• Wanted: Dream Chasers

    Photo by Laura Burlton via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    My favorite story in the Bible, hands down, is that of Joseph. I’ve read Genesis 37-50 about 100 times. It never gets old!

    From the first reading of the story until today, I’ve always wanted to be like Joseph. Dream on, dreamer!

    Take it from this dreamer… dreams do come true.

    May God grant you the opportunity to chase dreams like I’ve been fortunate to chase dreams.

    Just once in your life… it’s my prayer that you wake up in a cold sweat with an idea that won’t let you go. And you realize that in order to shake the dream, you need to chase it. So, not knowing how else to get rid of it, you set out to fulfill it.

    Maybe that dream takes a day or a week or a month? (Like building a treehouse for your kids or running in a 5k or recording a song.)

    Or maybe that dream takes years until you see real progress?

    Both timeframes bear the same satisfaction.

    Here’s my encouragement today:

    Just chase. Be a dreamer. Get after it. Geek out on it. Own it to the point where people call you Joseph. Invest yourself to the point that your friends mock you like they mocked Noah. Enjoy the satisfaction of getting fired for dreaming too much.

    The results will come. And seeing things happen in your life will give you a glimpse of something heavenly. As you chase dreams you’ll see God do things you’d never thought possible.

    The world is full of perfectly ordinary people like you or I doing extraordinary things.

    They are dreamers. And membership in the tribe of dreamers is open on only one prerequisite.

    God has dreams for you more wild than you could ever imagine.

    Since before you were born, before your fertilized egg implanted in the womb of your mother, before she peed on a stick and knew you even existed… God knew who you’d be and what kind of person you could become! Could is the operative word. It is the opportunity placed before you if only you’ll act on the impulse to chase recklessly.

    Contrary to the pessimists in your life chasing dreams is not child’s play.

    The world needs more dreamers. Not fewer. We have big problems that need big dreams to fix.

    Chasing dreams is horribly inefficient. It takes time to make the impossible possible.

    The bottom line is simple:

    Your dreams will never be fulfilled until you do something with them. A dream is just a dream until you do something with it.

    Maybe today is the day you start?

    I’m fulfilling mine. Are you fulfilling yours?

    No more carpe mañana.

  • Open to Change?

    My byline is: “Crazy enough to change the world.”

    Mutability. Change. Delta.

    The concept of change is the fulcrum of the Gospel message.

    Am I willing to look at myself in the mirror, accept who I am, (not) and commit to the hard work of change?

    The Gospel message is about change. Changed hearts. Changed lives. Changed motivations. Changed intentions. Changed directions.

    Without change– a life with Jesus becomes good information at best and good entertainment at worst.

    Without change– the Gospel is devoid of value.

    God changed the course of human history when He sent Jesus to die on a cross. He changed how he engaged humanity so you could change your life.

    To anthropomorphize it, God changed in the hope that we would change.

    Accepting Jesus is accepting that you need to change.

    But I wonder how many people are actually open to change in their lives?

    Am I open to change?

    Are you?

    Is change a part of your life? Or do you just talk about it, asking others to change, but you are too good for that?

    Or are you afraid to appear weak, displaying a changed heart?

    If my byline is “Crazy enough to change the world” that implies that I’m always on the lookout for people, organizations, groups who are willing to change.

    Sadly, among Jesus followers, few seem open to change.

    They refuse to accept who they can become, thus refuse to change.

    Pride sets in, change becomes impossible, and we become “about the Gospel” without living into the Gospel.

    Christian organizations would rather go out-of-business, accepting failure, than change.

    Churches would rather reach a decreasing congregation in an increasing population than change.

    This deeply saddens me.

    Oh, that we might be a people changed by the Gospel.

  • Garden Birds

    As much as we like gardening, we also love the ancillary things that a garden attracts. One of those things is our hummingbirds.

    There are three birds living in a nearby tree. The male sits on his perch most of the day, observing the garden.

    Besides watching them feed from my morning writing spot– I adore watching them swoop in when I turn the sprinklers on. As they fly in for a drink their lightning-wings spray water in a thousand directions.

    It makes me giggle every time. How awesome is nature?

    Pests?

    I’m sure some gardeners have birds who are pests. Maybe eating the crops or digging where they aren’t supposed to. I guess we avoid all of that by having a very prolific hunting cat. Lovely seems to keep all unwanted critters at bay.

  • Living la vida simple

    I think Ricky Martin had it wrong. While living la vida loca (the crazy life) looks attractive to the bored, I prefer to set my sights on living la vida simple. (the simple life)

    As crazy as things seem, feel, or appear– I do live a pretty simple life. A life that is satisfying in its simple pleasures.

    Weekends give glimpses into these pleasures.

    • Near agenda-less. There are things to do, but it’s far from the frantic pace of Monday – Friday.
    • Sleeping in. (That means until 6:30, pretty lame, but that’s as late as I can sleep.)
    • Going to the farmers market and discovering new smells and flavors. (Our kids suddenly love pomegranates)
    • Sharing the intimacy of talking about nothing with Kristen over a cup of tea.
    • Watering, weeding, and pruning in the garden.
    • Spending way too much time observing your cat hunting or the hummingbirds feeding.
    • Lounging in our pajamas well past 9 am.
    • Staying up late to watch a movie.
    • Walking around Costco to pick up a couple things, but mostly to score samples.
    • Taking the dog for a walk.
    • Cutting the grass. (Which feels weird to do in November, but our grass just started growing.)
    • Debating when the citrus will ripen so we can start gorging on mandarins.
    • Wrestling, chasing, and teasing the kids.

    It’s funny, isn’t it?

    Ironic to be exact.

    I struggle to find satisfaction even in these things which are completely satisfying in and of themselves.

    And I remind myself:

    Life isn’t perfect. Compare the simplicity of these things against the weight of the life I deserve.

    Now things start to feel perfectly satisfactory to me.

  • Time Lapse Video: Backyard Hummingbirds

    A few weeks ago we hung this little hummingbird feeder. We were amazed to discover that the hummingbirds (who nest in a tree in our backyard) discovered it within hours.

    Maybe it makes me sound old or stupid? But I don’t care. I love watching these amazing creatures in my backyard. And I love watching them up close when they are at the feeder.

    So every few days we take it down and clean out the little bottle of sugar water, then mix up some more for them. It’s really fun! We can’t believe how tame they are. (You can get like 6 inches from them.) And it’s really cool when they come close or “buzz the tower.”

    This morning, I thought it would be fun to set up my camera to take time lapse pictures while we went to the farmers market. All told, we captured about 2 hours of pictures… one every 10 seconds. 665 frames.

    The video above is the result.

    The song, as you may recognize, is from Jars of Clay. It’s called The Long Fall. (click here to buy it on iTunes)

  • How to Blog, Write, and Speak With Integrity

    Here’s a quick tutorial for how to blog, write, preach, or teach with integrity.

    Let’s say you’ve came across a blog post on Adam McLane’s blog that you really enjoy. In particular, you like something I’ve written to the point where it has inspired you to write your own blog post, magazine article, book, lesson plan, or sermon based off of the thoughts you had in reading my post.

    For example, let’s say you read my post The Personal Preference Sin:

    I’d like to talk to some people about a rabid sin running rampant and unchecked throughout the American Evangelical church. Maybe if you’re reading this today I’m meant to talk to you. This is, I believe, one of Satan’s most powerful devices for separating our people. And yet, this sin runs so deep and is so approved that it carries back to some things we hold sacred such as denominations… probably 50% of non-denominational churches founded in the past century are the result of this sin.

    That sin is personal preference.

    I love that post, too. It’s one of the most popular things I’ve ever written.

    It’s been quoted, remixed, preached on, etc. Which is all awesome and humbling.

    Now, how do you handle my intellectual property in a way that both you and I can be satisfied with?

    And how do you handle it if you’ve been paid to write, teach, or speak and you’d like to use something I’ve written?

    For blogs: (easy, peasy)

    • Do: Mention in the post where the idea for the blog post came from. “I was reading Adam McLane’s blog yesterday, and I came across this statement that I’ve been thinking about.” Or find a phrase to link to like, “That sin is personal preference.” Or even “HT to Adam McLane” with a link.
    • Do: Link to the original post, this helps your reader know how to find the source. And it helps my blog’s page rank with the search engines.
    • Do: Feel free to link directly to my post for whatever reason you’d like. You don’t have to ask permission for that. That’s awesome, thank you.
    • Do: Feel free to write a response or debate my posts. Just link to the source.
    • Don’t: Beat around the bush. It’s not fair to me for you to use my ideas/thoughts/words and not mention my name and link to me as the source. Don’t say, “a blog I read said…” or “a friend of mine recently wrote.” That’s not fair and it lacks integrity.
    • Don’t: Write the post without linking to me in the post or mentioning me and then privately email me a link thinking I’ll somehow be flattered. I don’t want to be a jerk, but if you use my thoughts as your own so that you can look good I don’t find it flattering. I think you’re a thief.
    • Don’t: Worry about any advertising revenue your post makes. As long as you properly cite my work for your blog, I don’t care that you make money.

    For magazine articles & books: (not as easy)

    • Do: Mention my name and properly attribute my blog in the work.
    • Do: Ask me what I think about the idea before you submit it to your publisher as a remix. I have a contact page, I’m pretty easy to work with. I’m not trying to be a jerk, at all, I’m just trying to make sure that if you use my idea to make money, that I’m properly attributed and/or compensated.
    • Do: Allow me to have a look at what you are saying about me, my blog post, etc. before you submit it.
    • Do: Ask me in a way where it’s OK if I say no. Chances are pretty good we can work it out. But it might be that I need to say no and it’s helpful if I’m being asked to know that I won’t be seen as a turd if I say no.
    • Do: Spell my name correctly, that’s a pet peeve.
    • Do: Expect that if you are going to treat me like a ghost writer for work you intend to publish for profit, that I will expect some level of compensation. That’s only fair.
    • Don’t: Think you are going to get away with it because we don’t know one another or you think your sphere of influence and mine don’t intersect. It’s embarrassing for everyone when I get a Facebook message from someone who read something that sounded just like a blog post of mine in a denominations magazine or something like that.
    • Don’t: Pull the “it’s Kingdom property” line on me or “there’s no new ideas out there.” Particularly if you are going to get paid for work you forgot to attribute to me. We all learned in middle school that plagiarism is wrong. I’m not out to make money on my blog (notice there are not ads) but I’m also not out to make money for someone else. If I write something and then two months later the exact same idea and outline is in a magazine, that’s not a coincidence.
    • Don’t: Assume that because this is a public blog that this is somehow public property and you can just harvest my ideas, change some words around, and then sell it.

    For lessons, sermons, and classes: (easy, peasy)

    • Do: Acknowledge my work. If you publish your notes, just attribute my work like any other book or website.
    • Do: Proceed without asking. As long as you aren’t pushing off my work as your own, we’re cool.
    • Do: Share with me your notes, how it went, etc. I’d love to see how you turned a blog post into something else. Maybe we can even agree to put it in the free downloads section of my blog?
    • Do: Feel free to print off a blog post to share, just attribute the URL so that people can know where to find me.
    • Do: Contact me if this is going to be a regular thing. If you are going to take something I’ve written, turn it into a lesson, and then take it on the road to make a living… that’s different. We should talk about.
    • Do: If you feel like I should be compensated because you were paid an honorarium (or salary) for work that was essentially mine, please make a contribution to my church.
    • Don’t: Try to pass off my thoughts as your own in a sermon, lesson, or class. It is embarrassing when people in your audience/class contact me and tattle. The internet has made the world pretty small.

    Postscript #1: It’s obvious why I’ve written this post. I’m tired of seeing my work ripped off and unattributed all over the place. It’s not right. And it certainly isn’t fair. Most of it is just sloppy so I am assuming its because people don’t know that they are supposed to attribute things or they don’t know how or that content written on my blog actually is my property and they are not free to generate revenue off of it. Now you know.

    Postscript #2: Why are people in ministry the worst ones? Shouldn’t Christian leaders demonstrate integrity in all areas of their lives? Especially intellectual property?

    Postscript #3: These are pretty much the same rules you should put into play for any blogger. So while this post is about me and my content, you can safely use this as a guideline for most blogs.

  • To Eat More, Guess Less

    Kristen and I are completing our first year of transforming our backyard into an organic garden. The first year has been full of fun harvests and humiliating defeats.

    If we’ve learned anything about gardening in the first year it is this principle: To eat more, you need to guess less.

    • We’ve learned that when we planted things is as important as what we want.
    • We’ve learned how to adapt our watering to the weather as opposed to just setting a timer.
    • We’ve learned how a baby weed is just as dangerous as a major one.
    • We’ve learned that is something gets bigger than you wanted, prune it right away or it’ll take over the garden.
    • We’ve learned that if we want to keep our harvest coming, we need to be patient in spreading out when we plant so it doesn’t all come at once.
    • We’ve learned that planting something in the wrong season really doesn’t work.
    • We’ve learned that your yield is directly proportional to the quality of soil where you plant at.

    We didn’t know anything walking into this. So we guessed a lot. And we let our emotions get the best of us a few times.

    But heading into the second year, we’ve learned a lot and documented what we did, we hope to eat a little bit more with less mistakes in 2011.

    Isn’t this the same as with any other endeavor? You might guess and get something right by accident. But experience always yields a better result.

  • Just Make it to Harbor

    Imagine how good this guy felt when he got the boat into harbor?

    What a metaphor for life!

    I can’t tell you how many times I’ve felt like this.

    Life is ugly sometimes.

    And just pulling into safe harbor is exhilarating.

  • My Kids Aren’t Your Target Audience

    Imagine the freedom of hearing this one phrase.

    A parent affirming a youth pastor by saying, “My kids aren’t your target audience. Reach the lost.”

    What would happen if parents stepped into their role and discipled their teenage children, and at the same time affirmed the church’s youth pastor by saying, “My kids aren’t your target audience. Reach the lost.”

    Game changer.

    G-A-M-E-C-H-A-N-G-E-R

    The reason so many youth workers feel like babysitters or cruise directors is that they are regarded as such by many people in the pews. (And sadly, by their bosses and governing boards who see them as a way to attract or keep parents of teenagers.) The attitude is… “Well, we give money to the church which funds this persons salary and the program they run so we should allow the expert to pour into my kid and I’ll just step back, get the most for my money.”

    This makes some logical sense because its visible. But it is missing the point, missiologically and ecclesiologically.

    Modern church youth ministry, as a movement, sprung out of parachurch ministries like Young Life and Youth for Christ in the 1950s-1960s who stepped up to answer the call the church would not… reach lost teenagers. It was primarily a method of evangelism. And it operated well outside of the walls of a church because the methods often used to get students interested in the Gospel freaked churchgoing adults out.

    In the 1960s and 1970s churches woke up a bit and started hiring youth workers of their own. (Lots were former YFC and Young Life staff) And all of a sudden the vocation of youth pastor started to shift from something that looked like a missionary to something that looked like a pastor.

    As things have morphed over the years many youth ministries focus has shifted from non-church teenagers to almost entirely church kids. Youth ministry has gone from being mostly about evangelism to mostly being about discipling church kids with an evangelism strategy which boils down to, “Bring a friend.”

    That’s a bad thing! And as I’ve said over and over again… we’re reaching a decreasing amount of the population with this strategy. Some try to dismiss me by claiming I’m just deconstructing. I’m not deconstructing, I’m calling the church to recognize her strategic failure and change!

    Personal Example

    I’ve always known this to be true. (That my churches job wasn’t to reach my kids, but to reach the lost.) But I suppose economic realities and race make it obvious enough for my dense mind to notice now that we go to a mission-styled church.

    I don’t want my church reaching my kids. If I sit in on my churches kids ministry program and it is targeted at my kids I know something is wrong. Why? We’re a mission church in a neighborhood where 75% of the people don’t speak English in their home and even more are not from the U.S.A..

    My kids aren’t the reason my staff raises support! I know this and I celebrate it. I’m pleased that my tithe doesn’t help create a ministry paradigm designed to disciple my kids. Why? That’s my job!

    Their job is to reach the neighborhood!

    Why is acknowledging this important?

    1. It changes my attitude from entitlement to supporting the mission of the church.
    2. It clarifies expectations.

    Your Role as Parents

    If you are like me, a Christian parent, your role is vital. Deuteronomy 6 is abundantly clear. A life with Jesus isn’t reserved for the temple. You’re to talk about God in all that you do, everywhere you go, and in your own home. You are to impress on your children that your faith is real. If you want your kids to believe in God it is up to you. If you leave it to your church to do you have failed as a parent. (If your church is telling you it is their job tell them they are wrong, they need to hear it.)

    Your tithe is an offering to God not a ticket to entitlement to church programs. While it is our role to oversee and make sure that the church is not misappropriating funds– It is hardly an offering to God if it has strings attached to it which stipulate that the church will create programs to entertain and disciple your children.

    Imagine

    Imagine the freedom it would create to your church staff if you uttered this simple phrase, “My kids aren’t your target audience. Reach the lost.”

    Go ahead, try it.

  • Moments of Awe

    Awesome is one of my favorite words. While my day is full of moments of awesome there are only a few moments in life described by the word awe.

    Here’s a few…

    • Hearing the words, “I’m pregnant” from your wife. (Trust me, as much “awe” is created the first time at 24 as at 34 when it wasn’t expected.)
    • Seeing the sunrise over the mountains or the sunset over the ocean for the first time. (Whoa, there are colors I never even imagined!)
    • Meeting a starving person who asks if they can pray for you. (Whoa, you mean you can really praise God even when you aren’t comfortable?)
    • The birth of your child. (Whoa, you and me doing that can result in this?)
    • Witnessing 50,000 worshipping God in a city where hundreds of thousands just died in an earthquake. (Whoa, how is that possible?)
    • A young lady sharing her deepest fear and how God showed up in front of her peers. (Whoa, her words are more powerful than mine.)
    • The realization that Jesus died for me. (Whoa, the son of God… was perfect… and gave his life for me?)
    • A jet-lag induced early morning walk through a crisply cold city in a foreign country. (Whoa, discovering this place is amazing!)
    • Riding the Maid of the Mist deep into Niagara Falls to feel the full force of gravities simplicity. (Whoa, I’m soaking and exhilarated at the same time.)
    • The moment you realize you both feel the same way and knowing you’ll spend the rest of your life with her. (Whoa, there really is someone just for me.)

    There are moments in life so full of awe that words truly defy them. I think that’s the history of the word awe right there. Something happened and a persons jaw dropped and said, “Awe.”

    Getting back, recreating them, and remembering them creates years of inspiration.

    Oh, that we might live a life inspired by awe.