• Update on Marassa

    Marassa 14 Camp 1&2 from Adventures in Missions on Vimeo.

    Since returning from Haiti with YMATH, I’ve received periodic updates on our work from Seth Barnes, Adventures in Missions head dude.

    This video wrecked me. Sitting in a coffee shop, 4 days into a road trip to talk to youth workers… seeing those faces, seeing a man you met and prayed with several months ago… very powerful and stirring on a few levels.

  • I’m so thankful to see how healthy those folks look. Their housing conditions haven’t changed much, but they look reasonably healthy.
  • I’m thankful to see a familiar face. The man is the video is the same man that we met with in February. The statement he makes, that was about our team.
  • I’m thankful for the integrity AIM has shown. To keep our team updated as to the progress of their work in Haiti after our project was completed… that tells me a ton about the men and women on their staff. You have no idea how much that means.
  • There is so much more to do. If you think the work is done, you can see — clearly — that it is not. If you’ve felt called to go but melted away with an assumption that it’s under control, please reconsider. I have a few spots for my July team, get in contact with me about joining.

    • Here are some excerpts from the update I just got. You can read the full report here.

    In Haitian Creole Marassa means “the twins”. It is also the name for a couple of tent communities residing side-by-side on the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince, each containing approximately 2,500 residents in a low lying riverbed area.

    Thursday we took enough supplies to the twins to provide 15,000 meals of rice and beans.

    Media will tell you that to drop $15,000 of supplies into a couple of tent communities without the UN for security is unsafe to say the least and practically insane. However, we arrived with a handful of staff and trusted the security team of the Marassa camps to handle any situations should they arise, thereby empowering our Haitian brothers and sisters.

    Children clapped and sang as we rolled onto the grounds. A hopeful, expectant crowd gathered and never once did I feel unsafe. The camps’ leaders thanked us and donors for keeping our word from February and returning to help their people.

    Join me in offering prayers of thanksgiving for this. And please join me in petitioning the Father that He would provide more laborers.

  • Performance Reviews

    I need to make a confession about performance reviews.

    I’ve never given or received a useful one.

    Another confession. Since going into full-time ministry in 2002, I’ve never gotten a performance review. Ever.

    It’s not that I’ve never had a job which didn’t require them or didn’t promise that I’d get one. It’s that it’s either never happened or I had to write my own and my boss approved it. A self-evaluation is not a performance review… it’s like reviewing your own book for a blog. Useless.

    From 1996-2002, I worked for BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois as a supervisor. Every six months I had to submit a review to my boss of my employees performance, and every six months I received a review of my performance. They were all meaningless. (Except for the annual one which told me how much my raise was.) But I never got or received any advice that changed work behavior. It was really all just numerical performance.

    “During the review period, Adam increased worker productivity by .6% by offering daily bribes of donuts and glad-handing. During the next review period, Mr. McLane shall increase worker productivity by 2.1% by manipulating the tools in which he measures performance so that he can satisfy his bosses incessant desire for increased productivity.“

    So my question is simple.

    If it’s so important that staff people get performance reviews… why is it that the people doing the reviewing hate it so much and why is it that the reviews we get are so lame?

    And when did this silly practice begin, anyway?

  • The power of story

    I’m spending the next week on the road for work, capturing stories from youth workers in their context.

    Here’s Ryan’s story.

    I first heard about Ryan’s story last year. We met for lunch and than later at NYWC. I love that his story is just like real life, full of ups and downs. Full of moments of questioning and assurances.

    His story is pretty much the way God rolls. When I spent time with Ryan and Ashley last week I couldn’t help but think… “God has them right where He needs them.”

    In God’s wisdom, He likes it when his people are completely dependent on Him.

  • Plethora

    Plethora is really the only word I have to describe my life right now.

    There are so many things going on, so many amazing opportunities, and so many more things I wish I had time to do. Here’s a glimpse into the madness…

    • NYWC has taken over my work life! Because of the changes we got a late start to planning this year’s convention… but we have a big deadline coming up and every intention of nailing it. So it’s crunch time for the website, the brochure, the video, and a whole lot more. I’m way more involved in all of that than I ever have been.  Which is fantastic and crazy to think about at the same time.
    • PlanetWisdom and the Canadian convention are also about to ramp up their stuff for next year. Yowsers! That’s a lot of websites.
    • I’ve got a couple McLane Creative projects right at the launching point. In the midst of that God is brining me a big vision to expand these side jobs from 1-2 projects per month to 5-6. I have to make a strategic decision about how to either grow or contract this part of my life soon. And that decision is stressing me out.
    • Next week I hit the road. It’s kind of related to NYWC but it’s really a trip where Shawn and I hope to meet-up with and encourage as many youth workers as we can. I’m not a natural detail person. So nailing down all of the meet-up locations, places to sleep, travel plans, and stuff like that has been a bit nutty! We still don’t have a place to sleep in Redding, CA. God… provide!
    • I’m in full-on recruiting mode for the Haiti trip this July. The team will be 20 people and we have 6 confirmed. There are a bunch of folks still praying about it, trying to move dates around, stuff like that. That’s a joy in my life… but there’s a lot of details, too. (We still have room if you are interested.)
    • Kristen and I just booked a beach house for June. Besides a weeks vacation by the ocean, we’ll be hosting a 13th wedding anniversary BBQ and a snarky renewal of vows. It feels good to have a signed contract and deposit in for that. But we still have a ton of planning to do.
    • I’ve got a series of articles to write about social media in ministry. I wish I could do more of this, but I’ve had to say no to some things recently because I’m over-committed.
    • I’m kicking around a book proposal. I’ve had an outline and some starter chapters for a while. I need to decide to go forward or to trash it soon.
    • Some people from our church (not our church, per se) are starting a charter high school in City Heights. I’m trying to gauge what my involvement with that will be. I have a passion for public school education so this something I care a ton about. And, of course, this would be the school Megan and Paul would eventually go to.
    • God’s moving some spiritual mountains in our midst within the high school group, I.O.B. and within our small group. I feel like I just get to witness that stuff and my heart longs to be more intimately involved.
    • In just a few week’s Lisa moves into our house for the summer. She’s graduating from college and.. well… the job prospects in California are actually much better than in Michigan. So, she’s coming to live with us, be our summer nanny, volunteer with some stuff, and hopefully get a clear vision for what the next step is in her life after college. Kristen and I take a long-range view of discipleship and this is definitely part of that. Can’t wait for her to get here.

    I wish that were it. But I know there are lots of other things going on which I just label, “the plethora.”

  • Nike’s Air Secret

    This explains so much.

  • How to add the Facebook “like” button to the Thesis WordPress theme

    Earlier this week I started noticing the Facebook “like” button popping up on some of my favorite sites. And then, my co-worker Jonathan installed it on our site at work.

    When I saw that… I knew I had to have it on my blog. Plus I knew I had to master it for some of my McLane Creative clients.

    It took some fiddling around but here is how I’ve gotten it to work. Follow these steps and you can set it up in about 10 minutes.

    Please note: These instructions are for the Thesis theme for WordPress. If you’re looking for a completely customized WordPress theme you can build yourself, I recommend purchasing Thesis.

    Step 1: Download and install the free Thesis OpenHook plugin.

    Step 2: After activating the plugin, go to the settings link for Thesis OpenHook. On my blog it looks like “/wp-admin/themes.php?page=thesis-openhook/options.php”

    Step 3: Scroll down to the hook you’d like to install the code at. I’m using “after post.” But here’s a list of all the hooks and what they are.

    Step 4: Paste the following code into the hook you’d like use.

    Step 5: Click the checkbox “Execute PHP on this hook.” This is important, you will get an error if you don’t click this checkbox!

    Step 6: Press the “Little save button.”

    Step 7: Like and retweet this post, telling everyone what a swell guy I am.

    Bonus:As you can see I’ve also added a couple Tweetmeme buttons to the same location. You can download my code for that, just put your Twitter name in the [twitter_user_name] spot and you’re good to go.

    Click here to download –> [download id=”6″]

  • Your story matters

    My drive plan for next week

    Next week, I’m hitting the road and driving from San Jose to just north of Seattle. I guess there are 3 over-arching reasons I’m doing this. Two are a bit secondary and perhaps selfish, which the third is really the justification for everything else.

    1. I love a good road trip. There is something almost magical about driving across our country. If you’ve never done a multi-day drive you won’t understand that statement. My first was “Golf across America” in 2002. My last one was “Travels with Stoney” in 2008. This trip needs a name.
    2. YS is still alive. It’s not that you, my kind reader, doesn’t know that. It’s that a lot of people have an open question… “What’s going on with YS?” And this trip is aimed at answering that question. (This is what’s known as “the business justification.“) Plus, even before all of the changes, I kept begging for this because I knew there was a need to get our staff on the ground talking with youth workers out of the office.
    3. Your story matters. My first two road trips were about my story. (Travels with Stoney was a little more about our families story and our hope for a fresh start.) This trip is about the stories of youth workers. My work has put me in contact with innumerous youth workers… and collectively we have a story to tell. My premise is that as I drive and host these meet-ups I’ll hear (and capture) stories from youth workers which the community will really resonate with.

    What’s fascinating about going out to discover youth workers stories is… it’s all about discovery. I’ve got a rough sketch of who I’m going to meet, but I really don’t have a clue where this is going to go. And what makes a road trip so fun for this format of story discovery is that I probably won’t really get a thread through all of the stories until I’m done. Since I’m telling stories as I go, there’s even a great chance that you will see the thread before I will.

    Another fascinating element to telling people’s stories, one that I’m just learning to appreciate, is that power of telling a persons story to the person whose story is being told. It’s one thing to tell your own story. But it’s an entirely different thing to have someone come into your life and then to other people about you. As I’ve been scheduling my meet-ups and talking to people, I hear them question, “you want to tell my story?”

    You are story worthy.

    Your story is interesting.

    Your story is helpful to you.

    Your story is helpful to others.

    As a child of the King bought at a price, your story has unlimited value.

    “you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:20

  • Go to Port-au-Prince with me


    OK, dear blog reader. It’s time you and I do something to change the world together.

    Back in February I shared my trip to Port-au-Prince with you. You saw my joys, sorrows, giggles, and heart-longings. And since that trip I’ve had a strong, STRONG desire to go back. Opportunities have come and gone with the circumstances never quite right.

    This is right. This exactly fulfills the vision I had for this trip as our van lumbered out of Port-au-Prince for the day-long drive back to the Dominican Republic to return home in February.

    Some details:

    • July 19-25, 2010
    • Cost is $390 + travel to Port-au-Prince (seems like the flight is about $800 from San Diego, maybe more or less where you live.)
    • The maximum size of the team is 20. I’d like to know who is going by mid-May.
    • The team is open to anyone 21+… whether you know me from church, my work at Youth Specialties, or are a blog reader.
    • This is an adult trip– which means we’ll be a team when we’re together, but it’s not quite the same as a youth group trip!
    • Just like my first trip, this is being put together by Adventures in Missions. I know the team there and some of the people we’ll be working alongside.
    • Kristen is going with me. Though it’s not a “couples” trip this may be an amazing opportunity for a ministry couple to go and do ministry together.
    • Ideally, you have a heart for serving the Haitian church and have been praying for God to open an opportunity for you to go.
    • If you are thinking of leading a team in 2011 and want to go on a preview trip, this is perfect for that.
    • I don’t know 1000% what we’ll be doing every day of our trip. (That will become more clear later) At this point I can only guarantee you that we’ll be doing some type of earthquake relief and working through a local Haitian pastor.

    How do you get involved? Shoot me an e-mail, mclanea@gmail.com.

    Again, because of the nature of the team this trip is limited to only 20 team members. So if you are interested, it’d be good to contact me right away.

  • The $500 cat toy

    I’m an Apple addict who hasn’t fully appreciated the iPad. Now I finally get it. It’s Apple’s play into the pet owners market.

  • Inspiration: Street Art

    This stuff fascinates me. I love the mystery of public reactions. I love surprise and wonder. I love the feeling of “why didn’t I think of that?“