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Not Dwelling
A co-worker sent me this verse of the day. I think it is a great way to get fired up about 2010.
This is what the Lord says, ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.’” Isaiah 43:16, 18, 19
For me, the last 12 months have been filled with highs and lows. And I learned a ton through it all. My hope is that I takeaway lessons which will spur on good things in 2010!
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A Failing Battle to Fight Foreclosure
Ángel Franco/The New York Times This headline caught my attention this morning:
Ten months ago President Obama announced a $75 billion program to keep as many as four million Americans in their homes by persuading banks to renegotiate their mortgages. Lenders have accepted more than one million applications and cut three-month trial deals with 759,000 homeowners. But they have converted just 31,000 of those to the permanent new mortgages that are the plan’s goal.
It’s hard to fathom how many people are battling or have succumbed their life’s savings (their home) to foreclosure. In the third quarter of this year, 937,840 families received a foreclosure notice. (up 23% over the same period in 2008.)
It is important for me to state this fact– I don’t know a single person in which a bank has permanently helped during this housing crisis. They have done some short-term things. But every person I know, including ourselves, who has needed their bank to re-negotiate or process a short sale, has eventually had to accept foreclosure.
The government bailed the banks out, they’ve given them significant incentives, and yet they take the governments money– money clearly given to help re-negotiate loans– and just accept it as profit. Here’s another quote from the New York Times article:
The servicing companies make money either way. The Obama program pays them $1,000 for each loan modified, and another $1,000 per year for three more years if the borrower avoids foreclosure. On the other hand, the companies make large sums charging late and legal fees on overdue mortgage payments, and sometimes it is cheaper to foreclose than to cut the mortgage payment. link
Simply put, if your home is underwater (you owe more than it is worth on the market) and you need your bank to help you there is nothing they are going to do. They are going to stall, hem, haw, and outlast you. They know, relying that you are an honest person, that you’ll pay fines to try to keep your home but eventually you’ll get tired of the process and accept foreclosure. At least that is the banks great hope.
Maybe it isn’t always that way? Certainly, there are enough short sales going through to fuel the market and keep people’s hopes up. But for every person I know selling their house who has tried a short sale, it is merely a holding pattern– a glimmer of hope to hold on to– on the path of accepting the humiliation of foreclosure.
Bottom line, why is this happening? The banks make more money when you foreclose than if they do a short sale or modify your loan. It is in their best interest that you foreclose! The nature of how loans were created the entire Bush administration was that a loan was generated on a house, then the banks commoditized the loans and sold them off as securities. (Something like a bond) Then they hired servicing companies to make sure you paid your mortgange and that the investors got money.
Then the bank took out bets (credit default swaps) against the people they lended to. That’d be you and me. Read this little article about a 19th century confidence scam, it’ll sound pretty familiar to anyone who has bought a house! Don’t think it is possible to dupe the entire nation? Two words, my friends: Bernie Madoff.
See, in essence, the bank wants you to foreclose so they can make more money. And their processors (subsidiary companies) want you to struggle so you keep paying interest and penalties as long as possible. Then, when you finally give up, they still get the property. Cute, eh?
What’s the solution? The easy solution is for people to start paying 20% more for a house than it is actually worth. But who wants to do that? I’m afraid the government may be the only entity that can help. (Short of every American just stopping payment on their mortgages.)
Someone needs to help people on a wholesale level, renegotiate their loans. Like a one time amnesty program or something like that. It would seem reasonable that the local assessment office, which values your home for tax purposes, should be able to act as an independent agent to your mortgage company. “This home is now worth 25% less, you’ll need to reduce the principle on the loan by 12.5% to meet the homeowner half way or face a $50,000 fine fr0m the municipality and lose your license in this state.”
Of course, that isn’t going to happen either. There is too much money to be made.
This is why people say this is a mess! It’s a big ugly mess.
Want to learn more? Check out this special from This American Life called “The Giant Pool of Money.”
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Never a year like ’09
This was a little too rough for the YS Blog. So, before you press that play button just realize this is rated PG and not G. Gracias.
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Smaller is Better
Photo by mrskoolick via Flickr (Creative Commons) Want to know a little secret? People who go to your church like it when you know them.
Want to know another little secret? People who go to your church aren’t that impressed with big anymore.
How do I know these secrets? I listen to people who don’t go to church talk about church. I listen to people who are disgruntled with their church. (Their biggest complaint is that you don’t listen to them or care about them.) I meet people who wouldn’t mind going to a church or learning about a relationship with Jesus, they just haven’t met the right people yet.
The people in your life want to be known deeply. They crave intimacy. They are looking for people to trust. They long for people to share the good life and bad life with. They need community to keep growing. They desire people to giggle with. They hunger for 6-7 close friends. Wonder why they join a bowling league? Not sure why their kids hockey team is more important than coming to hear another sermon? The simple fact is that those people know them better.
Right now, things that are big are suspicious. They smell of waste. They look at big things and wonder if they have something to hide. They look at big things and assume they will just be another customer.
If you are part of a small church, this is great news. You are perfectly positioned to make a deep impact interpersonally. If you are a big church, you better get working on creating smaller and smaller ways for people to do life together outside of your church walls.
The wise church invests in creating intimacy between people. That is so 2010.
The foolish church invests in trying to draw a crowd. That is so 2000.
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My Transition to YouthWorks
On January 1st, 2010 I will become an employee of YouthWorks.
Before I talk about YouthWorks I do want to mention some things about Zondervan. A lot of negative things have been said and written (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) about Zondervan through this process. I want to convey publicly what I told them privately. They have been great through this. The last few months have been painful to say the least. (I think the right term is agonizing!) And at every turn the people I worked alongside at Z were professional, kind, and quick to pray for and with me. Whether or not you agree with all of their decisions in the last year or so, know that they are not awful people with maniacal laughs and evil plans. From the CEO (Moe Girkins) to the CFO (Gary Wicker) on down through the leadership team and the ranks of employees, I’ve found them to be intelligent, hard-working, and upstanding people. I’m a better person for having worked with them. I’m thankful and proud of my 18 months of work with Z. (And by proxy, being an employee of HarperCollins and News Corp was pretty nifty, too.)
A couple weeks back, as the deal became final for YouthWorks to buy Youth Specialties, also came an opportunity for me to continue on in my ministry with YS as an employee of YouthWorks. Despite the fact that I had every reason to suspect I would be offered a job, the offer itself still came as a shock! I really had never thought about what my response would be if I were given the chance to stay on.
The next 36 hours were as near to insanity for me as I’d ever like to get. I asked hard questions that needed to be answered. (Of YouthWorks and myself) I listened a lot. I took a couple long walks by myself. I talked to my dog. I wasted gas driving around San Diego for an evening. I shed some frustrating tears. I aimlessly walked around Best Buy for a couple hours. I talked in circles to Kristen. I burned through a few hundred text messages. I put out a Twitter request for a burning bush. Around and around I went. I just didn’t know what to do.
Apparently my iPhone changed "divining rod" to "diving rod." See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing See, it’s not in my nature to do things halfway. There was a lot of wisdom in the advice I was getting… “Play it safe.” But that’s not me. That’s not how I roll. To me, it would have been better to just say no and move on with my life than to do something halfway with an eye on the door. I wanted to be resolute one way or the other. “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” I wanted to be true to myself even if it meant putting into action plans B, C, D, or E and all the fear and second guessing that went with that.
Make it clear God! That was my prayer.
That resolve I was looking for came early Friday morning.
Long story short. On Friday morning, I talked to the folks at YouthWorks and let them know that I had decided to stay on with Youth Specialties/YouthWorks.
And so a new adventure begins! After a weekend off, transition work began bright and early on Monday morning and will continue through the Christmas holidays. I’ve got this theory that decisions generate energy. And in this case, I’ve got lots of new energy and enthusiasm for what is next for YS.
Just as surely as it is hard to say goodbye to so many co-workers… its been exciting to meet a whole new staff of people from YouthWorks. Over the past couple months I’ve gotten a chance to meet the leadership at YouthWorks. In my desire to learn more, I even went out looking for complaints and couldn’t find any. Lots and lots of happy customers. Lots of people impressed with their mission trips and how they go about their ministry. As I’ve gotten to know them I’ve been very impressed with how forward-thinking they are. And it’s been scary how much we’re on the same page with overall ministry-styles. I’ve only met about 10 of their staff of 60 face-to-face, so I am looking forward to getting to know more and more YouthWorks peeps over the coming months. They are differently culturally from the SoCal-YS-style, but in heart and ministry value they are very much the same.
Soon, we’ll be rolling out a lot more about the future of YS, what’s next, etc. But just know that a big reason I’m joining YouthWorks is because I have a deep-gut belief that the best days of Youth Specialties are ahead. I know that’s a bold statement considering how great the past has been for YS, but that’s why I’m on board. I think there are even better days to come.
Here’s a few quick FAQs based on the innumerous texts, Facebook messages, and Twitter DMs I’ve gotten in the past couple weeks.
- Will you have to move to Minneapolis? Nope. Sorry San Diego, you are stuck with the McLane family for a few more years. We’ll be keeping it classy together. We will be moving offices eventually. Hopefully, it’ll be something near a trolley stop.
- How does Kristen feel about this? I just want her to get to know my new co-workers. They are, as a whole, very missional. That’ll resonate with her. At this point, she is just glad to have my sanity back. This decision released a lot of energy! She got her husband back.
- What’s the new YS going to look like? More will come out in the next few weeks/months about our plans. I’ll just say I’m really excited about the stuff we’re talking about! I do know this… whatever it is, it’ll be true to the long-term mission of YS and YW, serving and equipping youth workers and church leaders.
- Will you be at NYWC this Fall? Even if I had to pay my own way, I’d be there. You will want to be in Nashville the weekend before Thanksgiving.
- Will you travel more or less? For some reason the YouthWorks staff wants to come here to San Diego more than they want me to come to Minneapolis. Go figure! So time will tell on that one.
- What will you be working on? As time goes on, this will get more clear. But for now not a lot is changing with my job. It’s a safe bet that I’ll be calling 612 now more than 616.
- Do you even own a winter jacket? No, we donated it to the Salvation Army when we left Michigan. I do, however, own a lot of t-shirts, shorts, and sandals. See question 6.
- Can I ask you more questions? You bet. Leave me a comment. (Verbal comments would be awesome!)
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Best Birthday Ever!
The video is a little long, but if you need a smile today… this will surely get one.
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The Peak of the Christian Life
Question One: What is the chief end of man? Answer One: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. – Westminster Shorter Catechism
If you were to ask most preachers the question, “Practically speaking, what does the peak of the Christian life look like?” most of them would give an answer related to the answer given in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. (Even if you don’t come from that tradition.)
The theologically correct answer to that question sounds like this, “You are in God’s sweet spot when you follow God’s call wherever that is. So it’s different for each person. For me, being in God’s sweet spot has meant being a pastor at this church. But for you, the pinnacle of the Christian life could be ____. Anything less than following God’s call to that is not the pinnacle.”
But if you listened to their preaching you’d hear a much different message.
A lot of preachers accidentally lift themselves and their calling to an unhealthy place. Preachers, in their messages, often imply that their calling to become a pastor is a higher calling than anyone else in the church. (Read 1 Peter 5:1-10) They use their obedience and their life as an example of getting into God’s sweet spot. Sitting there, listening to them preach and use themselves as the pinnacle of the Christian life week after week… you might start to believe that working for a church is the pinnacle of the Christian life. While I don’t think that most preachers really believe this to be true, it is easy to use themselves as an example to illustrate their sermon. And more often than not they use themselves as a heroic protagonist in the story… thus the implied status that they are the example of the peak Christian.
The truth is there are a lot of people attending and even working at churches that believe that lie. (Heresy) Even if the preacher never directly says that that working at a church is close to the peak of the Christian life and being the lead preacher is the peak, most people believe that a pastor must be somehow superior unless they are taught otherwise.
Next, you see this pattern emerge all the time! A person feels stuck in their spiritual journey. They desire something “greater” and decide that they need to take a leap of faith. Out of an earnest desire to experience the peak of the Christian life, they start pursuing something else. They follow the leadership example they hear year-after-year and walk away from where God has them in order to chase “the pinnacle of the Christian life” by serving at a church. And those people further perpetrate the lie by testifying, “I used to be an accountant, but God called me to become the Pastor of Finance at this church. Even though I am making much less money I am happy to be in the Lord’s service.”
Financial sacrifice does not equal a ministry calling. But listening to the testimony of a lot of preachers, you’d think it was. As if God was going to cosmically bless a ministry simply because you gave up earning potential?
The irony continues once you make that leap. Once you get on staff at a church you learn a dirty little secret. The priesthood of all believers is true.
You want to reach a majority of the community you live in for Jesus Christ? (I believe most churches do.) It simply will not happen through the church staff or its programs. [Even the biggest megachurches only have a tiny reach into their community.] It will only happen when the people in the congregation take hold of what the Bible teaches and takes the Gospel to the places they have access and influence. (Places 99% of pastors have no access or influence.) This mega-change in a community is just as likely to come from a house church of 12 as a megachurch of 20,000. Just like in Acts, God is not interested in the size of the Temple. He is interested in bringing the message of the Jesus to the people where they are. Did Peter, Paul, John, or Timothy grow endearing church organizations? I think not. It was never the goal of the early church to create a massive, efficient organization. The early church built no cathedrals, had no mega-meetings, and lifted nothing but spreading the message as far, deep, and wide as they could in their lifetime. This is a far cry from the little-church-kingdom building we see among clergy today.
I belive most Christians aspire the peak of the Christian life. It’s a good thing to aspire to! Let me encourage you with this. To reach the peak of the Christian life probably won’t mean an Abrahamic move. You likely won’t be called by God to sell your land and move your sheep, goats, and wife to a foreign place. Nor is it likely that God wants you to stop being an accountant, teacher, nurse, or business person to work in a church. The church needs more Christ-followers in the workplace and fewer business people dressed up as pastors.
More than likely you can reach the peak of the Christian life right where you are, in the career you are in, with the friendships you have.
“But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:25
If you are seeking something more significant in 2010 I want to challenge you to first do your very best right where you are. Don’t forget to consider that God may have you in the right spot– it may just be you that needs to change.
Look at your life through the eyes of Jonah and ask yourself… what am I running from? That’s most likely what God is calling you to.
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Christmas Recap
This morning we are vowing to leave the house at some point. Yesterday, as is our habit, we hunkered down for a day of pure family. It turned out to be a really nice Christmas.
Christmas technically kicked off on Thursday night with a fun little trip to Orange County. A couple from our community group invited us to their family’s traditional Christmas Eve party. That was a lot of fun! Apparently, this group of people have been hanging out on Christmas Eve together for more than 20 years. So the house was filled with a mixture of joy and shared known. It was really cool to see the generational aspect of the whole thing, the embracing of some traditions, and it really just got our family in the mood for Christmas.
Christmas morning, the kids got up early, as decreed in the New Testament. At about 5:30 they woke us up with, “It’s Christmas! Can we open presents NOW????” We made them wait until 7:00 before we opened presents so mom and dad could at least see straight… and we had to listen to them count down every minute!
Ah, the anticipation of children and the power of parents to torture by saying “be patient.”
Best Present
- Paul: Nintendo DS
- Megan: Sweet digital camera and a photo blog to share
- Dad: Membership to J.R. Organics CSA
- Mom: A new wedding ring (she had lost hers a few years ago)
- Stoney: A new collar
- Lovely: A cat bed
From about 8:00 AM on we all just laid around. The kids played with their toys. Mom and dad watched some movies. I think that was about it until lunch.
Since Kristen isn’t feeling great I was in charge of Christmas dinner. With just four of us… we kept it simple. Ham, cranberry, rolls, mashed potatos. Oops, I forgot vegitables! (No one complained)
After dinner, we all kind of scattered and just rested. Paul fell asleep about 2:30 PM and didn’t wake up until 3:30 AM! Megan watched TV with me. Kristen took naps off and on all day. We were basically bums!
Later, I watched the Chargers dismantle the Titans intersperced with endless episodes of Mythbusters. And that was Christmas.
