• We think we’ve found it

    We’re at that 99% point in the house search. We think we’ve found a place in the city of San Diego that will work for us.

    It’s pretty small, only has two bedrooms. But it has several upsides as well. Well maintained, (a rarity for rentals in this area for some reason.) nice yard, pet friendly with a doggy door, washer/dryer, quiet family neighborhood, close to stuff, two blocks to a charter school, and some stuff like that.

    The drawbacks. It’s not as close to work as we’d like. Obviously, being a bedroom short means we probably can’t stay much longer than a year. But it’s a place. And the landlord is super cool which helps greatly.

    A bonus. Being a city of San Diego resident means we can get some resident prices that other county residents can’t get as consistently. The resident price at Torrey Pines is much more affordable than the non-resident green fee. Besides golf, there are other area attractions where a San Diego city address will come in handy.

    More on this later. Including pictures.

  • Fact check everything

    Sometimes we think that computers can solve all of our problems. Obviously, in this case the sign got printed because a person trusted that a computer had translated their business name into english correctly.

    There will never be a time when human touch isn’t needed to fact check the computers. Communication and commerce are simply too important in our world to blindly trust websites.

    You do have to wonder though, was this anywhere near a place called “500 Server Error?” link

  • A guy looking for a job

    OK, he probably didn’t get fired. But making fun of people lined up to buy the iPhone 3G was probably not the smartest thing he could do that increase his popularity.

  • Buyers market vs. Sellers market

    Yesterday was a bit of a shock to the system. It’s not until you leave the Detroit area that you see just how different it is from SoCal. In many ways, the area seems oblivious to the deep recession (I’d call it borderline depression. If not economically, definitely on the psyche of the area.) 

    Walking through store is funny. While I’m certain that there are many people on the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, the stores don’t seem to notice. Next time you’re in Target on 26 Mile notice the posture of shoppers. It’ll indicate the confidence level in spending money.

    Clearly the housing market is polar opposite. You wouldn’t believe the sales pitch this lady tried to give us on an apartment last night. Not only was the apartment sub-par (worn out, horrible location for a family) when we were done she just said, “We’ll wave the application fee if you give me $100 to hold the place. But we can’t get you in until August 25th.” That’s the hook for spending $2000/month in San Diego? We weren’t impressed.

    The general pitch I’ve gotten from renting a house (as opposed to renting an apartment in a complex) is “this house would sell for $500,000 so we don’t think what we’re charing for rent is a lot. Never mind the fact that the person has owned the property for years and probably bought it for under $200,000. For us… this is like Michigan pre-bubble when there is a massive difference between what a place is worth and what the market will sustain. 

    We know this is how it is here. We’re not in denial. And I’ll even admit that it’s a little refreshing. It’s fun to not hear every newscast or front page story be about the economy or gas prices. In some respects I understand the “Nation of Whiners” comment. I think most of what we’re feeling is that millions of people have to bite the bullet and start paying down their personal debts. Having less personal debt automatically makes you a more aggressive shopper. 

    More housing stuff later today. We’re pretty excited about the next one we’re looking at. 

  • Move Update


    our big move    With the move just a few weeks away I thought it would be good to give a quick update on our move. 

    The Romeo House. We had a flurry of showings last week and only one this week. No offers, not much we can do, just keep waiting for God to reveal His plan. We are at the point where we really need to find a caretaker to live here until it sells. I’ll be the first to admit that I’d take a tenant as well. 

    The San Diego House. That’s a big part of why the whole family is going out next week. I am pretty cheap, so the expense has Kristen and I upside down. But we wanted to involve the kids in picking a place to live so they knew where they were landing. While we’ve not made a final decision we would definitely prefer to be in El Cajon, La Mesa, or some of the other town near th YS office. Lots more on that next week.

    Our moving date. I booked the truck to arrive on August 4th and leave August 7th. That’s really soon! We will likely be leaving shortly after that. School starts August 25th at the latest so we have plenty to do before Megan and Paul go to school.

    Megan McLaneSale! Yes, we will be having another, larger and longer, garage sale. Depending on the place we rent next week we may be unloading a little stuff or a lot. We’ve made decisions on a lot of inside furniture. But all the outside stuff completely depends on the place we’re moving. The more stuff we sell the more cash we have for decorating the new place and the less we need to pay to ship stuff 2300 miles. 

    The car. After 10 years we are selling the Camry. It’s been an awesome car for us. 136,000 miles and no maintenance issues. Seriously, a car wash and a fresh set of tires and its ready to sell. We’re going to sell it way below Blue Book too. Right now we are talking to various dealers about getting a new car out there. 

    The kids. They are super excited about going to San Diego to pick out a house. And I think they are ready Paul McLaneto move. Of course, they are sad that we are leaving friends behind and that they won’t be going to Amanda Moore anymore. I know I’m really sad that Paul won’t have Ms. Berringer since Megan had such a great experience there with kindergarten. At the same time they can’t wait to explore all the new things San Diego has to offer for them. 

    The job. Loving it. My co-workers are a blast! They don’t take themselves too seriously. The stuff that I’m doing, work wise, is perfect for me. It’s awesome to interact with so many youth workers around the country about our shared passion… reaching and teaching kids with the message of Jesus Christ. I’m very excited that the project I’ve been working on since I started are about ready to “go public.” There is a lot of stuff coming for this fall that just has me jazzed. Can’t wait.

    The hobby. A side benefit of having a job which captures so much of my passion is that I’ve now got new found free time. Before I had a job at the church and a hobby with YMX. Before YMX it was golf, coaching golf, watching golf, and doing anything golf. So I’ve been thinking a lot about what my hobby will be. I still don’t know. I’m thinking it may be golf… which would be right on schedule. I typically play a ton for 3-4 years then take 3-4 years off. I’ve not played much in the last 2-3 years… so I’d love to be in a league again. Maybe even go back to coaching if I can. 

    A quick addendum. A few friends were quick to point out on this post that while we won’t be seeing our Michigan friends as much, we’ll still be friends! The internet has made the world so much smaller. In fact, I’ve been reconnecting with high school friends via Facebook.  Between Facebook, blogging, IM, twitter, etc. While our proximity will be different, friendship will remain in tact. 

  • $200 Asterisk for the iPhone 3G


    iphone 3g $199    If you are like me you didn’t notice the tiny asterisk in this image. But there is one. Do you see it?

    This morning I intended on lining up at the Partridge Creek Apple Store to upgrade both of my AT&T phones to the smoking hot iPhone 3G. 

    Since I’ve been a loyal AT&T customer since 1998 I knew I needed to call their customer service and make sure there weren’t any surprises. And boy am I glad I did.

    Not pictured here with Steve is the asterisk. You have to be a new customer or have an expired contract with AT&T to get this price. In the dozens of articles and videos I’d watched about the new iPhone I somehow missed this little detail. Stupid Adam, fooled again.

    So, people like me who have been loyal to their wireless company are getting hosed. No love for us on the iPhone. The loyal customer price is $399. Even on the Apple site I can’t find $399 mentioned as the price, but that’s how AT&T has always treated loyal customers… horribly. 

    So, I talked to customer service. If you are like me and are looking to get an iPhone 3G for the advertised $199 instead of the loyal customer price of $399, here are a few tricks the customer service agent told me to try. 

    #1 Cancel your existing account. Yes, she told me that! After 10 years as a customer, I was told the best service I could get with AT&T was to cancel my account. 

    #2 Add lines, suspend lines. To get the $199 I could add 2 lines to my family plan for $10 per month and suspend my current 2 lines for free. Eh? She even told me I should just give away my other 2 lines “to anyone.” 

    #3 Keep calling AT&T until you get someone to agree to give you the upgrade price before your current contract expires. (Mine is in September)

    #4 Open a new account under a new name. If you are like me and have a family plan, just close your account under one name and start a new account under the other. 

    Of course I am not going to do any of these. Next month we are moving across the country and I know from experience with AT&T that they’ll offer me a new two year contract than. This may also be our time to try a new company, like Verizon. 

    AT&T has always had the worst customer service in the mobile phone industry. I’ve long held that AT&T is a great company as long as you never call the 800 number and that is re-confirmed every time I talk to “customer care.” 

    Here I am, a customer of 10 years that would like to re-up his contract for 2 more years at a rate nearly double what he currently pays and I’m told I can do one of 4 “tricks?” 

  • That’s how we roll in India

  • Finding a church home: The Prize

    Ladies and gentlemen, let’s look at the grand prize and see what churches in San Diego would get if they won the McLane lottery.

    The total package. This family of four churchgoers label themselves as “contributors.” They won’t just be bumps on a log at your church, they will give it everything they’ve got. Adam has a passion for student ministry and would love to be the best volunteer you’ve ever had. Besides helping with those crazy adolescents Adam is pretty handy with all technical areas of the church. He can create stuff, manage teams of volunteers, or just generally make all your tech stuff work. Kristen has served on church boards, lead small groups, and loves doing outreach to other moms like her. These bible college grads don’t just give their time, they give their money too. But wait, there’s more!

    Adam and Kristen don’t come alone, they bring kids. Their two children are the perfect addition to your kids ministry. Megan is entering 2nd grade, loves to make friends, and will make your children’s workers gush with pride. Paul is a fresh faced kindergartner who is 100% boy. When he’s not pretending to be Scooby Doo or a Power Ranger, Paul will amaze you with his intellect. 

    Could there be more? Why yes! Not only does this family come regularly and contribute positively, they bring people! This family is hard wired for outreach into your community. Whether you are looking for people to head up a major outreach event or just looking for someone to invite their neighbors, look no further.

  • 3 Lies of Church Growth Experts

    Right now there are a lot of people making a lot of money telling churches how they can grow. Along the same lines, there are a lot of church boards and pastors wasting a lot of time discussing church growth strategy.

    An observation. Have you noticed that churches that want to grow (100 to 1000 people) flock to churches that grew 10, 20, or 30 years ago but have since plateaued? It’s like asking Bill Gates, “How do you start a software company?” Bill wouldn’t have a clue! When he wants to start a software company he buys one! In the same way, asking a church of 10,000 how to grow is a waste of time because they knew how to do it in their town 10, 20, or 30 years ago but haven’t a clue how to do it today in your town!

    So let me save your church some time and money. Here are 3 guaranteed ways NOT to grow a church. There must be 20 conferences, 50 books, and 100 consultants based on these three lies. 

    #1 You have to have a great ____ ministry. This lie has been out there forever. A church with a great van ministry that’s really reaching people will one day go, “Hey… let’s start teaching people how to start a van ministry so they can copy us!” Same thing with student ministry, kids ministry, music ministry, puppet ministry, after school ministry, seniors ministry, etc. None of these programs will grow your church! It’s just a marketing lie to think that you can grow a church by having a great program. Having great programs is vitally important to the mission of any church (reaching and discipling people) but there isn’t a program out there that will grow a church from 300 to 1000 people! If you see a conference, book, or consultant who tells you “If you just have ____ you’ll see the growth you are looking for” just know that you’re being sold an idea that worked in one location and won’t work in yours. The best consultants will look deeply into your organization before recommending anything!

    #2 If You Build it They Will Come Building stuff and remodeling stuff is highly addictive. But buildings and environments don’t grow churches. I’ve been to some real dumps that were exploding in growth. And I’ve been to some beautiful buildings that were empty. Have you ever been to Europe? There you can visit some of the best looking church buildings in the world, they are mostly empty on Sunday mornings. As a 16 year old I toured the Cathedral in Strasbourg France. Completed in 1439 the cathedral is amazing in its beauty. It was the tallest building in the world from 1647 to 1874. Talk about a city on a hill! Want to know how many people go there now? None.

    A ministry will endure when it focuses on its task at hand way more than its location. Location means squat. (Just ask the Chinese!)

    If someone is telling you that a new building or a new _____ will grow your church, they are either deceived or trying to sell you something. Take a tour of some of the fastest growing churches in the United States and you won’t be overly impressed with architecture, ornate decoration, or interior design. What’s on fire in those places is not the building!

    #3 “You have to be more focused on reaching people than keeping people.” This is just ignorant marketing! It’s even worse pastoring.

    The best thing you can do to grow a church is to lead, grow, and love the people in your church. If they are growing, being lead  to deeper expressions of their faith, and feeling loved by the people of the church, they will tell their friends. That makes sense along every front a church looking to grow. Marketing, strategy, leadership. 

    The only church growth advice that I’ve ever heard that is truly a guarantee is “All healthy organisms grow.” That is dead on. If only the folks looking to grow their churches would focus on getting the church they have today healthy, it would grow. But to take an unhealthy church and try to grow it with a new building or a new program or a new focus is just silly. 

    Q for Church leaders: What do you think? Do you think I’ve captured 3 lies in church growth? Or do you think those experts out there really have something that can help you grow your church?

  • Stoney’s Diet

    If I’ve done the math correctly, Stoney needs to lose about 10 pounds before we move to San Deigo. 

    If his crate and Stoney weigh less than 70 pounds, he costs about $350 to ship. If he is 71 pounds or more, he’s $480. 

    Of course, we are taking him either way, but $130 is a lot of money. So this week he started his diet plan. I switched him from Iams Lamb & Rice formula to Iams Weight Control. We also looked at the bad and discovered that we were offering him about 50% too much food each day. Even “better” is the fact that Stoney is protesting the switch by not eating very much. When you put that with the fact that we’ll be gone for a week and he always eats less and spends more time outside when we’re away… this plan may just work. 

    Aren’t you glad the airlines don’t make you pay more for being overweight?