@mclanea #MoodyPC is primarily intended for #pastors. #refocus #refresh #equip church leaders. Praise God for other conferences #Heprovides

— Moody Conferences (@MoodyConference) May 15, 2013

Some backstory…

11 years ago this week I graduated from Moody Bible Institute. The moment of walking across that stage, shaking Joe Stowell’s hand, and knowing that I had done it, goes down in history as one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

I had defied every odd stacked against me.

• A family history of poor academics.
• I got to college without having a single useful study skill. I sailed through high school without studying or ever doing homework. Moody was relentless academically and I was ill-prepared.
• Culturally, I didn’t fit in. I hated the holier than thou sub-culture of some of the students. Hate might not be strong enough. (Fortunately, I wasn’t alone. Many of my best friends in ministry are bonds formed because of our disgust.)
• Academically, I competed against students who had been groomed for Moody. They had lots of exposure to the Bible, theology, and even the vernacular. I constantly played catch-up in the classroom.
• My family support system crumbled during my 2nd year… there was no financial help, not because they didn’t want to but because they had bigger challenges to face.
• A few, low-level Moody employees said vile things to me. Discouraged me from continuing. Told me to quit. Told me I wasn’t the type of student they wanted to invest in. Told me I wasn’t good enough. And I’m not exaggerating. (There were others who encouraged me and kept me going.)
• I returned to Moody as a married student with a full-time job. I worked from 4 am – noon 5 days per week, attending class in the afternoons, for 3 years. My last year I worked 45-55 hours per week, had a 10 hour per week internship, and Megan was a newborn. Every day was a physical and mental challenge.
• Somehow I fulfilled or begged exemption from a huge myriad of undergraduate obligations. I fulfilled as many as I could, but some just weren’t possible.

I am proud to have walked across that stage. No one gave that to me. I earned it. I fought for it.

It was worth fighting for. I wanted to finish. I wanted to learn. And I wanted to stand with the thousands of alumni who love that place, were trained by that place, and gone on to do great things for the Kingdom.

I soaked up my education at Moody like a sponge. They didn’t just teach me stuff. My professors taught me how to think. Brick by brick they built a foundation for not just how to do ministry stuff, but how to minister to people, and more importantly… to deeply understand the questions that define “why” we do stuff.

I share all of that because you need to understand my great respect and love for my alma mater.

Historically, she fits the mold for a place which has helped lead the church. The church desperately needs a ministry training school like Moody.

The Problem She Faces

But she is struggling. She is in trouble. While she has traditionally been a place for all kinds of protestant believers, she’s taken a turn to the right. She’s anchored herself to the tug boat of conservatives pulling her further and further into the dark seas of isolationism and lost her place as a place of neutrality.

Consequently, her alumni are increasingly ostracized and shunned.

Shockingly, those who are being shunned or just flat out ignored are not doing so because they hold views divergent from the historical Moody Bible Institute. Alumni are being pushed away because we’ve taken the very things they taught us and applied it to our ministries in exactly the way we were taught to.

Her alumni, engaged in that for which we were prepared, are left wondering where she is going and why she is acting the way she is acting.

And in the meantime we are left on the outside looking in. We aren’t invited to come and ask questions. We aren’t even responded to. Some have even been officially told to go away, quite literally pushed out the door.

An Example From Yesterday

An early catalyst for the creation Moody Bible Institute was a woman named was Emma Dryer.

There is a men’s dorm bearing her name. So much of the DNA that is Moody Bible Institute reflects Emma’s work. (The video above captures this.)

Moody was an exceptionally progressive place where women received a formal education in preparation for vocational ministry. Long before most Christian colleges and seminaries trained women, Moody Bible Institute was on the forefront. Moody was one of the first colleges in Illinois to admit women. 35 years before women could vote in the United States, they were educated at Moody.

Historically speaking, Moody has been progressive… even cutting edge… on the role of women in the church.

Wherever you go in the world, you will find women trained at Moody Bible Institute, doing Kingdom work as missionaries, teachers, and leaders.

That all began to change in late 1990s. Right around 1999 or 2000 Moody actually added this section on gender roles into their “Moody Believes” statement specifically mandating that women not be prepared for pastoral ministry. (This is the document that every student, staff, and professor signs as part of their connection to the school.)

Previously, they had been silent but largely affirming towards the role of women in the church. As someone who was a student at the time you need to understand how much this new addition to the doctrinal statement divided the campus. The topic dominated the classroom. It was beyond disruptive. Professors– the most powerful voices on campus– were hamstrung, they either complied, keeping their mouths shut, or left their tenured positions.

This was the marking of a huge turn towards conservative isolationism. (At the same time, many  undergrad professors moved on. Some of that was surely related to this gender roles issue. In other capacities it was related to some leading the way on something they coined “Progressive dispensationalism.” It was a course correction to dispensational thinking, one which the board of Moody rejected, further turning the school towards the conservative.)

The point is that for decades Moody was one place within evangelicalism that was progressive on issues of women in ministry. But that course radically turned, became frozen, and is now tailoring a regression on the roles of women in the church while at the same time most evangelicals are embracing the roles Moody is now officially against. (There are TONS of conservative evangelical churches with women in pastoral leadership. It’s not on the edges anymore, it’s a mainstream reality within evangelicalism.)

So that’s why I find it offensive that Moody’s Pastors Conference doesn’t allow women to register to attend.

Women can get their undergraduate and graduate training at Moody. Many go on to pastoral roles. But come back to campus for encouragement, further training, and the common bonds of spending time with fellow pastors? Not allowed!

As their website so clearly describes… women may attend general sessions of the Pastors Conference with their husbands. But they cannot register as an attendee nor can they go to any breakout.

And this is the response I got from Moody’s Conference department about the policy:

@mclanea #MoodyPC is primarily intended for #pastors. #refocus #refresh #equip church leaders. Praise God for other conferences #Heprovides

— Moody Conferences (@MoodyConference) May 15, 2013

So many digs in 140 characters. Women aren’t seen as pastors. They aren’t worth refocusing, refreshing, or equipping as full participants, much less under the title of pastor or leader. And then the arrogance of the last phrase… “Praise God for other conferences… hashtag HE PROVIDES!”

My jaw fell open in sadness when I saw this. I couldn’t believe that someone at Moody thought it was OK to say that. U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E.

Further, their policy makes no sense to me. It doesn’t align with their historical progressive stand on women in ministry. It certainly does not lean into their heritage with historical ties to Emma Dryer or the tens of thousands of women they’ve trained for ministry.

Instead, the attitude that women are secondary in their role within the body of Christ continues to drive a wedge between people who love the Institute and those who refuse to support the degrading of women’s roles.

Join Me in Asking Moody to Lead the Change

Trust me. It would be easier if I just let it go. It’d be easier if I just wrote off Moody. But I love her too much to stand in silence. 

I understand the idea of an institutional preference. (Much more so than poorly constructed proof-texting to create an exclusion of women from pastoral roles.) But I can’t understand an institutional preference which separates you from your historical posture.

So I am continually, out of love and respect, asking Moody to change its policy. I’m asking that they allow women to fully participate in every undergraduate and graduate program. I’m asking that women be allowed as fully registered participants at their annual Pastor’s Conference. I’m asking that they invite women pastors to speak and train both men & women at the conference.

And yes, I’m asking Moody to re-embrace their leadership position on the role of women in the church which proudly supported thousands of opportunities for women to serve the church to their fullest giftedness from the late 19th century until the end of the 20th century.

Until that time, this proud alumni respectfully stands in protest. 

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I’m always impressed how much retail space exploits psychological advantage to prepare people to spend money. I can run into a corner store and quickly grab the 5 items I need. But the same 5 items in our local grocery store? It’s at least 15 minutes as I walk from end to end of that building.

In business, I can think of times I’ve visited offices and noticed that they take advantage of these same things. When I worked at BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, you better believe they designed their entry way to their psychological advantage. A massive, all glass entry with 50 foot ceilings. The entire first floor of the building was open concept so you could see elevators zipping people to various floors, massive escalators with a constant stream of employees looking very busy, and a massive… MASSIVE security desk separating that world from you. (Probably 75 feet long) Every time I hosted a guest for a meeting, when they finally made it to my floor they were completely intimidated.

I guess I wonder why churches don’t do this? (Some do it quite intentionally.) But most churches don’t have a consistent entry point communicating a certain vibe. Even the most “seeker sensitive” space is always a little daunting and intimidating.

I wonder if there’s more we can do? I wonder if, when we host people for 1-1 meetings or the day-to-day business of the church, if we’re even aware of the psychological advantages we have just because we know where to go?

Question: Is your church thinking about this? If so, what are you doing to help prepare people for worship, gathering, or meeting you by the design of your space?

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12!

Mom and dad did our best to suppress saying, “Holy cow. How has it been 12 years? You were just a baby yesterday?!?!!?” Of course, that’s what we were thinking. But such nostalgia is pre-teen uncool.

Celebrating Megan

We’ve asked Megan what she wanted and what she wanted to do with her birthday for weeks. I’d define her response as ambivalent. But Kristen and I took it as a challenge… “Why are you asking me what I want for my birthday, you should know.”

We thought about the things most twelve year old girls seem to be into: Clothes, cell phones, and the pop star du jour. Those are almost laughable when thinking about Megan. She’s not into clothes, none of her friends have a cell phone, and she can’t stand One Direction.

We got her a few simple gifts. Things like a new bike helmet, a dress in her favorite color, and a big jar of Nutella from Paul. We’re also into experiences… so Kristen, Megan, and Paul did the Jungle Ropes course at the San Diego Safari Park. (Which looked like fun. I entertained Jackson while they did that.)

Later, we had a nice dinner outside on the patio followed by an amazing homemade ice cream cake featuring layers of Oreo & fudge sandwiched between vanilla ice cream. Last… we watched the 14 hour Survivor finale before finally crashing at about 11.

Seemed like a good twelfth birthday to me. 

The Year to Come

In some ways, yesterday was holding onto something we may look back on as simple times. The Autumn of childhood is giving way to the dawning of adolescence.

We’re all looking forward to this transition. (We repeat that often, trying to convince ourselves.) Being twelve is awesome. But when you are 12 you want to be 13. And when you’re 13 you want to be 17. We know that as she deals with new things the biggest challenge for us will be adapting our parenting. And we’re preparing ourselves for everything to get just a little more complicated.

But for now she’s holding on. You can see it as she pairs down some of the kid toys but holds on to artifacts. She wants to read books about fairies and adventure… but those books are getting too easy, too. She loves the kids program at church but is excited to go to the middle school youth group.

And for now we’re holding on. We know the sun is setting on her childhood. But we’ll make the most of one more summer of splashing in the waves with mom and dad, building castles in with Paul and Jackson, and sitting down to giggle together watching America’s Funniest Videos and Wipeout.

We’re not quoting Robert Frost, just yet.

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I’m fascinated about things like traffic. People are annoyed about sitting in traffic, driving to work, the lack of free parking. They are also annoyed about traffic in their neighborhoods, the speed of cars, the fact that no one walks anymore, the fact that kids don’t play outside anymore.

And, of course, they are annoyed about the price of gas, the effect of emissions on the environment, and the import culture this creates in a nation who defines itself by its independence.

It’s cognitive dissonance. (Feeling conflict by holding onto competing values.)

But…

• Are these annoyances/frustrations caused by a force beyond our control? No.
• Are these things we can fix? Yes.
• Why don’t we fix them? Because we’re focused on treating symptoms instead of addressing the core problems.

Adding to this fascination? Projects and proposals to remove highways from urban areas. See, doing that actually reduces traffic in the long run and recreates neighborhoods. But how would I get to work? Easy. You don’t.

Equally intriguing questions which look at the macro level about the way our society does things.

I mean… we can’t just tell people to live within walking distance of their work…. can we? I mean… we can’t just tell people that green lights just make people drive faster than a community needs… can we? I mean… to do that I’d have to reshape everything I do. We can’t have that! Or can we? 

I mean… we can’t just change the behavior that’s absolutely driving us crazy…. can we? 

Can we? 

Wait. We can’t?

The post Reclaiming Communities appeared first on adammclane.com.

The Set-Up

I’ve been busy lately. Between traveling a lot and catching up from traveling a lot I’ve missed many important details.

On Tuesday afternoon guys from my high school small group started texting me, “What are we doing tomorrow night?” Then I got text from my co-leaders, “What are we doing tomorrow night?”

I kept thinking to myself, “What are they talking about? We’re going to meet at the church, play some volleyball, eat dinner, and have small groups.”

So I looked at my texts from Brian and it turns out that, and I still don’t know why, last night our small groups did outings instead of the normal routine.

Cool. So I need a plan. And I’ve got no plan.

And now they wanted to know what the plan was.

So I played it off the same way I play it off any time I miss details. “I dunno, what do you wanna do?”  About 5 texts later I realized that I was the one whom they were looking to for a plan. So I went with Plan B, tossing out a plan and making sure everyone was cool with it.

“Let’s go to Chick-fil-A for dinner then sunset cliffs to play soccer.” No one resisted.

In fairness, this wasn’t really a new idea. It’s kind of our families go-to plan for what we do when we don’t know what to do on a Sunday night.

Still, no one resisted.

You’ve Never Been to Chick-fil-A?

5 guys got in my minivan last night. They all had the same question…

Dude in back of van: “Why Chick-fil-A?”

Me: “Because Chick-fil-A is awesome. Duh.”

Another dude: “What is it? I’ve never been there. Just heard of it.”

Me: “It’s chicken sandwiches, sweet tea, and crazy dipping sauces. It’s basically just a fast food place but just a little bit better. If you live in the South, you think of Chick-fil-A the same way we think of In-n-Out.”

First dude: “But isn’t that the place that’s hates gay people?”

Me: “Well, last year there was a big thing in the news about that. Let’s talk about that over some delicious chicken.”

First dude: “I’m not sure I feel good about eating at a place that hates gay people.” 

Mark, my co-leader: “There it is.”

Me: “Wow. Really? I don’t think every person who goes to Chick-fil-A or works there automatically hates gay people. I’d imagine most people just think it’s a good place to eat chicken and the people who work there… well, I don’t think a person working the counter at a fast food place really care about what the owners say.”

First dude: “I still feel weird about it.” 

Me: “Well, I didn’t feel weird about it until now. Geez, thanks. Let’s talk about this over some chicken.”

[awkward silence. turn on radio]

Me: (changing subject voice) “So after we eat our gay-hating-chicken, we’re headed to Sunset Cliffs Park. Anyone been there?”

The Chick-fil-A Effect

This post isn’t about what Chick-fil-A does or doesn’t stand for. I could really care less about that.

The point is that impressions that there is a story about you and your organization that is being told. You can’t control it. And you might not even know what it is unless you and your organization are really intently listening.

Because if all a car full of high school guys knows about your organization is a sound byte from a couple years ago which may or may not be true…

Well, they’ll never care about your chicken or sweet tea or dipping sauce.

Question: Do you know what the sound byte impression of people in your community is about your organization?

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Lots of news from The Summit this morning.

• New video (above)
• New website
• First 13 presenters announced
• And registration opens with a couple sweet deals. (Yes! You can bring your senior pastor for under a buck!)

After months of work I’m itching for some feedback. What do you think about any one of those four items above? 

The post The Summit 2013 appeared first on adammclane.com.

I’m Learning a Lot Everyday

As I was watching this video I couldn’t help but think… how did this happen?

By “this” I guess I mean… 

Every day I’m learning new things, new techniques, new ways of doing something, new ways to connect vision to reality.

Today I’ll build a website for The Summit, an event that Marko and I created last year to help youth workers dream about advancing their ministry in new ways.

Tomorrow I’ll finalize the interior layout for Every Picture Tells a Story, 2013 edition.

Everything about those two sentences are outside of my formal training.

• I went to school to be a youth pastor, not a web developer.
• I studied biblical theology, not the psychology of typography.
• I was taught how to plan small events and retreats, not conferences.
• I went to a school that taught the fundamentals of youth ministry, not advancing anything in new ways.
• My education taught me a lot about books, reading them and not designing them. Much less taking them to market.

What the point?

Your knowledge, experience, skills, and aptitude are preparing you for something new.

This perspective has taught me that what I know got me here but what I’ll learn today will get me there tomorrow, closer to my ultimate goals.

The post The History of Typography appeared first on adammclane.com.

I think most would agree that the church is one of the last places around that you’ll still see the primary/sole mode of teaching/transformation be a lecture-style sermon, monological preaching. Folks in education have been experimenting with different forms of pedagogy for years, and have moved past the “talking head” format for quite awhile now. Sure, there are times in a large lecture-format course where it still makes sense to give information that way – but most students would probably tell you there are more engaging ways to learn and actually have the information stick, than listening to a lecture.

Yet, it’s a safe bet that you can show up at church on a Sunday morning at your typical church, and expect, for the most part, to sit back, listen, hear and be a passive recipient of a worship service, particularly during the sermon.

Source

Why do people go to a church service?

It feels that’s this is the question Adam is really asking.

I don’t think many people in ministry really think about this question. They just know people come to services and never really ask why they come.

Church. This thing we do.

We go to a building once per week to do something so entirely other than anything else we’ll do the rest of the week.

Why do we do it?

• If it’s about teaching… than why do we teach in a way most people don’t actually learn anymore? 
• If it’s about corporate worship… than why do we sing about me and my relationship to God and not we and our relationship to God?
• If it’s sacramental (as Adam hints at)… then why do we (evangelicals) just tack on sacraments to services instead of making the services about the sacraments?

What’s Not at Stake?

At least for me… going to church isn’t optional. It’s something I do in obedience even if I go through a season of not getting it, getting anything out of it, or downright not liking it. I believe, as the author of Hebrews points to, that when we hold on unswervingly, that community life will come back into season for us.

Affirming Experimentation

This is one thing I love about youth ministry. Experimenting with learning styles, worship styles, meeting styles, and all of that is kind of built into our DNA. Last week, I loved Brian’s experiment with putting volunteers in front of their peers and saying… “What would you do in ____ situation?” Many youth groups communicate biblical truth via dialogue, small group teaching, and other things which both help students think critically about stuff and build systems to check-in with them about implementing learning.

My hope for “big church” is that we figure out ways to do that.

My encouragement is, just like we do in youth ministry, foster environments where experiments are OK.

Why do we bother even thinking about this? Don’t forget that in your community 90%-95% of the community simply opts out. It’s not working for them. 

Is that motivation enough?

Photo credit: Church girl by Brittany Randolph via Flick (Creative Commons)

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Ah Creativity. You Ruse.

I totally identified with this talk. Creating + efficiency aren’t always best friends. I’m surprised that in my own process sometimes things come quickly while other times they tend to drag on forever.

A few thoughts on Anne’s thoughts: 

1. I appreciate the concept that every project can… and maybe should… have it’s own creative process. Getting locked into “the way I do it” tends to limit you, especially on a team project. 
2. There’s something to just getting started. The blank page is the worst part of my process. Even if I completely start over 10 times, having something to start with seems to be my key to getting started.
3. Distractions manage you. Like Anne, I sit at a desk most days. Things like social media and a rambunctious toddler distract me from finding creative space. I’ve found that working late at night really helps me shut things down. The key to that then becomes… not working all day.
4. The walkabout. Anne references going somewhere. I’ve learned that just the pure action of going somewhere, the going part, is actually what triggers new ideas. The being somewhere else can either be really productive for me or really distracting because I know that eventually Starbucks closes. For me, running an errand or going out to Starbucks to going for a walk with Kristen can be just as effective.
5. Filling the well. I loved when Anne said, “time, love, and God” will refill your well. But I also think about that through the lens of my task list. The reality is that I need to be the most creative when I have the least time. Projects pile up, one things runs late and bumps into something else, on and on. The trick for me has been learning to fill the well every day just a little bit… which helps me make it to bigger chunks where I can really concentrate on filling the well. (Vacations, stuff like that.)

What did you like about Anne’s talk? What did you disagree with? 

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Ah, the internet debate.

The NASCAR of the web.

Simultaneously enjoyable and infuriating. Dangerous and alluring. Two sides duke it out in a non-face-to-face battle of “intellects.”

I get in my fair share of debates. Not so much because I have super-strong opinions about a lot of things but more because I really enjoy debating stuff. I find that the process reveals a lot about how people think, how they make arguments, and I even learn a lot about myself.

Over the years I’ve learned that there are some ways to instantly lose a debate. These are things that novice debaters do that instantly lose the debate. They are self-inflicted technical knock out blows. When you pull out one of these you’ve moved from debate to making yourself look bad.

4 TKO’s for the Internet Debate

• Compare the opposing view to Hitler. This is level 10 TKO in internet debate. Just don’t do it. You automatically lose when you compare your opponents position to the Holocaust, fascism, the gestapo, or anything Hitler related. Among stupid debate techniques this is the stupidest. And when someone does go there feel free to point and laugh. it’s the equivalent of a boxer knocking himself out by tripping on his shoelace and bashing his face on his wooden stool. 
• The Personal Attack. This is a level 9 TKO. Attack a persons points not their person. I can debate a point of view or a topic, even a side I don’t personally believe, until the cows go home. But I will take my cows home the minute you move a debate from arguing your points to attacking my character. Not only do you lose the debate, I think less of you as a human being when you make things unnecessarily personal. When you’re out of arguments… just say “Well, your mama” instead, OK?
• The Verse-a-Thon. This is level 8 TKO. Please don’t go to a Bible website, search the topic you’re debating, and just start listing verses from the Bible. You look like an idiot and you make Christians look like idiots. Plus, there are far more people who have left church than there are people who go to church… so while you may think that your tossing out 6-8 verses to prove God’s on your side is probably going to backfire. Tactically, you’re just setting yourself up for the “God is love” counter-attack.
• The Ridiculous Hypothetical Situation. This is level 7 TKO. When I see this I try to just navigate the conversation away from it. Tactically, this is how you try to make a very weak point slightly stronger, trying to find “reasonable doubt” for the counterpoint. Some people just insist that I try to imagine some horrible situation, usually involving my spouse or my kids, to see why they hold their position. If a person has to imagine their child being raped or murdered for you to make your point… you lose by TKO. It’s a weak argument that makes you look stupid just for asking.

Of course, myself being a master debater I never use these techniques. Instead, I focus on the things taught to me in my Jedi training manual, and the Vulcan mind meld.

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