• The $6 Billion Election

    It’s 2004 all over again.

    In 2004, a ho hum group of democrats did their best to make the primaries interesting. John Edwards had the million dollar smile. Howard Dean looked like a contender. And John Kerry sat in the wings.

    The democrats knew they had little chance of beating Bush. His popularity was reaching its pinnacle. The American people loved how he handled the months immediately following the terrorist attacks and we were just getting into 2 wars in retaliation. (Though most seem to have forgotten that.)

    There was a 3 way race of pretty viable-looking “plan B” candidates. (Who were just good enough to be believable but not quite the party’s best.) The media made a good story out of Edwards vs. Kerry, Kerry won out. In the end it was a boring lead-up to a relatively easy win for Bush.

    But the democrats played along and everyone was happy.

    2012 has a problem.

    The republicans haven’t played along. Their pool of 4-5 people in the primaries aren’t believable enough for the general population to become interested. We all know it’s Romney. He just has to keep his mouth shut and keep smiling while the rest of the “plan C” and a couple of “plan D” folks take turns lining up and falling apart.

    The primaries aren’t interesting to the general public. Only 5.4% of eligible Iowa voters showed up to last week’s Iowa caucuses.

    So what’s the problem? There are 6 billion of them.

    Way back in August 2011 Reuters published a story which shows just why the media is trying so hard to make this year’s field of republicans look interesting.

    The U.S. elections will be the most expensive ever, with a total price tag of $6 billion or even more, fueled by millions of dollars in unrestricted donations as Republicans and Democrats vie for control of the White House, Congress and state governments.

    “It’s safe to say that, given that we had a $5 billion cycle in 2008, it will certainly be more than that and very likely over $6 billion, which is just an astonishing growth rate,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending.

    The cost of the election is surprising given that only the Republican Party is holding presidential primaries, unlike in 2008 when both parties had expensive contests to find a candidate.

    Source

    For a struggling news industry that’s a whole lot of ad buys. Newspaper ads, television ads, magazine ads, online ads… everyone needs a slice of that $6 billion pie to make their budget and make Wall Street happy. Not to mention that’s a lot of money for staff, travel, hotels, greasing palms, etc.

    But they won’t spend that much money if Americans get bored. 

    This is why the news organizations are so desperate to find a story. Because if you get bored with this primary season they stop getting paid.

    My take? I’ll vote for the party who takes their slice of that Super-PAC pie and donates it to a charity. 

  • Stay Crazy

    I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched this video over the years. Maybe hundreds. It inspires me every time. 

    In youth ministry, Mike Yaconelli is our Steve Jobs.

    As I wrote earlier this week, we live at a time when youth ministry has flat-lined. The way we do youth ministry has failed to increase it’s impact either in the church or in our society. And that flat-lining has created a crossroads.

    • Why do I do what I do? 
    • Why do I invest so much time into these students? 
    • Am I investing in students the right way?
    • Am I making an impact at all? 

    These are the questions we ask ourselves at the crossroads. It’s natural. It’s good. You’re aren’t wrong for thinking these thoughts.

    My hope is that when we get to these crossroads we don’t double down on strategies we know don’t work. My hope is that we don’t quit and suddenly feel called to church planting or selling life insurance. My hope is that we don’t give up on the church for she is the bride of Christ.

    Instead, my hope is that we look at the reality we are in, look both ways at the crossroads… and say “Woohoo! Let’s figure out how some new ways to keep loving on God’s kids!”

    Stay crazy, my friends. 

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  • 4 Things Negativity Guarantees

    Negativity isn’t the opposite of positivity. It is the opposite of gratitude. 

    When things are going great your response to success determines your ability to continue succeeding. And when things are going rotten your response can be the rally point your team needs to keep going.

    Here are 4 things that being negative will guarantee in your life

    1. You’ll have negative future returns. Poor performance is the love child of a negative attitude.
    2. You’ll have negative friends. Negativity attracts negativity.
    3. You’ll have negative impact on loved ones. Negative people contaminate everything they touch and hurt everyone they love.
    4. You’ll have negative job history. Your outlook leads to your ouster time and again.

    Leaders set the tone. Pure and simple. 

    Be gracious to one another in how you lead.

    Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

    2 Corinthians 1:11

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  • Love is an Orientation DVD now available

    Last May I spent a day in Chicago’s most historic gay bar, Roscoe’s.

    Besides having great food and a very helpful staff, the reason I was there was to shoot the adolescence portion of The Marin Foundation‘s new DVD curriculum Love is an Orientation.

    Why was I part of this project?

    First – I believe that the church as a whole, and youth ministry in particular, does not have an answer for ministering to the LGBT community. I should rephrase that… there are some rather unhelpful extremes. What I love about The Marin Foundation and Andy Marin‘s approach is that they don’t pretend to have all the answers. But they do know one thing. Regardless of your sexual orientation, you were made in the image of God and Jesus loves you enough to die for you.

    There’s a lot of power in saying you don’t know all the answers. Their approach might not be the most popular and it certainly doesn’t lead to easy fundraising like their pro-gay or anti-gay counterparts… but standing in the middle is a powerful position and they have good company in acting as bridge builders.

    Second – I believe a lot of bad things happen in youth ministry because there is inadequate training for youth workers. I feel pretty confident that Ginny Olson and I give solid training for ministering to individual students who are LGBT, including how to handle it when a student comes out to you, as well as how to create a safe environment for all types of students.

    Why should you buy this DVD?

    There’s a good chance you’ve already read Love is an Orientation. Essentially, this takes the teachings of the book and melds it into 6 sessions for a church team or small group to work through. It’s interwoven with teachings from the book, interviews with people in and around the LGBT community, and a sprinkling of outside voices like Ginny and myself.

    Sorry for the shameless plug here. I’m not making a dime off of this thing. But I do want to encourage you to head of to The Marin Foundation’s online store and buy a copy of the DVD.

     

  • Yes, your wife is hot

    I’ve got a bone to pick with men who describe their wife as “hot” all the time. To me, it’s in the same category as the “I heart boobies” bracelets. It makes me cringe every time I see it or hear it.

    A few reasons why I don’t like it:

    • It’s demeaning to your wife. If the first thing you can think about to say about your wife is that she’s hot than that says a lot about what you think of her and women in general.
    • It’s immature. No one is going to hear you say that or see it on your Twitter bio or Facebook profile and think, “Now that is a man worthy of respect. Look at how he talks about his wife!“
    • It shows off your insecurity. I think it’s in the vein of thought of, “My wife is way out of my league.” While it seems like a compliment it is displaying your insecurity. It’s comes from a place of, “If I can’t say nice things about her publicly, maybe she’ll leave me?“
    • It’s not getting the joke. For a lot of people it comes from Talledega Nights. I get it. That’s a funny movie. But that’s not how you talk to or treat a woman.
    • You are sleeping with her. It’s implied that you think she is hot.
    • There’s nothing appropriate I can say about your wife in return. I mean, what am I supposed to say back? “Yeah, I heard she makes a mighty fine meat loaf, too.“

    My new response when I hear this or see it:

    “Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing.”

    Still funny?

  • Youth Ministry is Flatlining

    If I were to plot out the average youth ministry attendance in a local church this is probably what it would look like.

    So when I say, “The way you are doing ministry is failing to reach students. It’s not you, it’s your strategy.” Youth workers look at me and say, “No, that’s not true. We are actually reaching more students than we were 10 years ago with less budget.”

    And from their vantage point, looking at that one view of the population of adolescents in their community, they could be right. They are reaching 10-15% more students than they were 10 years ago.

    Flatlined growth

    However, when you compare students engaged in youth ministry to the overall student population in your school district it looks a lot like this.

    This is what I mean by “you are failing to reach students with the programs you currently offer.”

    Statistically speaking you are flatlined. (As in– no heart beat!) You’re reaching just about the same percentage of people you’ve always reached. That may be OK from a church politics situation but I’m not sure I’m OK with that from a theological position.

    And I’m positive that this flatlining has lead to the following problems in youth ministry over the last decade:

    • A general cynicism about youth ministry internally and externally.
    • A decrease in youth ministry staff and general budget funding.
    • An increase in expectations that new youth ministry staff grow the program immediately.
    • Lots of great youth workers moving on to other ministries or careers.
    • The rise of family ministry models designed to circle the wagons. (Historically, youth ministry existed for evangelism. Popular models today are primarily interested in keeping church families engaged.)

    Students are involved… just not in youth ministry

    According to this 1995 study, 79.9% of all high school students were involved in an after school activity. I know that this study is 17 years old– but we would all agree that that percentage likely hasn’t changed much in 20 years, correct? (Maybe +/- 10%)

    Every youth ministry strategy I know of is trying to wedge their way into this pie graph. They are looking for students, ultimately, to forego involvement in one of the programs at the school and invest in their program.

    After nearly 40 years of youth ministry we know that this isn’t going to happen. Even the best youth ministry program model might only wedge their way in there by 2-3% of total student involvement.

    A theologically appropriate number of students are not going to stop involvement in other things to get “fully engaged” in a local youth ministry program. And even if they did this it wouldn’t be a good strategy for continued growth, would it?

    It’s 2012. You have flatlined for the past decade. Are you ready to try a new strategy?

    This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

    Ephesians 5:14

    Stay tuned, subscribe via RSS or get my daily email. This year we are going to look at new youth ministry strategies that are breaking this model and reshaping the way students engage with Jesus. 

  • Paul’s Fishing Trip

    Kristen and I decided that we’d give each of the big kids an experience as part of their Christmas. So Megan is going whale watching with mom and I took Paul fishing out on the open ocean.

    After a lot of research online I booked our day on the Daily Double out of Point Loma Sportfishing. (Yelp review) It was pretty reasonably priced and the reviews were good, especially for those with kids.

    We weren’t disappointed! We both had a great time, made a lot of memories, caught some fish, and had plenty of stories to tell.

    (click on the images to see them full-sized, sorry about the upside down ones!)

    These are the fish bags… each hoping to be filled with fish.
    A beautiful sight with San Diego beginning to fade into the distance
    My boy, looking very serious before we left the docks
    Boats in the harbor
    A sunny day having a blast with Paul
    A gorgeous tall ship sailing out of the harbor when we were coming in
    Looking off the bow into the harbor
    That’s Cabrio, the famous lighthouse on top. Now it’s a national landmark
    Filleting our catch!
    The seagulls & pelicans chasing the boat, hoping for some scraps
    Not as interested in this one… “Dad, stop taking pictures!”
    Hawaii in the distance…
    Our fish getting sliced-n-diced
    Our catch!
    I’m sure there was something important here. Just enjoy…
    There were whales over there.
    We took a lot of these pictures. I love hanging with my boy!

     

  • Top posts for 2011

    Top 10 posts

    1. Do you need a resume`? It depends.
    2.Repairing a wet iPod Touch
    3. Tim Hortons Arrives in Romeo
    4. Christians and Gun Control
    5. St. Patrick’s Day Prayer for Missionaries
    6. 14 Must Have Gifts for the Geek in Your Life
    7. TSA Resistance
    8. SDSU: I Believe That We Will Win
    9. American Airlines CEO Quits on Moral Grounds
    10. 5 Ways to Be Good News in the Neighborhood on Halloween

    No surprises there. Google brings the traffic to some of my backlog entries. But I was surprised to see some of the late November and December articles take off and make it into the top 10.

    Top 10 Referrers

    1. Facebook
    2. Google (Search, Image search, and Google Reader)
    3. Twitter
    4. StumbleUpon
    5. Youth Specialties
    6. The Youth Cartel
    7. Google+
    8. Raginpagin
    9. DougFields.com
    10. Whyismarko.com

    I had to giggle at #8. That’s a forum for the SDSU bowl game opponent. Facebook out-referred Google by 3:1 in 2011. Crazy!

    Top 10 search terms bringing people to my blog

    1. resume
    2. how to do a resume
    3. Tim Hortons
    4. wet ipod touch
    5. wii bowling
    6. sexting
    7. tiger woods new estate
    8. letter l
    9. st patrick
    10. ipod touch wet

    Again, the power of Google. Looks like I need to spend some time on my SEO of church/youth ministry stuff, eh?

    Top 10 outbound links

    1. thepoddrop.com
    2. facebook.com/adammclane
    3. twitter.com/adammclane
    4. theyouthcartel.com
    5. feeds.feedburner.com/adammclane
    6. mclanecreative.com
    7. thetechherald.com/article.php/200850/2611/Study-reveals-20-percent-of-teens-have-sent-naked-images-via-phone
    8. usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2008-12-09-high-tech-flirting_N.htm
    9. markuskrauss.com/Produktdesign/SWAY.html
    10. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_on_arrival

    One of the surprising things that happened to my blog in 2011 was that I didn’t see a dip when I left working at Youth Specialties. As I transitioned from YS to The Youth Cartel I actually saw an increase in traffic, comments, shares, etc. I don’t know what that means but I was happy to see everything go up. (Visitors, Facebook shares, Twitter mentions, RSS subscribers, comments, contacts… everything.)

  • Let them roar(ish)

    We need to allow our kids to learn to roar.

    At eight and ten years old our oldest are flourishing in the elementary years. Half of their existence is in the pretend world of video games, fantasy books, and made-up games in the backyard. The other half is the real world where they help with the baby, dominate academically at school, and run the shipping department for The Youth Cartel store.

    The hard thing for Kristen and I is that they are growing up a little bit faster than we feel prepared to adapt our parenting. A year ago we woke up to the reality that we’d never left them home alone for even 5 minutes… or allowed them out of our sight on their own. So we started taking short trips to the grocery store without them or allowing them to go on walks in our neighborhood alone.

    “It happens so fast.” People have told us this since the moment we found out we were pregnant with Megan. We’ve taken lots of pictures, we’ve enjoyed every step and stage. And yet it feels like it is still going so fast that we just want to hold on to each stage!

    At the same time, it’s that little tendency… the desire to hold on… that we know is the difference between our kids roaring and our kids delaying maturation.

    O! That we would be parents who don’t take video while our kids learn to roar, but stand behind them and encourage: Louder, you can do it!

  • Support Freely in Hope on Sevenly

    Meeting Nikole Lim and learning about her organization, Freely in Hope, was one of my highlights of 2011.

    We all know that storytelling is a powerful medium for moving people to action. Nikole’s eye for this is exhibited beautifully in her short film, While Women Weep. The film threads together the stories of several African women who became exploited sexually and later enslaved by hopelessness before finding new freedom and hope through Christ.

    As I watched the film I was overcome by three things.

    1. This film is beautiful in every way.
    2. This would be amazing to watch with a small group or with people who are looking for a cause to rally behind.
    3. Nikole needs to tell more stories.

    So please buy her film to support her continued work through Freely in Hope & as an encouragement to this young artist to keep going!

    In related news, Sevenly is featuring Freely in Hope this week with a special t-shirt.

    From now until January 1, your $22 purchase helps to protect women from sexual abuse in Kenya. With your support, Freely in Hope can uplift women out of poverty and decrease the vulnerabilities of sexual abuse. Your support will give protection & education to young women, helping them attain jobs and a better living.

    Go here to buy a t-shirt

    So if you’re looking to end 2011 with a little conspicuous consumption that can make a big difference– here’s my challenge. 

    Go buy the DVD, pick up the t-shirt, and tell your friends that you’re going to host a party to boycott the BCS Championship game farce by hosting a Freely in Hope party at your house.