollars.

    #3 Their problem isn’t bad loans, it’s trying to sell cars people don’t want. Have you walked on a car lot lately? The Chrysler cars mostly look like space ships. The Ford ones look like Tonka trucks. The GM ones look like cars from the 1980s. I know that’s judgmental and I’m uneducated. But I was recently looking to buy a new car and literally laughed on most of the “U.S. Automaker” lots. For 20+ years they have whined about “foreign cars” on their market. The reason people aren’t buying them isn’t because they hate America, it’s because Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, and the rest are selling cars people want to drive.

    I have no doubt that the auto industry will get bailed out. They will become federally subsidized, just like the airline and farming industries. If it’s not the $25 billion today it’ll be $100 billion next week. My only hope is that in getting the money they will start to repair the damage.

    Meanwhile, I hope Michigan continues to look for a new economy. I hope they invest in the health care industry, technology, and financial industry. Michigan is full of amazingly brilliant people who want to succeed. Let’s hope that they get it sorted out soon!

  • Sometimes your best idea is stupid

    Case in point…


    This is why you need really good friends. We all need people in our lives to tell us when we’re investing in stupid stuff.

  • A little housekeeping

    As I get myself further ingrained over at the YS Blog you may notice a shift in my youth ministry related blog posts from here to there. Here’s a few recent examples.

    #1 Don’t Give Up on What Makes You Unique, lessons from Mike Rowe.

    #2 Tech Bytes for Youth Ministry, cheap tech buys that’ll make you look like a pro.

    #3 Why You Need Help in Youth Ministry, because you can’t succeed on your own, you know?

    Here at adammclane.com I’ll continue doing pretty much everything else I’ve always done. Personal updates, rants on church life, rants on politics, sharing about our new experiences here in SoCal, what I’m excited about in our church, stuff too controversial to share on the YS blog, stuff I’m proud of, stuff I’m reading/listening to, pictures and videos. You know… everything else I always do here.

    OK, you get the point.

  • Hump Day!

    It’s Wednesday already. I was in 6th grade at camp and first heard the term, Hump Day, I’ve always giggled at that expression. I’m 32 years old and it still makes me snort a little.

    Here are some random tidbits going on in my life, none big enough for a whole thought.

    #1 We’re entering into the 21st century of television soon. When we moved to San Diego I cut back on our cable costs for a while until I could grasp all our bills. To say the least, housing in Southern California is a lot different than in Michigan and I feared there were other hidden costs I wasn’t seeing. With all that settled and a normal monthly budget in play, we upgraded. I know this surprises some people to know that we did analog cable, being that I’m such a total tech dork. So we will soon have a bazillion channels, including tons of HD choices, and a DVR. You mean I won’t need my VCR anymore?

    #2 Social networking tools and the church. Kristen and I are getting more and more engaged in the church in an awesome way. One thing I’ve agreed to help out with is getting their website in order. Now, in addition to that, we have a Facebook group and I’m asking the staff (no office, decentralized staff) to play with Google Groups for their collaborations instead of emailing everything all over the place. Next step for them, they want a team blog to help tell their story. The biggest challenge for me is that we truly are a multi-cultural church. Yet, I’ve never done a website in multiple languages. I have to figure this one out!

    #3 Proud of YS this week. There’s been quite a stir about our publication of the book, Barack Obama: An American Story. It’s a team that rallies together, prays for one another, and genuinely loves one another. We knew this release would cause some people to question our sanity so we weren’t taken by surprise by the response. But it’s really cool to see Marko (the president of YS) be transparent about it on his blog. I love the values of YS, always have, and am proud to be a part of what God is doing through them.

    #4 Speaking of politics. It’s been a slow news week. I’m pretty sure by the end of the week Katie Couric will have a story, “A Retrospective of My Time on The Today Show.” With gas prices diving, a peaceful presidential transition, all of my sports teams sucking, and even murders and teen pregnancy on the decline… there really isn’t much to report on.

    #5 One more week until NYWC Nashville. Half of me says, “I’m still tired from the first two!” The other half of me says, “Bring it on!” Someone in the YS office loves me. After being in the adjoining room to Marko’s suite in Pittsburgh, I got moved down to the adjoining room to our VP of Marketing’s suite in Nashville. I think Dave knows every person in Nashville! Sleep? Who needs sleep? Not going to lie, I’m a social butterfly so I’m looking forwad to it.

    #6 Our kids rock! Don’t take my word for it, read Megan’s guest blog post on Kristen’s blog yesterday. I think Megan will have a guest post here soon. Turns out mommy is paying Megan to be her editor now, $1 per piece. She’s going to need an agent soon.

    #7 The Wii is back. After a summer’s long hiatus, the kids noticed we had a Wii again. In fact, Paul told me… “Your friend Ian has a Wii, so I want to play.” Kid’s brains work in the weirdest ways. It is true, Ian has a Wii… Paul saw that when we dropped off a stray turtle at his house over the weekend.

    #8 Reading again. Glance over at my sidebar and you’ll see what’s currently on my nightstand. I really am reading all of those books at the same time. Perhaps that’s why I rarely finish books?

    #9 Kristen’s new job. It’s been a fun challenge as we’re figuring out life with both of us working. She’s doing customer service for Calorie King in nearby La Mesa. We now have an ongoing joke that while she is the Calorie Queen, I am the King of Calories.

    #10 I don’t really have a tenth one. It just sounded like a good idea since I had nine.