• 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. 

  • The upside of fear

    Stupid spreadsheet.

    Typically, I’m a pretty positive– upbeat — and self-confident person. I’m told I’m overly optimistic by my friends. But the past few weeks have brought about unfamiliar emotions. Negativity, melancholy, and anxiety. 

    And since these are unfamiliar emotions I haven’t quite known how to respond. In situations where I’m typically chipper I’ve been quiet. In moments I typically shrug off bad news and instantly turn it into a positive I’ve been silent. I’ve been asked for ideas on things and just not had solutions where I normally have been so dependable.

    It’s not that I don’t have stuff to say its that I think its time to be quiet and listen– I don’t want the wrong words to come out because of my emotional state so I just bit my tongue.

    It all goes back to the spreadsheet.

    The spreadsheet brought out fear I’d never had before. And, like all fear, it’s illogical and stupid.

    The Spreadsheet

    As a small business owner my income and expenses are all captured on a master spreadsheet. This gives me a month-by-month look at my business, where my money is coming from and where it is going. (Very similar to a personal budget.) Heading into the summer my balance sheet was very strong for the rest of 2012… this summer we had some record breaking months and some projects coming this fall which could double, even triple what we made in the same months of 2011.

    Then over the last few weeks I’ve had to revise some of some numbers down. At the same time I had to make these revisions we ran into a normal business cycle where I pay a lot of money out while I’m waiting for a lot of income to come in. (I call this cash poor, invoice rich.) When larger businesses hit these business cycles they take out short-term loans. But we’re small enough where we just float through these times with our savings.

    But it was those normal revisions and that normal business cycle which brought out all of that funky emotional junk.

    Factually speaking, the numbers aren’t even that bad. We will still make more than we need. We are totally fine. But the act of making those changes and seeing all that cash go out planted a seed of doubt in me which grew into fear. “What if the cash doesn’t come back?” “What if it gets worse?” “Why don’t I have ____ in savings for when this happens?” “Why don’t I have a line of credit at the bank in case to cover this better?” On and on and on.

    This is what I know about fear: Fear will make you dumb. Fear whispers lies in your ears. Fear makes you say no to things you should say yes to and visa versa.

    And all of that was true of me in August. Our last camping trip came at a perfect time. Just when I was thinking, “What am I going to do?” We went and looked at the stars and took hikes and laughed and giggled until bed time.

    Those 4 days gave me the perspective I so desperately needed: We are totally fine. 

    Sitting by the fire helped calm my nerves. It helped lower my anxiety. It reminded me that everything would be OK.

    The Upside of Fear

    Sitting in church the other day I think it all started to wash over me. Not all fear is bad. I’m afraid of what a spreadsheet says might happen in 3-4 months? Really? How could I be so stupid? Talk about a lack of perspective in light of all that I know about Our God! Talk about allowing emotions to rule over facts! Talk about putting your faith and trust in something really, really small!

    Here’s my observation: The only good kind of fear is the kind which leads you to taking positive action. 

    Photo credit: James Stark via Flickr (Creative Commons)

  • McLane Creative Celebrates its 25th Loan

    At McLane Creative I make a simple promise: You invest in us and we invest in someone else. 

    For every new client I take on I make a small loan to help a woman with her business around the world. This morning I made our 25th loan, helping a newly married woman in Mozambique buy more products to sell in her shop.

    What’s Kiva?

    Kiva is a non-profit organization which helps connect you to those in need of a microloan. They work with NGOs around the world, providing oversight and accountability, and help people like me make investments in small businesses all over the developing world.

    In other words, they make high risk small business loans to people a traditional bank wouldn’t consider. These loans help participants grow their businesses and gain financial independence. They treat their clients with respect and help them avoid the pitfalls of loan sharks.

    It’s a loan, not a donation. The NGO charges a competitive interest rate far below the rates of street loans or loan sharks, handle the day-to-day operations, and for their efforts they keep the interest while I’m repaid the principle of my loan according to a schedule. I’ve been making loans to Kiva since 2007 and have only had 1 loan default. It’s not that risky. And you can even withdraw your money after your loan has been repaid. 

    Why Do I Only Invest in Women?

    One take away from the book The Blue Sweater was that women in developing nations invest the profits of their business directly into their family at a higher rate than their male counterparts. So that means that when I help a woman with her business, she will in turn invest the profits of her business into her home, her children, their education and health care.

    How can you get involved?

    I can think of 3 ways you could get involved with Kiva today.

    1.  Make a small, monthly investment personally or as a family. This is how I got started. I picked 1 person to invest $25 in and then waited for updates. Once we saw that Kiva was for real I made more investments.
    2. Give Kiva as a gift. We’ve given Kiva loans to our kids as Christmas presents. It’s fun for them to pick out someone to invest in, print out their picture, and wait for repayment.
    3. Create a team for your business. When you create a team you can set team goals and stuff like that. Even though Team McLane Creative is really just one member of the team, I like keeping track of it separately from my other loans. (They are funded from my business accounts, too.)

    Your Invitation

    As I was writing this post I discovered that Kiva is doing a special deal right now. If you create an account, Kiva will credit your account $25 for your first loan. And if you use my invite link I’ll get $25, too. 

    So for the low, low price of $0 we can invest $50 in a small business. Simple, right? 

    Here’s the link to take advantage of that right now.

  • San Diego via Timelapse

    Oh baby, this captures so much of what makes San Diego a beautiful place to live.

    I can’t wait for my little rail kit rail & dolly kit to arrive so I can start learning how to shoot these kinds of time-lapse shots.

  • Football thoughts – First Edition

    I watched way too much football yesterday. 

    My two teams, Notre Dame and San Diego State, bookended the college football schedule. My alarm went off at 5:30 AM to start making breakfast for a 6:00 AM kickoff for the Irish. And San Diego State took on Washington with a kickoff at 7:30 PM.

    My friend Paul came over for the ND game. We had fun making an Irish-inspired breakfast. I bought a few Guinness for the occasion and let me tell ya, I don’t really like Guinness, but they are especially tough to drink at 6:00 AM. I think we each took a couple of sips and that was as much of Ireland as we needed.

    Here are some thoughts on the college football season, in random order:

    • Notre Dame is better than I thought. I know Navy is very weak and Notre Dame is supposed to steam roll them. But the Irish were pretty sharp. They could do what they wanted on all sides of the ball and showed a lot more depth than in previous years. I think we’ve found a quarterback in Golson, he ran the offense well and got a lot of players involved. With a few veteran players coming back from suspensions I suspect they will roll Purdue next week and set up a challenging Michigan State & Michigan back-to-back match-up in a few weekends. Oh, and wasn’t it cool to play that game in Dublin? 35,000 North Americans came bringing $125,000,000 into the country in tourism dollars. A lot of people think Notre Dame gets unfair special treatment. Well… how many schools can get 35,000 fans to fly to another country for an opening game? Not very many colleges can get 35,000 to a bowl game! That’s why the Irish get special treatment. They are special.
    • San Diego State was about what I thought they’d be. We lost a lot of talent to the NFL and graduation and we looked very young. I’ve always liked Walter Kazee and was happy to see him get some big runs. Ryan Katz was OK, he played scared in the first half and then woke up in the second. I’ve never seen a player take so many slides… and for a young man who likes to slide I’d encourage him to take 1-2 more steps before sliding the rest of the season so he can slide us to first down instead of 3 and 2. I wrote earlier this fall about the introduction of Rockyball. We didn’t punt when we had the ball inside the 50, never kicked a field goal, and never kicked a PAT. Rockyball got an F yesterday because none of it panned out. But if it had we’d be celebrating a victory over a Pac-12 team.
    • Penn State. I don’t think Penn State should be playing football for the next 4-5 years. But since they did a deal with the NCAA and saved football… I’ll just be forced to hope they lose a lot. If you watched the game you saw Penn State give up. Ohio (not Ohio State, mind you) man-handled the offensive and defensive line in the second half. The commentators tried to spin it as the PSU players were overly emotional at the beginning of the game and just ran out of gas. I think, what we saw, was the team flat out giving up. For months they’ve tried to hold it together and pretend that what happened had nothing to do with them… and it was almost like you could see it hit them during the physical exhaustion of the game. With all of their best players heading for other programs they just couldn’t compete against a MAC team. And the realization of that has big implications in the Big 10. By the time the game came to its merciful conclusion you had to wonder how many players from Penn State were thinking, “I should have transferred.” They should have. All of them. And just for the record… with yesterdays loss they continued a 14 year losing streak. 
    • Alabama vs. Michigan. I’ve got to give Michigan credit, I didn’t think they’d have an offensive touchdown and they did. Alabama is, by far, the best team in football. What we saw yesterday was an exhibition of just how good they are. I think they’d give a bunch of lower level NFL teams fits. (They’d be #2 or #3 in the AFC East) Alabama’s defense exposed the single dimension, Denard Robinson-focused, offense. Michigan entered the game #8 and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them drop into the 20s. Someone even gave them a #1 ranking… yeah, those days are over. All future opponents saw how Alabama did it and will use that as the roadmap, which spells trouble in Hoke-ville. All of Robinson’s Heisman dreams went out the window yesterday. It was kind of sad to see. He’s make a great NFL tailback, though.
    • Here’s to the wussy schedules. Some of the match-ups this weekend have been horrid. None so bad as Oklahoma State vs. Savannah State. 84-0 and the Savannah State coach said “it could have been a lot worse.” (North Carolina vs. Elon was a close second.) Almost as interesting, though, were how many of these mid-majors and mini-majors hung in there. Northern Iowa almost beat Wisconsin. NIU came up just short against Iowa. Arizona needed overtime to beat Toledo. Bowling Green played toe-to-toe with Florida for 3 quarters. Arkansas State outscored Oregon 24-7 in the second half. And San Jose State almost held on to beat Stanford.
    • Mountain West report. Outside of Nevada beating Cal, the Mountain West underachieved against non-conference opponents. That’ll hurt us down the road. We needed SDSU to beat Washington and Boise State to beat Michigan State. I think this is a weak year for the conference, but I expect Boise State, Nevada, and SDSU to be the top 3 teams at the end of the year. (Which leaves SDSU out of a bowl for the last time before joining the Big East.)

  • The problem with being cutting edge

    If you’re at the cutting edge, then you’re going to bleed.

    ~ Nancy Andreasen

    I guess they don’t call it the bleeding edge for nothing.

    Here’s my thought about the dangers of being cutting edge…

    • The biggest growth happens for those people and organizations willing to take risks.
    • I’d rather be innovative than a copycat.
    • I’d rather look forward to what can be than hold onto what used to be.
    • I’d risk getting hurt by being cutting edge than get hurt by being too slow to respond.
    • I think leaders take people where they wouldn’t go alone, regardless of risk.
    • I think a little bleeding isn’t fatal.
    • I’d rather be the guy with scars telling the stories than be the guy without scars regretting being careful.

    I’m wired to not see the downside in being “cutting edge.” I only see upside.

    What are some risks you are taking right now that might make you bleed a little? 

  • The positive impact of negative feedback

    You are probably a creative.

    If your principle source of income is the result of stuff that comes out of your brain more than work that you do with your body, you’re a creative.

    I work with a lot of creatives. Designers, writers, speakers, filmmakers, marketing geeks, thinkers, tinkerers, teachers, pastors… and everything in between. These are people who depend on what comes out of their brain on a daily basis.

    Likewise, I spend a lot of my time needing to not only understand how I think but also those who think mostly with the right hemisphere of their brain.

    In short, I want to know how to get the best creative output from my creative efforts. And, tactically, I need to know how to get the very best out of my creative friends.

    The Lie about Negativity

    Our society has bought into positivism. I think of it as the Oprah-fication of America.

    I recently saw an appeal from a dad looking for a basketball league for his son which actually kept score. In lots of children’s sports leagues every child is told they are a winner just for trying and every kid is a given a trophy at the end of the year. They are fed a lie that it’s OK to be mediocre, that everyone is a winner, that keeping score isn’t helpful, and that the point of sports is exercise and not the pursuit of victory.

    What a load of crap. That’s not how life works and that’s not what makes sports great. We are flat out lying to those children in a false belief that we need to positively reaffirm every effort. Some kids should quit basketball at a young age because they suck at it. They should move on to something else instead of being handed a trophy simply for trying. It’s actually cruel to reward someone for doing poorly because you are telling them they are better than they are.

    Adults do the same thing. Millions of people believe that if they just looked at the positive side of things and denied the impact of incompetence or incapability or just a flat out lack of talent, that they should always go for what they are dreaming about and it will come true.

    The education bubble is built on this lie. Every student should not go to college. But there is an entire industry of people lying to students and telling them that every child should go to college. Universities rake in billions of dollars in student loans every year as a direct result of this lie.

    The truth about negative feedback

    I’ve been reflecting on the research of Nancy Andreasen, a University of Iowa neuroscientist, who has researched the role of negativity in creatives. One powerful insight, and one that really helped me, was an experiment conducted to show the positive impact on the output of creatives given negative feedback. (Discovered this in this book by Wired contributor Jonah Lehrer.)

    In one experiment a group of subjects was asked to first make a presentation about their career ambitions and then, after receiving feedback from a group of students, create a collage about their career choice. The students were asked to give some subjects positive feedback and others were told to seem disinterested, display negative body language, and verbally give negative feedback.

    Interestingly, those subjects given negative feedback in the first step created much better collages in the second step than those who got positive feedback initially. The negative feedback made some subjects work far harder to produce a far better end product.

    That’s exactly true in my work as and with creatives. This is why we consistently seek out peer review of our work. That’s why we suffer through a self-editorial and formal editorial process. And that’s why I rarely accept a first effort.

    Again, lets give up being nice for the sake of being kind.

    What do you think? Is receiving negative feedback making you better?

  • Come Dream with Us in Atlanta

    The season of youth ministry, from 2007 – 2012, has been an extremely difficult time for those in vocational youth ministry. There have been a couple of major forces at play which have left our tribe discouraged, shell-shocked, and struggling to dream about what’s next for their ministry.

    • Going into the recession there was a lot of re-thinking of youth ministry going on, both from those who were in youth ministry and [more importantly] those who were making decisions about continuing to fund it. As thousands learned… this meant that many churches were ready to pull the plug and try something else.
    • Many churches were unprepared to handle the economic downturn. They had expanded their budgets during good times and been slow to respond when the recession hit. I can’t tell you how many youth workers got sucker punched by a budget cut that included their salary and their ministry. Too many wonderful youth workers are left sitting on the sidelines and asking God, “Um, what happened?”

    If you’ve made it. If you’re still in this thing. And if you know in your gut that God has called you to youth ministry (even if you don’t have a job in a church anymore) than you are probably like Marko and I… ready for the next season to begin.

    Dreamers Wanted

    We are hopeful. We believe that the best days of youth ministry are yet ahead. And we think it’s time to come together and dream, celebrate, get refreshed, ideate, and ask God to reveal to us what this next season of youth ministry should look like for each of us.

    We don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, we’re more convinced than ever that there isn’t “an answer” but instead “many answers” to leadership in this new season.

    The Summit is a celebration of this hopefulness.

    We’re bringing together 18 presenters– all high quality leaders, some of whom you know and some of whom you don’t know, and asking them to present a series of short 15 minute-ish talks as we look at where we’ve been as a tribe, where we are at today, and what’s possible in this amazing life calling.

    But it’s not just talking heads. There will be time to interact with people like you. There will be time to interact with the presenters. And there will be time to interact with the Holy Spirit as you get out of your normal routine and ask God to help you dream new dreams about your ministry.

    Why Am I Talking About This?

    The Summit is on my mind a lot right now because our early bird deadline for registration is this Friday at midnight. Since we announced it in the Spring we’ve heard from lots and lots of people that they love it and want to be a part of it. Well… it’s time to be a part of it!

    We’ve got some great incentives for you to register by Friday.

    • Registration prices go up by $20 on Saturday, so you save money by registering early.
    • You’re automatically entered to win an iPad from The Youth Culture Report. (This is a different contest than the one on our Facebook page.)
    • You’ll get MP3’s of all the presentations for free after The Summit.

    Yes, I’m asking you to attend. Yes, I may be asking you to rearrange your schedule a little. Yes, I might be asking you to spend money you hadn’t planned on spending.

    Yes to all of that. And thank you.

  • Developing New Skills

    “Um, I went to Bible College. I have a degree in youth ministry.”

    I find myself saying that a lot when I’m frustrated. Sometimes when things aren’t going well on a project I suddenly feel way, WAY outside of my training.

    • I’m not an event planner! Right now I’m in full-on event mode, deep into producing Open Seattle and The Summit. (Less so the Middle School Ministry Campference.)
    • I’m not a video producer! But I’ve put together a bagillion videos lately for various Cartel things.
    • I don’t have a design degree. But, of course, I’m doing tons of work in Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Final Cut, etc.
    • I am not a programmer. But I’m spending a lot of time coding in php, developing WordPress themes and even trying my hand at plugins.
    • I’m not an accountant. But being a small business owner is forcing me to do things that I just pray don’t get me in trouble with the IRS.

    The list goes on and on.

    And the opposite is also true.

    • I pretty much took the summer off from youth group, I can’t think of the last time I did that and it felt really, really weird.
    • I rarely teach up front anymore, something 5 years ago I would have told you was one of my best skills.
    • While I wrote a curriculum earlier this year, I used to write 2-3 lessons per week.
    Of course, I’m using so many of the skills I’ve acquired over the years. I don’t look at it as replacing skills, more like adding to them.

    I guess the point is that I can’t get caught up on relying on the skills I already have to get to the dreams I have for tomorrow. The skills I have already will only  take me where I am today. To get to where I need to go I need to learn more.

    What are new skills you are learning to achieve your dreams? 

  • Be Kind, Not Nice

    I think Christians are too nice.

    Go to church, any church, and everyone is nice. Big smiles and hand shakes for everyone. Some churches hug a lot. Perfect strangers hugging. Lots of perfect strangers hugging.

    They kind of mash all of the fruits of the Spirit into one thing… being nice.

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

    Galatians 5:22-23

    I think many Christians confuse nice with kindness.

    • Kindness speaks the truth even if it hurts a lot, nice just lets you keep living a lie in hopes you’ll figure it out.
    • Kindness sits you down and listens to your pain, nice adds you to the prayer list or gives an empathetic response with no follow-up.
    • Kindness invests in a young leader for the long haul, nice smiles as you fail.
    • Kindness invites you over for dinner, nice says, “Good to see you.”
    • Kindness tells you when your idea sucks, nice wishes you well without believing in you.
    • Kindness gives you space to grow, nice expects you to gloss over the yucky parts.

    This list could go on for a while but the point is clear: Nice isn’t a biblical virtue, kindness is.

    When I describe a neighbor as “nice” it really means that I don’t know them all that well. “Oh, they’re nice…” That means they smile and say hello as I walk by with my dog. Or that means that they turn their light on at Halloween.

    I’ve found that my best friends aren’t always nice, but they are kind to me. They tell me the truth no matter what. They listen when I’m hurting. They invest in me beyond what I can do for them. They make time for me. They tell me when my ideas suck instead of letting me fail. They expect me to grow and give room/time for that to happen.

    But people in my life who I’m just nice with? Yeah, none of that is consistently true.

    As I reread the Gospels this summer I was overcome by this reality: Jesus wasn’t all that nice, but he was deeply kind.

    There’s a difference. Nice rips a whole in the Gospel and backfills it with religious jargon and feel good sand. Kindness stops you in your tracks, bandages your wounds, heals your dysfunction, pisses you off with its truth, confronts the lies of those in charge, and charges forward towards a new Kingdom reality.

    Oh, that we would be a people of kindness!

    Prayer: Lord, make us Christ followers who are kind. Help us forsake the nice for the full power of the Gospel in our lives, families, and ministries. Amen.