Tag: help

  • 3 Ways to Help McLane Creative Get Off the Ground

    A few days ago I relaunched the website for McLane Creative to highlight a new thing I’m doing.

    It’s called the Concierge Service. It’s a flat fee deal which helps bloggers take their blog/personal brand to the next level.

    What’s cool about it is that it’s helping people all the way around. I’m helping bloggers. And since I’m hiring a couple other youth workers to help with the work, its helping them feed their families. On top of that, for every blogger I help with this service I’m investing $25 in another entrepreneur through Kiva.org. That’s 3 kinds of help! Crazy.

    I’m wondering if you could help me out? Could you help me spread the word about this new service to as many people as possible?

    Here’s 3 ways you can help:
    1. Download my 1-page description of the Concierge Service and email it to a couple people you know who blog. http://mclanecreative.com/Concierge-Service-for-Bloggers.pdf
    2. Go to http://www.mclanecreative.com/, scroll to the bottom and “like” the home page of my new site. That will make McLane Creative show up in your timeline.
    3. Go to http://facebook.com/mclanecreative and like my business page.

  • 5 Ways to Fight Loneliness in Leadership

    It’s lonely at the top.

    For those who work in the church, we all know it. Those who make it for the long haul either succumb to a lifetime of loneliness and don’t have any real friends or we learn to adapt and find deep connection outside the walls of the church.

    But loneliness doesn’t have to be a part of the job. You really can have deep friendships and be in full-time ministry.

    Acquaintance vs. Friendship

    The first few years I worked at churches I confused church members hospitality with true friendship. Sure, I really enjoyed being close with people in the church… but at the end of the day (and certainly in retrospect when you step away from a church) a lot of those people I thought were my friends turned out to be just positional acquaintances. As soon as I stopped being their Pastor Adam they stopped wanting to hang out. Once I stopped investing in their kids there were no more invitations to dinner, golf, and BBQs.

    Of course, we have been able to transition a few of those church acquaintances into true lifelong friendship. (For which we’re totally thankful!) But I think getting there took some time and wisdom.

    A spouse helps but doesn’t really count

    Kristen is my best friend. That goes without saying. But Kristen could never fill the void I needed in ministry as a friend and confidant. When I meet with people young in ministry, I often see them putting their spouse in the friend category. Of course, your spouse will help you curb loneliness! But don’t forget your spouse needs to find true friendship outside of you, as well.

    So, what works?

    Here are five things that helped me get past loneliness and find some healthy friendship while in church leadership.

    1. Find a ministry network locally. Believe it or not, there are people just like you in your own community! Joining a network is a great way to meet people. Go a couple of times, see who you connect with, then take the first step and take that one person out to lunch.
    2. Join a sports club or league. I don’t mean a church league either. Join a league and get outside of your church social circle. Get to know contractors and realtors and other normal people.
    3. Connect with long-time friends intentionally. Some of my best friends in ministry, I only see once or twice per year. The few days we spend together per year are awesome and fill up our tanks. Going to the same conference really helps. But even meeting up for a weekend somewhere goes a long way.
    4. Ignore other leaders who live unhealthy lives. For whatever reason, church ministry attracts workaholics. Looking through job postings at YS I can’t believe how many of them will admit that they want someone to work more than 40 hours per week. Don’t work at those ministries. Go home on time. Make wise use of your ministry time and you’ll have tons of time for real friendship. Never forget that its Jesus’ job to grow the church.
    5. Take the first step! I think I spent over a year completely lonely and out of my mind crazy because I was waiting for fellow ministry people in my community to come find me. It’s not going to happen. The assumption is always going to be that you are busy and your life is full of relationships until you step out first.

  • Support my Haiti trip

    I would greatly appreciate any financial support you can help us with as we head back to Haiti to lead a team on July 19-25. As I mentioned in the video– we are trying to offset these expenses so we can not only honor God with our service but also our financial stewardship at the same time. If you’d prefer to mail a check, here is a link to our Chip page which has our address.

  • 1.5 Million Still Homeless in Haiti

    In a city of 3 million people roughly half are still homeless four months after the earthquake.

    Why is a country, once rich in natural resources, a nation whose slave population rose up and defeated Napoleon’s army for independence, and given aid for generations by rich nations like the United States and France, still steeped in such poverty?

    The answer is simple: Corruption.

    There is corruption at every level of government. There are oppressors and the oppressed. And the people with social status to do something about it? Their idealism is often overcome by greed.

    Even the relief aid workers who have gone— too many have succumbed to temptations. Too much talk, too much skimming, and not enough work getting done.

    According to this New York Times editorial, only 7500 of the 1.5 million left homeless have been moved to a resettlement site. Not even a permanent home.

    The cameras are gone. The news attention is now fixated somewhere else. (On the gulf oil spill.) The American publics attention, like that of a mosquito, is looking for the next story that bleeds.

    $1.5 billion in aid was given. About $1000 per person displaced. [In a nation where the average family makes under $200 annually] And yet no one has a new place to live. Tents? Yes. Homes? No.

    7500 people resettled. 1,492,500 still sleep on the ground tonight. Mothers will lay down their babies on dirt, under a tarp with your countries name on it in tent cities that would make your knees buckle when you see them.

    I’ve heard snarky Americans say, “Why is Haiti our problem?” Or “Won’t our help just further the problem?”

    Haiti is our problem. We have funded the corruption. We have turned our attention away from the corruption there… we’d prefer to not think about it. We have stood by and gotten rich off of their natural resources. We have gleefully paid unfair wages to their workers for generations so that we can buy socks at $2.99 for six pairs.

    And while we wear their socks their children sleep on a piece of cardboard under a tarp tent with “USAid” flapping 12 inches above their face.

    Shame on us.

    Why can’t Haiti fix its own problems? Why can’t people just move? Why can’t they just go get jobs? Why can’t they rebuild their own homes?

    My reply to that is plain: Why don’t you go to Haiti and discover the answers to those questions for yourself. If the problem is so simple– why not go and fix it?

    This much I know. This I can assure you. One day a poet will rise up from the squaller of a tent city and cry out:

    How long, how long must we sing this song?

    One day the shame of our inaction will get to us. We will pay $100 to watch this poet pronounce shame and guilt on us for our inaction to a stadium of people who nod their heads in agreement.

    While your children sleep safely in their beds tonight I want you to think of this song…

  • Support Holistic Youth Ministry in San Diego

    kathy-phamI’m a part of a team at my church trying to figure out how to create a holistic youth ministry right here in San Diego. What exactly is a holistic youth ministry? Well, we don’t know just yet! But our vision is to architect a ministry that is good news to the urban working poor students in our neightborhood. We know that in our neighborhood we can just talk about good news, we have to bring good news to them. So our ministry will be teaching the Bible, aggressively sharing our faith, providing academic support, family services, and based on what we’ve heard from the first 3 weeks of our ministry… some sort of justice seeking mission. (Helping to right wrongs caused by oppressive situations, manipulative landlords, harsh government officials, and other fun things like that!)

    Obviously, I’ve got a full time job already. (As do the other 3 people volunteering) And getting something like this off the ground is a Herculian task. That’s why I’m stoked that our church has brought on Kathy Pham to lead this project that is crazy enough to change the world. She came here first as a summer mission intern– but we begged her to stay and transform those relationships with high school students into our launch of a youth minsitry.

    This idea was born just 6-7 weeks ago. We started with a handful of kids, no building, , no team, no concrete plan, and of course no money. So here we are: We’ve got a plan, a team, a building, a growing number of kids… and now we need some people to get behind Kathy so we can fulfill the fullness of what holistic youth ministry in San Diego can look like.

    Two ways to support:

    1. Support Kathy. Pure and simple. She’s the practitioner. We need someone out, on the ground, making this thing happen. She needs to raise $40,000 per year. And quick. [download id=”4″]

    Kathy has set up some times where you can meet her and here her presentation:
    October 18th: Vietnamese/English Presentation in Santa Ana, 6pm
    October 24th: English Presentation in Anaheim Hills, 6pm
    November 8th: English Presentation in City Heights, 6pm
    Any Day: English Presentation at wherever you would like to meet, any time:)

    2. Let us pick your brain. We’re looking to learn from others doing urban, holistic ministry. If you’re doing it… let me know. Our team is commited to learning from others.

  • Pointing towards Captain Obvious

    I love this video for two reasons. First, the guy teaches a skill that I didn’t know but would have saved me a lot of time and frustration. How many times have I laid out a 100 foot extension cord and spent 20 minutes untangling it? Second, I love how this guy almost talks down to the audience. You can imagine what’s going on in his head, “You idiots don’t know how to do this?”

    Intuitive is not Intuitive to Everyone
    Yesterday, I went on a bike ride with Megan. She’s a little late coming to the bike riding club, but she took of the training wheels yesterday and just got it. As she zoomed around the park I rode behind her sharing some encouragement and advice. To her it seemed counter-intuitive that by riding faster she was able to go straight easier. I tried my hardest to not talk down to her because I know she’s like me… she’d rather figure it out on her own than have me telling her.

    It’s really the same for any new skill. There is a master teacher, who does it more by intuition than being aware of each step. And there is the learner who has to wrestle his mind and body through the steps. You get through it once, it’s usually slow and tough, and it gets a little easier until you master it.

    Chances are that you’ve mastered a skill that you just do intuitively and that there are others who marvel at it. The trick is, getting intuitive at handing over those skills.

  • Weekly Column Ideas

    Over at Youth Ministry Exchange I’m going to be starting a weekly column. The question is, what should I write about?

    I don’t think it should be just general youth ministry stuff. Let’s face the fact that right now I don’t have a lot of up-to-the-moment experience that is going to be useful.

    For a long time I’ve wanted to do a “Dear Adam” kind of thing where people sent me ministry-related questions and I had fun replying to them. Kind of like Dear Abby for pastors.

    I could do something on adolescent trends. I could do technology stuff. I could do interviews with ministry people.

    But mostly I want to know what you think it should be? Please share your ideas in the comments. My hope is to write a few of these between now and the end of the year so the column can begin the first week of January.