When I got there with Macy, she immediately headed out to the dance floor, cast and all. I texted Jen, that she’s just like her mom – dancing with all her friends (just like Jen always does). I got a text back from Jen saying that “Miles is just like you, he loves the previews”. I laughed out loud – I DO love the previews, almost as much as the movie!

It’s so important for us to spend times like tonight with our kids, letting them know how much we love them, how important they are to us. Kudos to RCS for hosting this dance – I’ll be looking forward to it for years to come with Macy. And I’m blessed to have a wife that loves being a mom – she’s such a good mom!

PS – Jen didn’t like Shrek and doesn’t recommend it.

Last weekend I took Miles hiking for the second time with Don and Andrew up in Idyllwild. It was, as Don put it, the “perfect day” for a hike. Don is a pastor at Rancho Community, a mentor, and collaborator. I’ve learned a ton from him over the past year and relish the time that we can spend together. We’ve talked a lot about being fathers, raising sons, and being purposeful in that job. So this trip was more about spending time with them, loving them, watching them have fun, challenging them to make it all the way up and down – the adventure. It’s something hopefully they will remember, more importantly they will remember that they did this with their dads.

We’re not trying to program parenting or fatherhood – we’ve just decided to try and live life more together, to naturally allow our boys to experience these times together, with the hope that we can set them on a course for becoming men, and the hope that we can encourage each other to be great dads.

I’m sure there’s more articulate ways to say all that, but that’s all I got.

As we headed up, one of the “rules” we gave the boys was “don’t get wet”. This winter was crazy for southern California and there’s still snow at 7-8,000 feet. So we knew there would be water. Of course, at the first creek crossing, Miles slipped and fell in. He was fine – a good lesson for us all, that we are all capable of falling, but the true measure of a man is that he get’s up, dry’s himself off and forges ahead, which is exactly what Miles did.

When we got to the top, Don broke out his cooking gear, made the boys some hot chocolate, and made us some espresso. We spent what seemed like a couple hours talking about life & ministry as the boys ran all over Saddle Junction. It was amazing how they just ran all over, spying, exploring, throwing snowballs – they just got to be boys.

We’re looking forward to our next trip, maybe an over-nighter, who knows. What matters is that there’s still adventure and we’ll have it with our boys.

Well, she’s done it again. Our poor little Macy broke her foot – she fell off her bike yesterday. So instead of going to Rancho Community today, we went to Rady Children’s Hospital (@radychildrens)in San Diego – a place we know too well. Technically this is her third break (and she’s only 4); She’s going to drive her parents nuts! Here’s her first beak and her second.

Thanks for all the prayers, tweets, facebooks & text messages – it means a lot. She’ll be in the cast for a couple weeks, then follow up, and hopefully she’ll be out so she can swim soon!

Designed by Alex McLean for Rancho Community Church

Today’s message from @scotttreadway was powerful for us. We talked about it afterwords, how we really need to think through some of the points – just let it sink in. Blogging is one way for me to do that, so here’s my (somewhat scattered) notes:

Children are a Sacred Gift from God

• They are of unspeakable value (the Earthly ministry of Christ: he loved children, Psalm 139)

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

• They are given without cost to us (although children cost money, we payed nothing for them)
• Their lives will have eternal consequences (not sure if I got this one right on the notes – point being the way they are raised will impact them them forever)
• They will radically shape our lives (and we theirs)
• They require a tremendous amount of effort (parenting is a job)
• They come with a ton of help (God’s Word, his community – the church)
• We have to give them back (they don’t belong to us)

Don’t Break the Gift

• Divorce breaks children
• Abuse breaks children
• Harsh words break children
• Ignoring them breaks children

Do this

• Pray for your children

Idea for a prayer for your children (pray for them by name)
Lord, these children belong to you…
You love them more thank I do…
You know them more intimately than I do…
You gave them more than I can ever give them…
You’ve ordained me to pastor these children…
I need your help…

• Spend time with them (lot’s of time)
• Set a good example
• Teach them (Prov. 22:6)

⁶ Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Pour your life into pastoring your children…

We are pastors, we are shepherds, they are our flock…

So, that was the message this Mother’s Day morning @ranchocommunity. Pretty heavy stuff. I know personally, I struggle with being a good parent. Ugh, I can’t even say it right – I, we want to be pastors to our kids, their shepherds. We want to raise them to know how valuable they are, so they make wise choices with their lives. We want to teach them about the love and grace of our loving father, who daily gives us mercy.

We know we’ve got a lot to learn, at the very least we are getting some good tools to use. I’ll close this post with this verse that we want to use to direct our family:

⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Jen’s doing great, the kids are excited, and we just moved into a house with an extra bedroom to accommodate the little one. (note: try not to move with a pregnant wife).

So the picture to the left here is of the baby somewhere around 15 weeks – she’s got her little fist up next to her chin, if you can make that out. Pretty awesome!

Yesterday we went into Unique Ultrasound in Temecula for another 3D/4D look at the little baby. Side note: You can follow them on Twitter & Facebook – they get it.

It’s amazing what’s going on in there, the miracle of life, and how God is shaping and forming her little body right now.

Check out the video:

Number 3 from alex mclean on Vimeo.

Here’s some snapshot thoughts from Spring Break:

• Started with plans to camp at South Carlsbad
• RV needed new tires and had a water leak = we had to change our plans last minute
• Headed out to the Avi in Laughlin (cuz it’s cheap and has a good pool for the kids)
• Plus about the Avi = free wifi so I was able to do some catching up on google reader, technology, and basically check out some cool un-work-related stuff…
• Anyone mess around with Firefox’s new “Personas“? It’s pretty cool.
• All of the sudden, I am glad I don’t have an iPhone and that my Sprint renewal is coming up in Summer.
• We had a doppleganger of Dexter in the Spa with us the other night = a little freaky.
• The waiter from Birdcage, Agador, works at the Avi Cafe.
• Trying to finish this book, and reading this one for fun.
• I found this lobby display that I’m using as inspiration for a new lobby display at Rancho Community.
• Found a really good article on which online company to use for Photo Books here.
• Does anyone else go to Barnes & Noble and read magazines for hours and take pages of notes? I do; I read Layers Magazine, Photoshop Creative, Mac World, CMYK, etc…
• Excited about heading to Catalyst West Coast next week – who’s going? Will there be a Tweetup #Catwest?
• Easter was awesome! My second Easter not “working”, so we celebrated by volunteering @ranchocommunity. After church we headed over to the Marcelino’s for a great afternoon. Photos are here.
• Macy turned four on April 9th. We celebrated by going to the Original Pancake House with family & friends – thanks everyone who came & made it special! Photos are here.

Lastly (since I’m not regularly blogging), Jen’s Grandpa, Mel Green passed on on Sunday, April 11. I’ll do a post soon with more info on his life, in the mean time, please keep Jen’s family in your prayers.

Thanks for reading!

Every night we pray together as a family, right before bed – it just works for us. To make it a little more interactive, we started the “Prayer Box”. It’s just a little box that we filled with little papers. On each paper is written something to pray about. Right now we’ve got about 12 or so right now and we’ll keep adding to the box as thing come up – things like:

• Our own family
• Our kids teachers & school
• Our church & our pastors and families
• Extended family
• Friends

You get the idea. Each one of gets to pick from the box, and each paper is a “surprise” for us – then we all take turns praying for whatever thing was on our paper. It’s fun watching the kids get excited as they read their slips and so encouraging to hear them pray for others. It’s a habit that we want to instill in them now.
Of course we don’t always do it – some nights we just say a quick prayer, but we’re really trying to get into the habit of doing this every night. I’m looking forward to adding things to our prayer box as our kids grow, things like:

• Global events (disasters, missions, etc. – we want our kids to think bigger than themselves)
• Their future spouses (I know, crazy to think about but it’ll be here soon)
• The Kingdom (We want to teach them that this life is about advancing God’s Kingdom and spreading the Gospel)

So there it is, the “Prayer Box”. What do you do to help your family spend quality time in prayer?

Everyone’s writing (or has written) blog posts about the new year, resolutions, goals, anti-resolutions, etc., etc. It got me thinking about the new year and how I’d like to approach it. So for me there will be no resolutions this year. This year I really just want to be faithful and obedient to what God has already called me to do, and to grow more into the image and character of Christ. And this post is probably more for my benefit than anything else – those closest to me may pray for me and help keep me accountable. I know that together, in community, is where I grow and learn the best, so maybe this will help you as it helps me. So here’s my list of things that I know, without a doubt, God has called me to in 2010.

• Discipline Myself
  Check out 1 Corinthians 9: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

  I guess I can authentically admit, that’s not me right now. I tend to stumble into God’s will for my life – to be honest. God has been gracious beyond measure to me, and to my family. I’m approaching 35 this year and I feel like I might finally be on my way to becoming an adult. But I’ve got quite a bit to tackle. I’d like to be more disciplined in my spiritual growth – rather than on-again, off-again devotions and study. I’d like to pray more specifically, and focus more on hearing God, especially through his word. And not out of duty, but out of a love and desire to grow closer to God and to hear his voice in my life – so that ultimately my life would be just a story of what God is doing and how great he is.

  And of course as I’m getting older, my body is not quite the same as it used to be. Again to be honest, it’s mainly because of my lack of discipline. So in order to honor God, be an example to my family, and of course to impress my wife, I’m working towards taking back control of my body and literally beating it into submission.

• Pastor my Family
  How do I know that God is calling me to this? Just take a look at Ephesians 5 & 6:
  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise – “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

  If I have ever thought that I’m a “good” husband, this verse quickly reminded me of how selfish and self-centered I am. I’ve had this recurring thought in my mind in the past weeks, “How can I serve my wife”. And while I am trying to live that out – after reading that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”, I realized that I am nowhere close to where I need to be in building our marriage to be a picture of Christ and his church.

  And the same goes with being a father. This isn’t an “I suck” post, it’s just a reality check. There’s so much more I need to be doing to truly pastor my children. I need to increase my patience threshold for one thing – some days the kids just drive me nutty. I want them to see their dad becoming more and more like Christ. More loving, more patient, more kind, more selfless, more interested in their world, more consistent, and more caring. I don’t want to tell them how to live – I want to show them.

  A question came up in our staff meeting this week, “Are you Christian at home?” because it seems so easy to be a Christian at church, or at work, or around other Christian friends, but it is in the home where your true character emerges. And that is the place where it is the most important to be Christian because the family is the expression of God’s love and plan for this world.

• Lead at Work
  Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. -Colossians 3:23,24
  This one honestly, and embarrassingly, is the easiest for me. I love what I do – sometimes a little too much, and my family pays the price. So what I’m working on is time-management and balance. It’s really about trust I think; do I trust that God is in control? A lot of times I act like he isn’t.

  I do though, have a monumental task facing me this year at work: Rebranding a school – new logos, new website, new look & feel, updating all the paperwork and sharing vision with the staff, students and families. We’re hoping to increase our enrollment, take our school to the next level, and bring a new fresh sense of customer service and school spirit onto our campus. I will say that we are poised to accomplish these goals because of the gifted staff, the history and establishment of the school in this valley, and great attitudes of willingness to change and grow from our staff and our school families.

I’m looking forward to an amazing 2010 – the best year ever. Not necessarily because of my wonderful family or my job, but because I plan on spending 2010 walking closer with Christ than any year before. And whether he brings success of failure, joy or tragedy, health or sickness, my goal is to glorify him in my life, through my family, and in my work. If you’re the praying type, I’d sure appreciate your prayers throughout the year.

Miles came and woke me up and we ran outside to catch the action. Here’s the video of the balloon landing on our street:

Hot Air Balloon! from alex mclean on Vimeo.

That just doesn’t happen every day…

Rather than fancy writing, I’m just going to mind dump “what’s up” in my life. Here goes:

• Well, just like many of you, the blog has taken second fiddle to Twitter/Facebook.
• I’m not reading blogs & I’m not writing on mine (much).
• If you want me to read your blog, twitter when you post – I’ll try and catch it.
• I love my new job.
• I love my new church.
• I’m stoked that we are partnering with Impact Church to plant Rancho Community Murrieta (looks like I’m right back into church planting).
• Miss my buddy Vince – but stoked that he has a new job!
• I’m currently watching “America’s Got Talent”, and like I said a year ago, it should be called “America’s Got NO Talent”.
• I’m designing a ton, including a brand new website for Rancho Community – working with @worshiptechie on it; he’s making it work (we’re using Drupal in case anyone is wondering).
• Working with my buddy Trasier on a project called “TasteofTemecula.net” (I hate capitalized letters in URL’s…)
• Took the kids to UP – a great movie, probably over their heads (yes, that was a pun).
• Reading “Life Together” by Bonheoffer – blowing my mind.
• Finished “What is a Healthy Church” by Mark Dever - a good little read, challenging for church planter yahoos (like me).
• Got to play drums 3x’s in the past couple months for @rkweblog, @tysonmorlet, and @ericbeeman.
• Miles is now headed to First Grade – it will be his first time going to school 5 days a week, all day (he turns 7 in September!).
• I’m so blessed that I get to work at the same school that both my kids go to (yes, I work at the church and the school).
• I’m seriously struggling with envy every time I look at my phone – I want a Palm Pre.
• I started the year reading through the Bible chronologically. I failed.
• I think I’m going to do the Read the Bible in 90 days.
• Out of nowhere, I’ve been having high blood pressure; usually I’m 110/70 with a heart rate of 50. Two weeks ago I was 160/70/50, this week I’ve been 130/70/50. Went to the doc and she said to stop drinking coffee, exercise more, and watch it for a month. Attempting all three, so we’ll see.
• Been trying to get inspired by looking at other designers – lots of delicious tagging going on.
• I met a guy who brews his own beer – after our conversation, I walked away with 2 “how to” books, which are incredible. There may be a “McLean Triple Chocolate Stout” on the horizon.
• I’m excited to be going to the Antioch School of Ministry starting in the fall – in four years I’ll be able to say I’ve been educated.
• We moved, again. This time out to the Temecula Wine Country. We’re on 5 acres of wine grapes – everyone is super stoked – fits us like a glove, since both Jen and I pretty much grew up together in Wine Country (Ok, I didn’t really grow up with her, but we’ve been together for over 15 years).
• We currently have no Cable, no phone, and (gulp), no internet. That’s right. I’ve been tethering my phone when I need to get online. (We do get about 4 TV stations).
• I’ve gotten back on the Mountain Bike about 3 times in the last couple weeks – feels good. For those that don’t know, I used to be a pretty adamant biker (& surfer).
• Jen and I are currently reading “Shepherding Your Child’s Heart” by Tripp. We have a huge desire to be great (not good) parents. If you pray for us – pray that we would love & shepherd our children like God does his.
• I’m getting tired of having only “Christian” friends (no offense to you who are). I need to do some things to get out of the church/christian bubble – Christ’s command was to go out, into the world.
• Pastor Scott is teaching through Isaiah over the next few weeks – I CAN’T WAIT (and that is not an exaggeration). I think we will get a clearer understanding of God’s plan for Salvation & Redemption.
• I recently went from following over 600 people on Twitter, to a more manageable 150 or so. Life is quieter.
• I’m learning patience from my children and my job. I’ve realized that I am impatient and often motivated by the wrong things. I’m hoping to trust God more and relax.
• I’ve been blessed beyond what I deserve and have every reason to be thankful and joyful – and I intend to live into that more.

Thanks for reading!