• The Persistent Teenager

    Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

    “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

    And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

    Luke 18:1-8

    The Persistent Teenager

    “I need to get out of here.”  ~ Every teenager. Ever.

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  • 21 days, 77 days

    Waiting in baggage claim on Thursday night I opened up Tripit, an iOS app I use to track all of my travel details. Here’s what it said.

    While exhausted from being gone from July 5th through July 26th– 3 amazing trips covering thousands of miles and investing in incredible things— I got really excited about not going anywhere for the next 77 days.

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  • 4 Roles of the Youth Worker on an International Short-Term Mission Trip

    short-term mission-tripThis week I’m getting the opportunity to go behind the scenes with Praying Pelican Missions during their busiest week of the summer, shadowing Haiti Operations Director Jim Noreen. (He is overseeing 7 ministry sites around the country with about 170 participants in country.)

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  • Sights and Sounds from Haiti

    If you’ve never been to Haiti you need to know that it is a place of alluring beauty. I don’t know how to explain it but I draw energy from being here. It has a pace & vibrancy that’s intense. Everything is just a little bit turned up… noises, colors, humidity, etc. While I can’t share the flavors or the smells… I can certainly share some sights and sounds to give you a feel for what it’s like to be here. 

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  • When Helping Helps

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    Have you read When Helping Hurts? It’s a powerful challenge to church leaders and short-term mission organizations to think about the unintended consequences of “helping.” [Hint: Stop reading this post and go buy it now. It’s good.]

    Short-Term Missions and Youth Ministry

    Getting practical, and with an eye on youth ministry, we are often torn.

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  • Off to Haiti, Again

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    This morning I woke up at about 5:30 to the sound of Kristen unzipping our tent in Yosemite National Park. That sound was the last breath of my vacation. A week of swimming in mountain streams, playing games with the kids late into the night, campfires, hikes, and a million giggles. It was awesome. But waking up simply meant it was time to start packing.

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  • 10 Awesome Things to Do With $20

    Today is the early bird deadline for The Summit. After today the price goes up by a whopping $20. But hey, $20 is $20.

    $20 is easy to blow, isn’t it? I’ve always had this mental image that I can hold a $20 bill and not spend it. But as soon as I break that $20 bill it just evaporates.

    With that in mind I thought it’d be fun to think about awesome things you could do with $20. Whether that’s $20 saved on The Summit registration or $20 earned while babysitting your next door neighbors pet tarantula.

    Awesome Things to Do With $20

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  • Tribes of Youth Workers I Want to Learn From: Coaches

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    On August 1st, tens of thousands of whistles will blow on tens of thousands of practice fields on tens of thousands of American high school campuses. 

    Two-a-days. 

    In many states August 1st is the first day of fall practice for football. Beyond football, it marks the officially beginning for tons of other coaches of fall sports. (Yes, many sports actually go year-round. But each sports season has an official practice period.)

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  • 2 New Books Releasing Mid-August from The Youth Cartel

    Lately, I’ve been buried in the design and production of three brand new books from The Youth Cartel. This pushes our active catalog to 8 titles and we’ve got a lot more really exciting things coming pretty soon. 

    Practically speaking, that means that I’ve been heavily involved in designing covers, layout, setting them up to sell, and actually getting them printed and in stock.

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  • Solo Time

    Megan and Dad3 hours from now Megan and I are leaving for the airport. We’ll fly to Chicago today where we’ll spend a few days together exploring the city before doing some work Monday through Wednesday.

    In so many ways the McLane’s are Chicagoans. We both moved to the city in 1994 for college. We met there in 1995. And the first 5 years of our marriage was living in Chicago and later in Forest Park, a nearby suburb. And, of course, Megan was born at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago.

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