Today is the first day of school for Romeo. I could not be more excited about the year to come for my students.

There is something majestic about sitting where I sit and watching students grow up, mature and leave. In a way it is sad, but in another way it is terribly exciting. As I think back on the last 12 months and reflect on just how much students have matured I am simply amazed. 12 months ago I had a fresh crop of freshmen who were scared of the first day of school. They literally had nightmares of what was to come. The first time I saw them on campus they were all like deer caught in the headlights. In one way they knew what they were supposed to be doing, but in the other way they were just lost. To see them begin this fall as sophomores is incredible. They know what to expect, they know the routine… And well they are just sophomoric. At the same time, another round of freshmen comes through. Optimistically petrified.

I have some students who will flourish at the high school. They instantly fit in because they are proficient at a sport, or excel in a certain discipline. But the majority will be fish out of water.

On the flip side, let the reminiscing of summer gone by begin. I will guarantee that my upperclassmen will bring up all the fun we had this summer by Sunday. The cycles of school life utterly amaze me.

With school finally here, this also means that Light Force will be kicking off very soon. We have a lot going on and a lot to do over the next few weeks. I’m guessing that the first 4 weeks of LF will determine how good or bad things go for this school year.

Like always, I’ve got golf. We had a nice practice round this morning and a party at one of the student’s house this afternoon. They are off Tuesday and regular practice begins Wednesday. We have an important league match this week in Grosse Pointe to cap off the week.

With LF, this is a communication week. I’ll be sending out postcards to the students and letters to the parents. Hopefully, I’ll finish the new website design and get that online as well as finalize most things for this fall. The big “new thing” that we are launching right now will be the midweek Bible studies. I am excited about this since this will truly show where some students are spiritually. This will also help our Wednesday nights be more appropriate for where that group is at. It was just so hard to try to squeeze the Bible study into the 90 minutes we get, plus more than half the students wanted to have nothing to do with the regular study. So, while we will all be working on the same thing, Wednesday night will be more complete for the majority.

Wednesday & Friday nights are party central. We have our Fall Kickoff party on Wednesday and our first tailgate of the year on Friday night followed by a bonfire. Also… it’s time for the peach festival. http://www.mipeachfest.com/ Unlike a lot of lifelong residents (of which I am not) I think the Peach Festival is cool. We are looking forward to experiencing it a little more now that Kristen is able. (Last year Paul was only a few weeks old) The noise isn’t as bothersome as people complain about, nor is the crowdedness. In fact, we found the whole thing to be a lot of fun last year and we are all pumped up about it.

On Friday, the guys played very well with 2 students at or below par. Unfortunately, they came up just short as Adams defeated us 149-148. We had them beat through 5 golfers, while the last match ended with the #1 players came in at 38 vs. 33. Both good rounds, unfortunately for us it was for the wrong team.

This may be one of those rare occasions when I wish I was out of church work and back into the business world. I’m biting my tongue today because something was royally screwed up and it’s going to cost the church some cash.

Let’s just say, I miss not being able to fire people. A person who is volunteering may be completely incompetent and lazy but there isn’t much you can do about it. They don’t show up to do work that they said they would do… can’t do squat about it. They do a bad job. Not much ramifications. They say they are with you, but when they aren’t there are no consequences.

Let’s just say… this is a frustration of working with people who in a round about way you work for. It’s not worth getting out of what I do… it’s just a general frustration that you can’t look at some people who are not doing their jobs and quote Donald Trump, “You’re fired!”

About a year ago I gleefully took over maintaining the church and youth group websites. It was a lot of fun. Each Monday I would spend about half of my day tweaking it all and making it look nice and getting all the latest and greatest updates out there.

But now, I don’t like it too much. Frankly it’s a pain in the ass. The church has yet to invest in DSL which means that uploading and downloading take hours instead of minutes. Put that together with the slowest computer on the planet (e.g. my work PC) and a total lack of the right software packages and you’ve got something that just eats my time. Gobble, gobble like the Thanksgiving turkey!

With that said, I’m here at work today on my day off revamping the Light Force website. I look forward to making it look tight by the end of the day.

this is a typical shot of the McLane kids. How can anyone not love these kids? 

As promised, the varsity golf team is strong and the JV is rough around the edges. Today we played a tough match against a distant non-conference rival. With one JV person missing, we came up short again today to start the season 0-2. Varsity did good yesterday and one player even went to -1 on the round.

Some bad things from today. Cell phones. Tossed clubs. Missed opportunities to help competitors. It’s stuff that drives me crazy because it negatively reflects on the program. We strongly desire to be a program that does the little things right. I don’t even care so much that they lost, but it was how they played that made me and the other coaches mad. We shall see how the stern talk we gave today is played out.

A very important match with Rochester Adams on the varsity side of things Friday afternoon. More on that later.

I’ve noticed lately that I have a bad habit of saying “we” when I really mean to say “I.” It’s quite odd since I will be talking about something and then I’ll notice that I meant to say “This is what I want to see” and instead it will come out “This is what we want to see.”

Perhaps even more annoying than this little habit is that there are times when I stop myself and say something really stupid, “What, do I have a mouse in my pocket… what I meant to say was…” I think this makes me look and feel more stupid than anything else.

There are lots of details in the works for fall programs. Everything kicks off next Wednesday with Light Force. In the meantime, I am busier than ever with the golf team. (We are now officially 1-0 on the season after we trounced Eisenhower yesterday on their home course.) The good thing about the golf season is that morning practices are over. This is good for me since it will allow me to actually get work done before I head to the golf course for my volunteer job.

Along the same lines, I’ve had increased spiritual questions from students on the team. This is both good and alarming. I make no bones about who I am or what I do, but my biggest fear is that people will start to assume that I am there for evangelism or something like that when in fact I am simply there because I want to be a part of the team and support the community. So, while my working for the team does constitute contact ministry, my purpose in being there is primarily to better the team. If I wasn’t a golfer who with some passion to see junior golf excel in Romeo, I wouldn’t be there.

We also had some drama last night as one of our students was touching another student in an inappropriate way. That sounds worse than it was… let’s restate that as “there are some raging hormones in the youth group.” I intend on stopping this in it’s tracks as nothing provides more disunity than dating among the group. More on that later as I mention it to the parents.

The funny thing about the fall season getting ready to kick off is that all the ministries are bulk mailing me to death. I love to see the new products out there. Curriculum, books, worship resources, and more. I am excited to get introduced to these things.

But a couple of things that drive a guy nuts.

1. Do I really need 25 copies? I mean, we can make a camera the size of a pill in this universe, but you can’t come up with a way to figure out that one church is getting the same catalogue over and over? Sheesh!
2. Why now? I’ve had my fall programming decisions done for quite a while. Are they banking on most YP’s being so lazy that we’ll make impulse buys?
3. What about the money? I know light force is officially strapped for cash this fall. It’s not that I’ve been unwise with our ministries cash… it’s just been an expensive season of exciting things.
4. Why not spread it out? Do a lot of ministries really go out and buy tons of stuff at the same time? I like to spread my purchases out a little more so I can evaluate what I’m buying and sense if the stuff I bought before was any good.

I don’t want this to seem like I am ripping on anyone inparticular. But the worst offenders right now are Willow Creek, Word of Life and Youth Specialties. All good organization. All with really lame marketing schemes. (Data dump and pray it works) Maybe it’s just that I like to complain, but in the meantime I sure am sick of tossing all these nice glossy packages!

This morning in Sunday school we will be talking about “what does it mean to have an adoptive family?” or something like this. As I stare at a room full of 2nd generation Christians I am left in awe that I can never really identify with them.

There is a significant difference in the faith of a person who has grown up in the church vs. Someone who came to faith outside of their family. Just as I will never know what it has been like all of these years to come to church every week with their families and worship Jesus together, they will also never sit in their parents shoes. Their lives, though Jesus can and will transform them, will never have the same experience of wonder and awe of finding your “true family.”

In preparing for this morning, I watched the film Antwone Fisher. The story is about a young man who never knew his real family. For his entire life he was raised by people who only looked like they cared about him. Deep inside he always longed for his momma. He wanted someone who just loved him as opposed to the people in his life who only loved him when he was good or just loved him enough to collect a state check. This was proven susynchtly when he turned 18. On that day the state took him to a men’s homeless shelter and left him with. The only people who took care of him all of those years, state-appointed guardians, simply dropped him off at a homeless shelter and gave him $67. Alone in the world, hurt in every direction, he joined the Navy having few other options. The film is really about finding out who you really are. In his quest to forgive people whom he never met and conquer his anger, Antwone goes on a quest to find his family. After searching for a few days he finally comes across people who are kin to him. The following scene, which contrast two life’s choices, is a crystal clear interpretation of real life. On one side, a single mother alone in a housing project. Her long lost boy finally comes to find her and she just sits there, ashamed of herself she stairs blankly at the wall. It is a cold, inhuman response. Antwone presses her for answers and when it is apparent she will not answer his charges he simply states his case and walks away. “I am a good man. I have done a lot of things, I have avoided all the pitfalls that have befell me in this life. I want you to know that I am alive and I love and forgive you for abandoning me.” He stands tall in confronting this woman. His strength in this moment is life altering. On the flip side, Antwone finds his father’s family. People he’s never met or known. They welcome him with open arms. In fact, after a brief meeting he leaves to meet his mother, only to return later to find all of his family. Aunts, cousins, uncles and even the beloved grandmother. Everywhere he turns there are people who want to love him and accept him. We are left with the knowledge that this young man has found family. His lifelong quest to feel like a normal human being has been fulfilled in finding these people. The void once so plain to see, which he filled with anger and violence, can now be filled by something substantive.

What an incredible contrast for our students today as we show them the truth that as children of God, we are welcomed into that second home. When we receive Christ, our new family kisses us and says “welcome home” and embraces us into the flock. Though we don’t deserve this kind of love, He clears the way for us to be adopted.