Tag: rewards

  • Freebies for registering early – The Summit

    This week we opened registration for The Summit. This is our brand new, TED-like, national youth ministry event. [Here’s the announcement]

    And, as excited as I am about The Summit, this post isn’t really about the event itself so much as it’s about the type of ministry organization we want to be.

    Here is a phrase from the announcement:

    We have lots of freebies to reward you for registering early. Why? Because we think early adopters should get the most rewarded. (Duh!)

    You might not know this but that is an upside down methodology within the marketing world. For instance, I get regular emails from Southwest Airlines offering me great deals from San Diego to the places I visit most often. But why is Southwest offering me those special prices? Because the market isn’t buying them at their regular fare price, so they’ve discounted them to try to entice me to buy low. And it works! I’ve actually booked trips I wouldn’t have booked simply because the flight cost was so low!

    But, for me at least, I would like to think about The Youth Cartel as the type of organization who rewards our most loyal folks with the best possible deal. We’ve done it in some small ways by offering pre-order specials on books and curriculum and gotten a great response.

    For The Summit — we’ve ramped that WAY UP to make it so that the people who register first get the absolutely best deal on price & rewards. Our early bird price is valid all the way through August but if you register in May you’re going to get all sorts of stuff for free that people who register in September won’t get. (Or will have to pay for.)

    • An invite to our private Friday night after party
    • A vote for who gets to speak in the soapbox session
    • Video downloads of every session
    • One registration to a pre-event session
    • Entered in a raffle to win things like… free lodging, car rental, and other fun stuff we’ll dream up.
    • MP3 downloads of every session
    And then, as we get closer to the event these rewards start to go away. So folks who register now get the best possible deal and those who wait get a little less.

    So that’s my theory. What do you think? Is it a crazy theory? Do you think it’s better to go the traditional way and discount stuff when it doesn’t sell?

    And… are you planning to attend The Summit? We’re hearing from youth workers all over who are planning to come, which is rad! Are you registered yet? If not, what are you waiting for?

  • Reward yourself

    The reality is that no one is going to give you the rewards you deserve. You do so much for others that goes unnoticed. You sacrifice so many things that only Jesus knows about. And in doing so you grow weary. And if you don’t take care of yourself there is a 100% chance you’ll give up, morally fail, or just plain quit.

    So sometimes you need to reward yourself.

    Celebrate your own victories.

    Give yourself a day off.

    Buy yourself the book you are wanting to read.

    Take a class to learn something new.

    Give yourself a month from paying down your debt to go on vacation.

    And leave the guilt at home.

    You aren’t being selfish by rewarding yourself. In a way, it’s selfish to not reward yourself.

    Jesus was the suffering servant. (Isaiah 53) You aren’t. If your life’s pace has you constantly feeling like you give, give, give and you never take some time to take care of yourself… you might just be addicted to serving.

    Even Jesus took time to rest, reflect, and relax along the way.

    Your work is important. It’s so important that you need to pace yourself for life’s marathon.

    So, if it’s been a long time and you haven’t been rewarded for your faithful service. Take 5 minutes and think about a way to reward yourself.

    “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:23

  • Introducing lent to the kids

    Introducing lent to the kids

    Kristen and I decided to introduce lent to our church hating, Awana loving kids.

    Our kids aren’t game for anything. I get jealous when I go to my friends house and their kids would walk across the desert for a glass of water just because mom or dad said it’d be fun and meaningful. My kids are the exact opposite. I pitch going to Sea World on a Saturday and they glibly respond, “OK. I guess. There isn’t any good TV on today anyway.”

    Knowing that– we still had this crazy idea of bringing our kids into our observance of lent.

    Here’s how I did it.

    Jelly beans. Yup, jelly beans.

    On Sunday, I made a secret trip to Rite Aid and came back with a big 2 pound bag of fresh, delicious Brach’s jelly beans.

    Then I waited for them to be in a good mood. A good & hungry mood, that is. After school on Monday was perfect. Both of them were chipper when I picked them up from school (rarity) and yesterday’s lunch at school must have been especially nasty because they were starving for snack.

    On the way home I got them thinking. “Hey, have you ever heard of lent? Not lint like on your clothes… lent, the 40 days before Easter.”

    That got them thinking a little and asking questions about lent. By the time we pulled into the driveway they were curious and I had dropped hints that mom and dad wanted to talk about a lent challenge and that it had a reward on Easter Sunday.

    Mom had hot buttery popcorn waiting for them. They grabbed a handful and started to munch. I interrupted them, “Hey, why don’t you guys go to the bathroom and stuff and come back. We’ll have a snack and talk about lent.”

    My jaw dropped. They were into it!

    They came back into the kitchen and sat around our little island. That’s when I brought out the jelly beans. Their eyes got huge! They didn’t see that coming.

    Hook, line, and sinker… let’s reel them in.

    After that we talked about what lent is, why people observe it, why its important to sacrifice something important to us in preparation for Easter, etc.

    The whole time we’re chatting they are munching on popcorn & jelly beans. The treats were the oil that is lubricating this conversation! This was reinforcing the kinesthetic learning in lent while talking about why lent was a connection between our 40 days of sacrifice and Jesus’ 40 days in the desert.

    “Mom and dad are each going to give up something important to them for lent. We’d really like you guys to think about giving up something important, too. It’ll be a great way for you to prepare your heart for Easter.” Then we talked about silly things to give up, like foods we don’t like or impossible things to give up like peeing or breathing. And we asked them if they thought other kids at school were going to give something up for lent. They didn’t know… so we asked them to ask around, because a lot of kids give up things for lent.

    We ended our talk with a simple challenge. “Let’s talk tomorrow about what you want to give up. We aren’t going to tell you what  you should or shouldn’t give up. So think hard about it. Each of us will give up something different. And the only one who is really going to know if you’ve cheated is you. (And God) Lent starts on Wednesday.”

    I know this is a simple thing. 5 minutes. But for us, not having a lot of success at introducing Jesus into our family beyond praying for meals occasionally and going to church, this was a big success. Totally worth celebrating! And totally building our confidence.

    Parenting + spiritual formation? Yes, we can do this!

    Update: Click here for free, downloadable lent signs for your house

  • Awana, I wanna apologize

    O, Awana.

    How I’ve hated ye all of these years. I’ve hated your uniforms. I’ve hated the cult-like dedication adults seem to latch onto you, especially at budget time.  I’ve hated how you eat up more volunteers than any other ministry. I’ve hated that parents seem to think their newly adolescent children would rather carry books and earn badges instead of drinking soda, singing songs, and listening to my expertly crafted Bible talks. And I’ve hated your reward-based curriculum. Did I mention I hated your uniforms?

    I hated you until you worked for my family.

    Awana, I wanna apologize. I was wrong about you. You’ve brought about three good things in my family that I want to tell you about.
    1. Free date night. Let’s be honest. The fact that you have a ton of adults willing to watch my kids for two hours (for free!) on a Wednesday night is amazing. There’s a lot of people trying to tell me that I’m a bad parent because I want to drop my kids off. They have mantras like, “No drop-offs. Stay with your kids.” Do those people actually HAVE KIDS? And do those people know how hard it is to find a good babysitter at a price a brother can afford? I’m just sayin… I get two hours of unrestricted time with Kristen a week. Bam!
    2. Bible smackdown. OK, so this isn’t technically part of your program. But it has become a fun Wednesday night tradition in the McLane household. My kids love to wrestle. And I love to defeat them. Now when we wrestle before Awana starts we use their weekly Awana verse  as their way to get out of a pin. I’ll put Paul into a full nelson and to get out of it he goes, “Romans 3:23! For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!” And I say, “That’s right.” Which is McLane for amen.
    3. Learning to love Jesus one piece of candy at a time. As a lover of the Bible, a lover of theology, and a lover of human behavior… I have to admit that bribing children to memorize Scripture in exchange for candy and badges makes me cringe. After all, grace is free right? A relationship with Jesus costs more than a piece of candy, right? As an adult, I’ve wrestled with my children developing a conditional relationship with God where we exchange rewards for knowledge. But I have to tell you… it works! My kids hate church. But they love candy. If running around playing games, memorizing Bible verses, and wearing a silly costume means they are going to earn three pieces of candy and positively associate a life with Jesus with something yummy, I guess I’m for it. I wanted to hate you but you are so developmentally appropriate for my kids in this stage in life that I can’t.

    In closing. I just want to say that I’m thankful for Awana on Wednesday nights. And I’m doubly thankful that it’s not at my church so I’m not getting asked to help.

    Apologetically yours,

    Adam