• Football Thoughts – Third Edition

    A big, fun day in college football yesterday. With a week or so left in non-conference play the match-ups are getting better. And Saturday saw a big round of upsets… something which always adds some fun and makes the college game unique.

    The Aztecs

    With temps well over 100 the past few days fans stayed home for this game. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so few people at the start of the game. Then it just turned out that there were a ton of people hanging out in the hallways waiting for the sun to go down! The McLane family was on the home, shady side, but the heat really wore us down and we left after the third quarter. Week 2 of “everyone goes to the game” wasn’t quite as fun as week 1.

    To me, the first two plays of the game dictated what was going to happen. On the first play our d-line pushed the North Dakota o-line back into the QB and running back. In the second play, our DB jumped a route and ran for an easy pick 6. North Dakota moved the ball… combined the game ended with just over 1000 yards of total offense. It was a classic track meet. The final score was too close for comfort but the Aztecs were never really in doubt about the outcome.

    Notre Dame

    Because the kickoff was the same as the Aztecs game I only caught the last few minutes of the game on TV. But, in watching highlights and reading all of the articles it seemed like a breakthrough game for Brian Kelly. I watched an hour long press conference on National Signing Day in 2010 which talked about all the defensive talent they had brought in. That press conference was on display yesterday in East Lansing. I’ve visited a bunch of college campuses on game day and a night game at Michigan State is one of the more hostile places around. To go in there and basically shut Michigan State down is very impressive. There’s a lot of talk today about Notre Dame being good enough for a BCS game this year… it’s too early to know that, but this was a major step in the right direction.

    Upset City

    This week in the sports media we’ll start hearing about parody. Outside of Alabama and LSU no one is overly dominant so anyone can win week to week. Case in point, UL Monroe took Auburn to overtime the week after beating Arkansas, Stanford reminded Matt Barkely that he’s no Andrew Luck, Utah handed their rival a reminder, BYwho? On and on it went. This will be a year when anyone can win on any given week… and that’s a lot of fun.

    Conference Picks

    Three weeks in it feels like I can gauge where some teams are. Here are my picks for conference champions of all the major leagues. I’ll even put the #2 team in parenthesis)

    ACC – Florida State (Va Tech)

    Big 12 – Oklahoma (Texas)

    Big East – Cincinnati (South Florida)

    Big 10 – Wisconsin (Michigan State)

    Conference USA – Tulsa (Central Florida)

    MAC – Ohio (Toledo)

    Mountain West – Boise State (SDSU)

    Pac 12 – Oregon (USC)

    SEC – LSU (Alabama)

    Upstarts of the Year

    These are teams that are on the upwards track. They might not with their conference in 2012 but are headed the right direction.

    • Northwestern
    • South Carolina
    • Notre Dame
    • Arizona
    • UL Monroe (Is anyone going to schedule them next year?)

  • When your civil resistance makes them think

    Civil resistance – alongside the term nonviolent resistance, is used to describe political action that relies on the use of non-violent methods by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: it can involve systematic attempts to undermine the adversary’s sources of power. Forms of action have included demonstrations, vigils and petitions; strikes, go-slows, boycotts and emigration movements; and sit-ins, occupations, and the creation of parallel institutions of government.

    Backstory, according to the YouTube page – I got this ticket in a town where the cops (and absurd redlight cameras) are pretty much a money trap and that’s it. I decided to pay in an appropriate manner – 137 origami pig $1 bills, put in a pair of dozen-donut dunkin donut boxes.

    My thoughts – Half of me thinks he wimped out on his protest. He went to all of that trouble to fold all of those dollar bills and then let a clerk tell him to unfold them or he wouldn’t accept them. He caved really easily. The other half of me thinks that he had a greater impact on the clerk and the officer who understood the protest, weren’t made to look like jerks in the video, and no doubt told everyone they knew about the guy who paid his fine in origami pigs.

    What do you think? Did he wuss out? Or did he make his point and carry on? 

  • Friends, we need to calm down the rhetoric

    My morning devotions found me in Romans 13 this week. These are timely words from Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit:

    Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

    This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

    As I meditated on these words, sat on them, stewed on them, on and on… here’s what I’m trying to work on.

    • The Evangelical hermeneutic is very simple. (How we read and interpret the Bible) We take the Bible at face value, unless the author makes it clear to do otherwise. This passage is plain talk, intended to be taken at face value by its recipients.
    • Paul was writing to Roman citizens… people whose government killed Christians for sport.
    • Paul didn’t give readers an out clause. Paul affirmed that Christians needed to respect and honor the emperor of Rome.
    • Paul doesn’t give Christians permission to publicly disrespect a leader, even one they disagree with vehemently. Instead he says the opposite. T

    The way I see it, it’s totally fine to be engaged in politics. Actually, I think it’s healthy to ask people to be more engaged and understand what’s going on. But lets be sure not to disqualify ourselves from ministry by expressing our political opinion in a way which Paul would label as sinful. 

    While the political parties are in full freak-out mode, wouldn’t it be great if level headed Christian leaders modeled Paul’s way of civic engagement?

    Don’t disengage. But help people engage in more healthy ways.

  • Celebrating some vision victories

    It’s good to reflect and celebrate vision victories.

    Vision victories are your organizations aspirations you’ve put into action. And not just set into motion or tried but really done.

    The Double Start-up

    I was afraid of self-employment. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure, paperwork, and realities of being a part of 2 simultaneous start-ups. Make no bones about it… sometimes its completely crazy. But more  than a year into it, it’s working, it’s growing, and my vision premise is holding true. McLane Creative & The Youth Cartel are thriving… any look at the spreadsheet confirms it.

    Bam. Vision victory.

    OpenYM.org

    Late last night I was working on some details for Open Seattle, Open Boston, and Open Paris. In the midst of that I realized… Wow, what a vision victory. At this time last fall Open was a nameless white paper. Actually, it was a PDF saved on my desktop called “YouthMinCamp-v4.pdf.” That’s really all it was. An idea, something I had a vision for, but had no plausible way of knowing if we could pull it off.

    About a year ago I started talking to people, essentially shopping the idea around and seeking partnership to make it happen. And the first one really is happening on October 6th.

    Bam. Vision victory. 

    TYC Publishing

    When I joined the Cartel with Marko one of the 4 things we said we wanted to do was publishing. We talked about publishing books and resources but, in truth, that was all vision for me and zero knowledge of how that works. (Obviously, Marko knows a thing or two about publishing!) We dipped our toes in the publishing waters over the past year with 2 titles but have really put a lot of steam into it this summer, going into the fall. For me, this has meant learning how to make a Word document (aka manuscript) into a book/iBook/Kindle book. We’re really close on our next release and have several more in the hopper. A year ago… the hopper was a dream, now its a total reality.

    Bam. Vision victory. 

    The Summit & MSMC

    It’s crazy. These two events are so solid. The genesis of both of these came from Marko, I really didn’t do much more than build the website and send out some emails for the Campference in 2011. The Summit was an idea Marko had as a white paper similar to Open for a while that we decided to give a shot in 2012… we had no idea how much people would like the concept. But both of these have been much more “our babies” in 2012. From inviting speakers, finding locations, themes, marketing, etc… both of these were great visions that have taken mountains of execution to get to the point where they look to be pretty successful in 2012.

    Bam. Vision victory. 

    Family R&R

    My last 2 years at YS and my first 6 months or so at the Cartel were at a mind-numbing pace. While I was having fun at that pace, my family wasn’t. So Kristen and I had a vision to rest better as a family. We protect Sunday as a family Sabbath. We go to the beach regularly, we go to ball games together, we took 3 camping trips in the past 12 months, on and on. It hasn’t been easy but the impact on our family is visible. We are closer, we have more “McLane-ness,” and we are on a sustainable pace.

    Bam. Vision victory. 

    It’s one thing to have vision. Vision is free. But vision is just a pipe dream without execution.

     


  • Like a Good Neighbor…

    “Like a Good Neighbor. State Farm is There.”

    That’s a familiar slogan, isn’t it? If you live in the United States chances are good that I just put that jingle in your head. But have you ever stopped to think about the meaning of this song?

    What is State Farm saying? It’s an insurance company reminding you that your neighbors stink. But if you pay them a premium they’ll be like a good neighbor to you.

    “All we did was show up and smile.” That’s usually the honest reflection for teenagers who are serving on a mission trip. The lead-up to the trip elevated their expectations that doing mission work was somehow extraordinary. But when you sit in a circle with a group debriefing a day of service someone in the circle will always say that they didn’t do anything particularly special. There’s a little ounce of disappointment that handing a homeless person a sandwich or painting the classroom of a school didn’t feel more special.

    Yet, there is power in that reflection. Often times loving a neighbor isn’t a big thing. Something doesn’t have to be large or especially memorable to be meaningful.

    In fact, becoming Good News in your Neighborhood is often so free that you begin doing it without any intentionality. I recently sat down with a denominational leader who shared with me just that. He left a parish ministry to accept a position at the denominations offices, and in doing so he left his parsonage garden behind and began living in a condo. Several months later he noticed that a small common area of his complex was getting overgrown and he approached the property manager about turning it into a little vegetable garden. He admits, his desire to do this was very selfish. He missed gardening and saw an opportunity to do something he loved. But as time went on neighbors began to ask him questions about what he was growing. Of course, he shared some of his crop. And the next thing you know everyone in his complex knows his name, about his garden, is helping with “their” garden, and looks forward to seeing him.

    I’ll give you one guess where a couple of families are now going to church…

     

  • The Rule of Affinity

    The Rule of Affinity

    Two men had robbed a bank a few miles away and while being chased by the police made a wrong turn into our neighborhood. Full of canyons and dead ends the robbers got lost, ditched their car, shot at a cop, and ran into backyards a few hundred yards from our house. Soon a police helicopter hovered over our block.

    After a little while the sound was aggravating– infuriating even. It shook our house and rattled our nerves. While the police told us to stay inside and away from their barricades everyone was drawn out of their house by the thunderous claps of the helicopters blades.

    It stayed like this for 5 hours.

    That’s what it took for neighbors to talk. A police barricade. Locked down on a Saturday afternoon and each of us couldn’t stand being in our houses. With no way to escape… we were forced to talk. Names were shared, hands were shaken, houses were pointed to, stories were told, and we all got to know one another a little bit.

    The Rule of Affinity is so powerful in our culture that this is what it takes to meet the people who live within 300 yards of my bedroom. Power outages, blizzards, bad storms, earthquakes, and other moments that force us awake from our Affinity stupor reminding us that there are actual people behind those front doors and mailboxes.

    The Rule of Affinity is all-powerful. I don’t mean that it’s an axiom or a rule of thumb, I mean that it rules our lives like a king rules his people.

    • Where you work is defined by affinity.
    • Where you worship is defined by affinity.
    • Who you are friends with is defined by affinity.
    • What you do with your free time is defined by affinity.
    • What you eat? Affinity.
    • What you wear? Affinity.

    This list never ends because affinity rules our lives. Our affluence affords us choices. And our choices drive us to seek deeper and deeper levels of affinity. We do what we do because we like it and avoid what we don’t like.

    Think about it like this: Whenever you have a choice, the Rule of Affinity drives your choice to gather not by proximity but by affinity. 

    The internet, especially social media, amplifies this effect. Because you can find community with people just like you online you don’t need proximity. Affinity allows you to consider your best friends to be people you’ve never met face-to-face. You know 500 things about a stranger but nothing about a neighbor. That’s the power of the Rule of Affinity over your life.

    And yet, the Rule of Affinity is actually killing your soul. You feel like you’ve found community with people just like you but what you’ve really found is communal loneliness and further isolation.

    Affinity is shallow. It’s weak. It’s junk food. It lacks the full flavor and nutritional value of Proximity.  Intellectually, affinity is small. It’s easy. It’s drinking a Coke and calling it a fine vintage. It’s foregoing literature for a grocery aisle romance novel. One result is that we live in a society of psychiatric drugs. We medicate the pain caused by the Rule of Affinity’s malnutrition. Filled with false community and Affinity’s lies about our place in the world we lean on drugs to seek a normal we know nothing of. As we drive toward further and further affinity we gain more and more isolation, our soul starving our soul further, eventually leaving us a rotten core of our true selves.

    The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, challenges us to reject the Rule of Affinity for the realities of Proximity. In the Garden, Satan tempted Eve with affinity… “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) While Adam and Eve had perfect Proximity to God, Satan tempted them with the Rule of Affinity where they could gather with God on their terms.

    The Gospel overcomes the Rule of Affinity and re-introduces the Garden’s Proximity into our lives. Jesus’ re-introduction of Proximity looks at the bank robbers face and says, “There’s a better way. You seek something temporary and I offer something permanent and beautiful.”

    Jesus gutted the Rule of Affinity with His invitation to new way of living,

    Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

    Matthew 22:37-39

  • A House of Good News

    What if everyone on my block knew who I was? What if other people on my block knew each other because I introduced them? What if I knew what the needs of my neighbors were and were in a position to activate others to help? And what if I had an eye to initiate or come alongside a program to serve my neighborhood as quickly as I come alongside my church?

    That would be good news in my neighborhood, wouldn’t it?

    That would look a lot like Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:39, wouldn’t it? 

    Love your neighbor as yourself.

    It’s one of those obvious things we don’t do. If you are like me you think, “Gosh, that would be cool. But I’m not _____.” [Insert your excuse, mine is too busy already.]

    But think of the possibility of this dream. What if my neighborhood were good news for residents? What if, compelled by a love for Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit, neighbors got to know one another, learned to love one another, and helped to meet one another’s practical needs. What if people thought about the place that they live as a source of life instead of just a place to live?

    Is that possible?

    Of course it is. We believe Jesus at His word on so many other levels, why not the most basic one? Love your neighbor as yourself. He didn’t say, love your family as yourself or love your church as yourself or love your TV as yourself or love the idea of a neighbor as you love yourself.

    You and I are the change agents who can make this happen. Ephesians 2:10 is clear, we were created in Christ Jesus to do good works. So let’s get on that horse and do some good works!

    You just have to push away the voices inside of you that tells you it isn’t your job. Or that being involved at _____ is enough. Or that you are too busy, your neighbors are annoying, they don’t want to know one another. On and on. Don’t let the voice of doubt win.

    5 First Steps You Can Do This Week

    1. Learn 5 names you don’t already know on your block.
    2. Create a simple drawing for your fridge. Make a box for every house and put names in every box.
    3. Take a slow walk every day this week on your block with the intention of saying learning names. “Hi, I’m ___. What’s your name?” You can do that. This works well after work when people are out and about. It also works great in the morning if you have a dog. (The dog will love this!)
    4. Pick the newest person on your block and intentionally introduce yourself. Welcome them to the neighborhood.
    5. Tell 1 person your dream for the block, that it would be a place where neighbors are not strangers.

    You’ve got this. You can do it! 

  • Football Thoughts – Second Edition

    It’s week one of the NFL season. As a college fan, the only thing I like about the NFL is seeing where my favorite college players have ended up. It’s exciting to see that Miles Burris will be starting for the Oakland Raiders today as a rookie.

    Here’s what I saw in week two of the college football season.

    Powder Puff City

    There weren’t a lot of great match-ups going into this week. It was tough flipping for the at-home viewer yesterday… lots of very boring games. The top 5 didn’t really play anyone. LSU & Alabama continue to show us why they should be in the AFC East. Seriously, the SEC is in a league all their own right now. I watched parts of a few games and the teams, the crowds, the level of play… it far surpasses the other leagues right now. It’s really not even close.

    Perhaps Arkansas will get kicked out of the SEC for what they did yesterday. UL Monroe beat an SEC team? I didn’t even know UL Monroe existed.

    Up and down the schedule there weren’t many top teams playing interesting match-ups. I’m looking forward to next weekend when we have a few more top 25 match-ups.

    Pac-12 B Crazy

    USC struggled with Syracuse? In football? Yeah, that was weird. And the Oregon game… OK, so most of the 25 points game during garbage time. But you’d think Oregon’s 3rd string could hold Fresno State. Also in the league you had Washington getting blown out by LSU, Oregon State beating up Wisconsin, and then Colorado and Utah losing to community colleges.

    I’m not sure what to think of the Pac-12. They are better than last year, but more schizophrenic than ever.

    Penn State

    Each week I find myself cheering for a new, more random team. This week it was for Virginia, who are going to win 4-5 games this year in a weak ACC. While PSU didn’t fold like they did in week one they continue on the downward spiral national television is there to capture. One of my twitter friends described watching Penn State like its a rerun of a train wreck. You know what’s coming but wow… you have to keep watching. 

    I expect for them to get a win against Navy next week before getting beat up badly in the Big 10.

    The Rest of the Big 10

    So, when your conference favorite gets beat by a lower tier Pac 12 team… where does that leave you? Michigan State is in the drivers seat now. Ohio State is looking a little better. Michigan is going to be helter skelter depending on Robinson. The irony is that Wisconsin is still the favorite, right? But based on their non-conference games it’s really hard to know who is who, yet.

    Notre Dame

    I only saw bits of the game so I don’t know a lot. Any time we beat Purdue, I’m happy. But needing to go to last year’s hapless starter in order to get a 2-minute offense going isn’t a great sign of things to come. Each time I see them I can see that Brian Kelly has them on the right track. The key is if the fans are willing to wait out an actual rebuilding process which might take 5-6 years or if they are going to continue to fire perfectly good people. The team noticeably tackles better, has more depth, and more talent than during the Weis years.

    I think we’ll get pounded by Sparty next week. We always get beat there. 

    One thing I noticed yesterday, and I think its new, is that they were piping in music like a regular stadium between plays and at time outs. The house that Rockne built was bumping like it was built by Jay-Z yesterday…. I love it! (It’s part of the AD’s new “Take a StaND” initiative.) The atmosphere at Notre Dame stadium is, by default, way too formal. I liked hearing the music as it definitely brought the fans (and students) into the game a bit more. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told to sit down and be quiet in that stadium. It’s really no fun going to a game there… I hope its changing.

    If you’ve never been to Notre Dame stadium, it is worth going. Just know that they have cranky church ushers in yellow jackets. Literally, if you stand up and cheer too loud you can be kicked out. Seriously. 

    San Diego State

    Um, wow. I didn’t see us rolling over Army. Player for player we were faster than the Black Knights… it felt like we were playing at normal speed and they were playing with heavy shoes. We were 6 point underdogs and the entire 4th quarter was garbage time for the back-ups to get reps. A very impressive showing on both sides of the ball. My favorite play was Colin Lochhart’s 96 yard kickoff return for a touchdown. My second favorite play was when Ezell Ruffin stiff-armed an Army defender in the open field and scampered 57 yards down field.

    Week two of Rockyball was non-existent. I don’t think they went for it on 4th down, ever. And they kicked field goals and extra points where you’d expect them to. I don’t know if he just threw that hot mess out the window or if it just wasn’t needed this week.

    This was our first game where all 5 McLane’s reported to section 36. We even tailgated for the first time, which went flawlessly. And while its definitely fun to barbecue before the game and soak in some of that atmosphere I’m not sure tailgating is in our future. In truth, its just so much easier to take the trolley than it is to drive. Plus, the parking lot was like a tarmac yesterday so we all got overheated.

    All-in-all, we’re pumped about home games next week versus North Dakota State and the week after against San Jose State.

    Question: Will LSU or Alabama lose in 2012? 

  • 10 Horrible Halloween Treat Ideas

    If you care about being Good News in Your Neighborhood, Halloween is one of the easiest days on the calendar to get out and meet a lot of people. Since 2005, I’ve written a number of posts encouraging fellow Christians to embrace Halloween as an opportunity to meet your neighbors.

    So I won’t rehash why we celebrate Halloween or re-share some of the things we’ve done in the past to practice hospitality.

    But I do want to say that not every idea is a good idea. And not every treat idea is a good treat idea. Every year my kids come home from trick-or-treating and lay out all of their candy on the floor. As they carefully examine each treat some of them get labeled as “junk.” (Something healthy. Or even a dime store toy.) Giving out “junk” is the biggest insult you can give a kind on Halloween night. Don’t be that guy.

    Here’s a list of 10 really horrible Halloween treat ideas NOT to try this year.

    1. Ketchup packets – Cheap, and you probably have a drawer full of them already. But I not a treat that’ll make a 6 year old happy.
    2. Bacon bits – Bacon is always a welcome addition. And bacon bits would be awesome with a snack sized Snickers. But little ziplocks of bacon bits would be gross.
    3.  Beef jerky – Jerky would look amazing to give away. In the dark it might look like poop, and kids would think that was funny, but an assortment of cured meats would be a bit too creepy.
    4.  KFC wet naps – Probably useful, especially if their face paint starts to run, but just don’t do this one. It’s really odd.
    5. Roll of electrical tape – I know its tempting to go through your garage to find random items to pawn off on kids. While a roll of tape would be a good bargain, most kids won’t know what to do with it.
    6. Sample size toothpaste – I get it. You work at a dental office and you get it for free. And why not encourage kids to brush their teeth after eating all of that candy. But no, really weird. Unless it looks like blood. Blood is cool on Halloween.
    7. Plastic spoon – Nothing says, “I hate you” quite like a random bit of disposable cutlery. Just don’t do this. Megan (11) said this would be the dumbest thing ever.
    8. Band aids – Really weird and gross. Say no to the adhesive bandage.
    9. A pickle – I love pickles. Probably more than I love bacon. But can you imagine the look on kids faces when you dropped a dripping wet pickle in their bag?
    10. Canned food item – Hold off on unloading that unwanted can of stewed chutney until Novembers canned food drive, OK?

    Question: What would be the worst costume you could wear if you wanted to become Good News in Your Neighborhood?

  • 5 Things Church Communicators Can Learn from Michelle Obama’s DNC Speech

    5 Things Church Communicators Can Learn from Michelle Obama’s DNC Speech

    I don’t know if you watched Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention live or not. I wasn’t planning to watch it but kind of got sucked in during the speech by the mayor of San Antonio.

    If you haven’t seen it, allow me to encourage you to watch it above.

    What I saw the best political speech I might ever see in my lifetime.Which is saying something, because her husband has had some epic moments during the 2008 campaign. Anyone remember 1 million people showing up at Grant Park in Chicago? I mean Clint Eastwood says he cried. There are reports that Chuck Norris gave up round house kicks to the throat because of Barack’s speech there.

    The speech above is amazing in a lot of ways. But, the real question for my fellow church leaders is… what can we learn from Michelle’s speech?

    Here’s 5 lessons: 

    1. She was set-up well. The content of her speech was clearly part of the script for the night. Previous speakers didn’t hint at the content of her talk or step on her themes, they didn’t package a video intro highlighting the key words to listen for, etc. The video intro and the introduction set-up the audience for what they were about to hear. Lesson: Don’t make your services so thematic that the sermon doesn’t reveal something. If you are producing services in a theatrical manner (auditorium, stage, lighting, etc) than use that to your advantage. I can’t tell you how many times the person introducing the sermon has said, “the pastor is about to talk about ____.” I mean, really? Don’t do that! 
    2. She was prepared well. Trust me, this wasn’t a speech she practiced twice on Wednesday morning and then said, “I’m good.” That speech was a team effort. She knew where the cameras were, she knew where he emotive points were, she knew which lines were instant Twitter gold, and she was familiar enough with the content of the speech to get past forced gestures and have the whole thing come off as straight from the heart. That only comes when you really, really know your material. Lesson: Too many pastors depend on talent/experience, foregoing the positive impact of practice and preparation. If you are working on this weekend’s sermon this week, you’re not going to get that response. And if you are creating sermons in a vacuum, even with just your staff, you aren’t going to get that response. Prepare more for a better response.
    3. She stayed within herself. She spoke within a framework that her audience expects of her. Clearly, her speech was political as she tied her families story to the story of millions of Americans in contrast to her husband’s blue blood opponent. But she didn’t get into issues or stomp the stump. She played her part, she was an expert character witness, and you never felt like she was stretching to become believable. Lesson: One of the things I really like about our pastor is that he stays within what he knows well. Too often, I hear pastors preaching things they know little about. You are left to think… “Wait, what does he know about counseling… he has an MDiv, he’s not a licensed therapist.” When you get outside of what you know you start to look real dumb, real fast. If you need an element for something, bring in an expert or use a video. 
    4. She was centrist. For years I’ve talked about the 1-5-10 rule of content creation. Negative content gets a 5 times multiplier versus normal content. But truly remarkable content gets a 10 times multiplier. She didn’t get 28,000 tweets per minute by being negative. She got the massive response by telling a story every person in the room could identify with. Lesson: I’ve heard from pastors who say they preach in response to what’s happening in their congregation. Um, responding isn’t leadership. Leaders take people where they would not go by themselves. Remember, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for EVERYONE. If you are preaching to the choir than you are limiting your potential impact. Instead of aiming your ministry at the top 15% or the bottom 15% of the learning curve, aim for the middle 70% to maximize. 
    5. She was inspirational. Her speech reminded people that the American Dream is not just about financial success. (Certainly, the Obama’s are no longer poor.) Her speech took the audience somewhere. It started as the Obama’s story and morphed from personal pronouns of “my story” to our shared journey of “our story.” You were left not just cheering for the Obama’s but also for yourself. That’s impressive. Lesson: Take your audience somewhere. Help them see that their life with Jesus can add perspective, meaning, and purpose to their lives. Stop talking about the dreams of the individual and move people towards the dreams we can fulfill as a community of believers. I don’t want to  go to the mountaintop alone– I want to go with us.