• McLane Kid Update

    In Fall 2000, when we found out Kristen was pregnant with Megan, we both kind of rolled our eyes when people would say “Enjoy it, it goes by too fast.”

    How right they were. Our kids are in a fun stage of growing up… but life moves so fast that we don’t pause enough to truly enjoy it.

    Megan – Our crazy 8 year old

    Megan is almost 9 year old. N-I-N-E! She is our sweetheart. Megan has a deep love for reading, animals, and origami. She never ceases to amaze me with the stories she weaves together or how perceptive she is. She is so quiet that you can sometimes forget that she is capable of outbursts of wild running around. She is in that stage where she plays hard and intense.

    She also has an imagination that lives halfway between fiction and reality. She loves pretending to be a cat. She will crawl around her bedroom for hours, she’ll meow at you, and when she gets annoyed she’ll even hiss. (We have a no hissing rule in the house, that’s how common it is!)

    Megan got a camera for Christmas and puts it to good use. Check out her photo blog, MeganMcLane.com. When she opened this present she carefully examined it. When she saw that it wasn’t a kid camera– it was a really nice adult camera– her face lit up and she instantly started making plans.

    One of the highlights of my day is hearing Megan’s laugh. She has a normal giggle. But when she is really pleased she lets out this high pitched squeal that lights up the room.

    Megan and I connect through exploration. She loves adventure and I love going on adventures with her. Whether its looking for shells at the beach or looking for the perfect toy at Target– we bound when we’re just checking things out and being quiet.

    At school, Megan takes after her mom. She is a quiet achiever. She’s that student in class who doesn’t say much, takes the teacher literally, and is so competitive she has to be the best at everything or she won’t sleep at night.

    Paul – 1000% boy at age 6

    Paul is six. He is our complicated boy. We probably spend 25% of every day trying to figure him out. And he wouldn’t have it any other way. He is full of dichotomy. He loves to cuddle and be quiet. But he’s always ready to wrestle and try to kick some butt. He is fully engrossed in everything he does. But he is always listening to every noise in the house to see if there is something he can jump in on. Developmentally, his life is all about fairness. As soon as he perceives the slightest slight he pouts, “That’s not fair!”

    Paul has a deep hunger. Since the day he was born he has been hungry. And  for as long as I can remember his first words every day are either “What can I eat?” or “What can I do?” Unlike his sister he likes all things spicy.

    Paul has fully embraced life in his school. I’m pretty sure he likes spicy things because his latino classmates love spicy things too. “Can I get hot cheetos?” “Can we go to Mexico this weekend?” The kids school is representative of the diverse community we live in. And Paul seems to really enjoy that most of his classmates speak Spanish, Swahili, Vietnamese, or one of the multitude of other languages spoken by students at Darnall.

    Like his sister, Paul stands out academically. But he’s also a lot like me in struggling to know how to ask to be challenged. He’d rather get his work done early and mess around than ask his teacher for the next challenge.

    Paul’s life is dominated by his loves. He loves his Nintento DS. (It’s the first sound we hear nearly every day in our house. He wakes up about 5 to start playing.) He loves playing hard with dad. (Wrestling, boxing, etc) He loves playing games on the computer and watching Cartoon Network.

    Paul and I connect best through quality time. Whether its going to Home Depot or playing a video game or planting tomatoes in the garden– Paul loves 1-1 time with dad and I love 1-1 time with Paul.

    Paul is also our family elephant. He never forgets a detail. “Daddy, you promised two days ago to give us our allowance if we cleaned our rooms, we cleaned our rooms and you haven’t given us our allowance yet.” Or “Remember when you said we could go back to Legoland sometime? When? What day?”

    Our kids fascinate us. They challenge us. They force us to grow. They are the best accountability partners, ever. They are not our gods but we are thankful to God that we get to enjoy them and pour our hearts into them.

    And as I look at them I’m left– over and over again– speechless.

  • Help Rebuild Haiti Through the Local Church

    I came home two weeks ago from Haiti. And almost every day I’ve talked with a church leader with one simple question: I know about the devastation in Haiti, but if I went to Haiti what could my church actually do?

    Starting next week, there will be a unique opportunity to partner– very practically— with an existing church in the greater Port-au-Prince area.

    So what would your church do in Haiti? You’ll be a part of rebuilding Haiti from the inside out.

    Bonus: For an interesting look at this, check out Tony Compolo’s post at Huffingtton Post

  • A Pastor Who Gets It

    There’s a tiny amount of cynicism when you hang out with church leaders. We have a hard job and it comes out in funny ways.

    That guy just doesn’t get it.

    There are lots of conversations where church leaders don’t get it. Talk to any associate level pastoral staff member, church secretary, maintenance person, van driver, or ministry volunteer and you’ll hear it. “My pastor doesn’t get it.”

    And, in all fairness, the job is too big to “get everything.” You simply have to chose what to “get” and what to “punt” on.

    In my world when a pastor doesn’t get it— that usually means that the suck at all things computer related.

    How these people got through seminary I’ll never know! But I’ve met too many pastors who can’t use Microsoft Office or manage their email or find stuff using Google.

    And when it comes to social media– some pastors get it but most don’t. Facebook, Twitter, blogging, live broadcasts online… they glaze over as I talk about these things!

    And yet over and over again, when I meet with pastors, they tell me “I want to get it.”

    This is precisely why I contacted Doug and Tony over at JoPa productions and asked them to bring Pastors’ Social Media Bootcamp to San Diego next week.

    Pastors want to get it. Let’s make sure they get the training they need to get it.

  • 6 Questions for Those Starting a Business

    Grand Opening
    Photo by whizchickenonabun via flickr (Creative Commons)

    The Great Recession of 2009 has created a new breed of entrepreneur– the I-don’t-have-a-job-but-I-was-once-successful-in-business-and I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-my-life-since-I-can’t-find-a-good-paying-job-that-satisfies-me-quite-like-my-old-job-did-entrepreneur.

    What’s interesting about this group is that they have great ideas, limited capital, and a mixed bag of preparedness for starting a business. Honestly, that’s a perfect combination!

    Tunnel Vision
    Photo by rcameraw via flickr (Creative Commons)

    The bad part is that since they don’t have jobs, they need this thing to take off instantly and provide for their families before their unemployment benefits run out.

    I have a fundamental belief that people are at their best when up against that type of adversity. But while that kind of desperation can create tremendous energy to succeed– I’ve found that it can also lead to dangerous tunnel vision.

    So here are my 6 Questions for Those Starting a Business as a result of getting laid off by the Great Recession of 2009.

    1. How little capital will you need to start generating positive revenue initially? In other words, how little can you invest to start making money with your idea now?
    2. What will you do to acquire customers outside of your sphere of influence? Your biggest weakness is thinking you have the contact base to maintain a business beyond 180 days– if you had that strong of a contact base one of them would have hired you by now. How will you grow your sphere beyond yourself in the first 30, 60, 90 days?
    3. Who are the gatekeepers to your success? Who are the power brokers in your niche and what do you need from them in order to succeed in this space?
    4. Have you defined the boundaries of your niche? What safeguards have you put I’m place to keep you in your niche?
    5. Is the product or service dependent or repeat business? If a repeat business, how will you manage customer relationships beyond the transaction?
    6. Is this a product or service that you need? If you don’t need it what makes you think it will keep you up at night making it awesome or that it will motivate others to evangelize your product?

    What makes me qualified to ask these questions? In 2005 I started Youth Ministry Exchange with a small group of friends. We turned a profit on the first day and had positive cash flow every quarter until we were acquired by Youth Specialties in June 2008. In other words, I’ve done exactly what this breed of entrepreneur is attempting.

  • Water Makes Me Think

    Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded forever. -- Moby Dick
    Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded forever. — Moby Dick

  • Fear Makes You Stupid

    Yesterday morning I woke up to the news of a massive earthquake in Chile. The world seemed to hold its breath and wonder how bad the damage would be. “If a 7.0 earthquake killed 200,000+ people and flattened Port-au-Prince, Haiti– what would an earthquake 500 times stronger do?”

    Those fears and concerns were legitimate.

    Fortunately, as news reports flooded in, we later learned that while there is widespread damage and hundreds of thousands displaced– Chile was well prepared for such an emergency. In fact, it appears that Chile may be able to handle the relief efforts largely on their own. The New York Times is reporting, “Although the United States had offered aid, Chile’s government had not yet requested assistance. All international relief groups were on standby, and the International Federation of Red Crosses and Red Crescents said the Chilean Red Cross indicated that it did not need external assistance at this point.”

    Chile’s disaster was not equal to Haiti’s disaster– and as those fears began to ease and you could see the media looking for a story to scare people.

    Later in the morning, the media attention shifted from the earthquake in Chile to a tsunami the earthquake spawned. This is when the full on fear mongering went nuts.

    • Fact: 750,000 people in greater Port-au-Prince are starving and homeless while billions of dollars of aid sits on tarmacs because NGOs and governments are paralyzed.
    • Fact: The president of Haiti has said it will take 1,000 trucks 1,000 days to clear the rubble from Port-au-Prince. The muscle part of recovery hasn’t even begun.
    • Fact: 46 days after the earthquake in Haiti, starvation and disease are happening just 2 hours south of Miami by plane. Thousands of orphans are undocumented and at risk of being trafficked. Widows and elderly have no protection.
    • Fact: 2 million people in Chile were displaced as their homes were destroyed.

    And twelve hours after the Chile quake all of the news media’s attention shifted from actual news stories to a potential tsunami in Hawaii.

    Fact: Tsunami warnings had gone out for more than 4 hours all over Hawaii. There was no danger to life.

    Fact: A potential tsunami is not equal to an actual tsunami. A potential tsunami was used to cover up the real story in Haiti. (The real story is that the church is meeting people’s needs while the NGOs and governments have meetings at the airport.)

    Fact: The news was reporting on lines at Costco/Wal*Mart/Safeway, showing live video of a camera pointed at a computer screen of a Ustream.tv feed, and anchors desperately trying to convince experts that although scientific instruments were saying the tsunami was only creating a 2-3 foot wave– the wave must really be 30-50 feet.

    Fact: This was worse than Geraldo opening Al Capone’s secret vault.

    And yet every news agency was showing live video from all over the state, showing sunshine and waves, interviewing tourists on vacation– all for a natural disaster that had not even happened yet! One reporter asked a tourist, “What is the situation like up at Diamond Head?” The tourist, confused, looked at the reporter and told the truth. “It’s a party up there.” They couldn’t go to commercial fast enough.

    Something is wrong with us. The fear of a natural disaster outweighs an actual natural disaster? The fear of damaged vacation property outweighs the reality of millions of people’s homes in Chile and Haiti? The fear that a tsunami might hit outweighs the reality that a significant disaster has actually happened.

    Fear makes us stupid.

    When will we recognize that fear is our god? When will we stop living in fear? When will we be motivated by compassion that overcomes fear?

  • The Future of Food

    Tonight I watched the film above, The Future of Food. You can watch the whole thing, for free, on Hulu. (Or here on my blog if you so chose) You can learn more about how corporations are trying to run [ruin] the food supply at The Future of Food website.

    Another great movie covering more of the food supply is Food, Inc.

    I’m not a conspiracy theorist. But in my lifetime I’ve witnessed major food related issues among so many people I know. Too many. For years I’ve heard about this stuff and thought– what a bunch of whacko’s. But the more you learn, the more those whacko’s make sense.

    As I wrote about a few weeks ago, Kristen and I are making a serious commitment to change both the food we eat and the way we get it. Our hope is to reduce our food waste by 25% by composting, buy most of our vegetables and fruit locally buy belonging to a CSA and shopping at a farmers market, and planting our own organic garden. (see the pictures of our garden)

    So far, we’ve kept those commitments. And it hasn’t been hard at all. We’ve enjoyed tons of our own fruit from the yard and last week we started an abundant harvest of fresh lettuce. Today, Paul and I went out and bought a few more veggies, so we have tomatoes, herbs, and jalepenos coming in the next couple months. (And our compost worms are hard at work 24 hours a day eating our food waste!)

    Our next steps involve increasing the percentage of food we buy from local producers, working out a local free range source of meats and fish, and finding a local bakery who is committed to non-GMO grains.

    Maybe this all sounds a bit nuts? The truth is, it’s a lot of fun! We love starting a garden. We love the discipline of spending less at the monster mega-supermarket. And we love seeing what sorts of crazy things appear in our CSA box each week. Even more crazy is that I don’t think its costing us any more money per month.

    There’s something so enjoyable about developing a more intimate connection between what we eat and the people who produce it.

    Oh faithful reader: What are steps you are taking to be more socially responsible about the food you eat?

  • Pelican Strikes Back!

    Take that, weatherman!

  • What inspires you?

    What Inspires You?

    This question has been on my mind a lot lately.

    Here’s what I know: When people are inspired emotionally they take action physically.

    Conversely, when I see people mired in inaction– I know that they are deeply uninspired.

    Inspired people are an unstoppable force. Uninspired look for excuses.

    Here are some things that inspire me:

    • Listening to an artist show and explain his work.
    • Meeting people for the first time.
    • Road trips.
    • Uninterrupted time to breathe, rest, play.
    • Biographies of ordinary people.
    • Teachers. I mean, how do they do it?
    • Short stories.

    What are things that inspire you to action? What causes you to dream big dreams, big enough to go for them?

  • It’s your turn to go to Haiti

    My trip to Haiti was two-fold.

    1. To serve the Haitian church. Each day of our trip was spent meeting with local pastors, meeting their people, and assessing/serving their needs. As I wrote about on the YS blog, “Jesus is the one feeding the people in Haiti.” As I documented over and over again, I was able to help be the hands and feet of Jesus– even though I have no special skills for disaster relief. God used my inability to show off his abilities.
    2. To mobilize you. Let’s face it, now that the film crews are rolling out of Port-au-Prince you are starting to forget about the need. While the disaster of January 12th fades into your memory banks, distracted by the Winter Olympics and testimony of Toyota’s president— 750,000 people are living in the open with no shelter, no regular source of food, and no clean water. They desperately need people like you to come to their aid.

    You witnessed my trip. I laid bare my anxieties and fears as I prepared. I documented my every day of the journey. And you’ve seen that I’m just a regular guy who went to Haiti to be the hands and feet of Jesus– and I came back safe and sound.

    I wasn’t traumatized. I wasn’t under-utilized. I wasn’t in harms way. I wasn’t in the way of “professionals.” And the place certainly isn’t crawling with American relief organizations or morbid tourists.

    Am I saying that God is calling every person to go to Haiti to serve? Of course not.

    But I am reminding many of my readers what they already know: If the Holy Spirit is prompting you to go, and you are finding reason not to go… you may need to toss aside those excuses and lean into what God is calling you to do!

    Find an organization and go. Soon. The need is getting greater, not less.