Author: Adam McLane

  • Should pastors be formally educated?

    It’s becoming increasingly popular in large churches for pastoral staff positions to be filled with people trained in business skills and not ministry skills. (i.e. They’ve got the title “pastor” and all the perks that go with it, without going to Bible College or Seminary.)

    Let me know what you think about that trend. Vote in the poll below and leave a comment with your thoughts.

    I’m just going to state my opinion up front. I think its a dangerous and scary trend. Particularly with some of these church structures where “pastors” are only accountable to an elder board… made of largely of successful business people who didn’t go to seminary! I think this trend is a reason we’re seeing so much open and proud heresy preached.

  • A visual guide to giving

    CharityWhoCares-3

    HT to Mint

  • Do Ministry Leaders Need a Social Media Presence?

    Photo by Flickr user hoyasmeg (creative commons)
    Photo by Flickr user hoyasmeg (creative commons)

    Seth Godin answers his own question:

    What is the reason social media is so difficult for most organizations? It’s a process and not an event. Events are easier to manage, pay for and get excited about. Processes build results for the long haul. link

    Why do pastors and other church leaders need a social media presence?

    • The world is full of fakes. Because of the public sin of so many who lead large ministries, there is a general suspicion of all people in church leadership.
    • The people in your congregation want to know if you are a fake. They show up, so on some level they believe in you. They are watching your life to validate what you say.
    • The people in your community already think you are a fake. You need to prove them wrong.

    If you need a biblical justification for investing your time and energy in social media, look no further than the incarnation of Jesus. John 1:14 says, “He came and dwelt among the people.” The way church is run today… pastors do not dwell among the people. They dwell among their flock and their offices. (2-3% of the population of your community is hardly “the people.”) Look at the example of all of the Apostles in the New Testament. They all dwelt among the people. Most of them worked vocationally in the cities they ministered in.

    A public presence, 1 hour per week, preaching in front of an audience, is simply not enough of a presence to know if you are fake or not. The fact is, if that’s all people see of you than they know you must be fake.

  • Invisible Bottle Trick

    This is a fun little visual gag. Could be fun to try.

  • That Slimy Boy

    Photo by Jon Ovington via Flickr (creative commons)
    Photo by Jon Ovington via Flickr (creative commons)

    While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:6-7

    The incarnation of Jesus is messy business. Like, the physical act of it. Not pretty. As we approach the sterile corporate approved holiday of Christmas that we celebrate today, maybe we need a step back to remember just how messy Jesus coming to earth really was?

    I don’t know if you’ve witnessed child-birth personally. But I’ve seen it and it isn’t beautiful. It’s popular to say child-birth is beautiful… it isn’t! I don’t know where this notion comes from. It’s interesting, it’s miraculous, I’d even call it cool– but it is not beautiful in the sense of a Monet painting or the Christmas display at Marshall Fields or the Cubs winning the pennant. Child birth is anything but beautiful.

    And modern birth is a lot safer than it was back 2000 years ago. Even in today’s modern hospitals child-birth is still bloody, agonizing, stinky, and otherwise unpleasant. I can’t imagine child-birth outside of a hospital. Maybe you can. But to me it just seems really scary.

    Now put yourself in the shoes of a teenage girl. Away from home, pregnant for the first time… and your water breaks. Wonderful. Labor and delivery of Jesus was not in a hospital, hooked up to monitors, comforted by nurses and a lovely drug man offering pain management. Jesus was born outside of the inn. The text just highlights that there was no room for them in the inn, so Jesus could have been born in a barn or a cave or just outside.

    And who can blame the innkeeper? If you showed up at my house with a woman in labor– I’m not about to give you a room in my house so your wife can drop all that stink and nastiness in one of my rooms for a couple bucks. Would you let them into your place of business? I think not.

    We think of Jesus’ physical arrival in such clean modern medicine ways, don’t we? Let’s not lose sight of the blood and agony of Mary so quickly.

    • A young woman in a lot of pain.
    • Since she was traveling for the census, her mom probably wasn’t with her.
    • It’s reasonable to think that Joseph and Mary traveled with his family. So maybe Jesus was born within the presence of his grandmother or aunts? The text doesn’t say. Either alone completely– or this virgin was bearing her goods to her husbands relatives. Talk about awkward.
    • She sits down or squats to deliver a baby. No birthing suite. In the ancient world they let gravity do much of the work.
    • If modern child-birth feels touch and go, imagine child-birth in the ancient world? Hell on earth. It’s not like they had the option of a C-section.
    • As Jesus’ little head pops out we have no idea how scary that moment was for everyone there. But I will guarantee you no one pulled out a little suction thing and sucked the fluid out of Jesus’ nose.
    • No one felt safe enough to ask Joseph, “Would you like to help deliver your child?” I will guarantee you that. Joseph probably wasn’t even allowed to be present.
    • After delivery, no nurses took the baby to wash him and wrap him up to lay him warmly on mom’s belly while a doctor uses sterile instruments to clean up. How did they get that cottage cheese stuff off of him?
    • If Jesus was born in a stable or barn, let’s hope there wasnt’ a dog. They like to lick stuff like that. My dogs runs around and licks when the kids spill cereal. Yeah, let’s hope there wasn’t a dog present. There probably was.
    • No big moment when the doctor asks Joseph if he’d like to cut the cord.
    • The “it’s a boy” moment was just a confirmation of what the angels already told Mary & Joseph.
    • No one pulled a sterilized Jesus aside to check his Apgar score.
    • No balloon bouquet or digital pictures of the infant fly around the world so that family can instantly know the baby is healthy and mom is OK. Word probably traveled fast back to Mary’s family… but a couple of days at the very least.

    The act of Jesus coming to earth– slimy at best. Death defying to say the least.

    And yet, on December 25th, the entire world pauses to remember this moment. Messy, bloody, gross, and scary. The act of remembering, symbolized by the exchange of gifts and family celebrations, is celebrated in almost every country in the world! Even people who are diametrically opposed to Jesus celebrate Christmas.

    Black Friday. Mall parking lots. Santa Claus. Candy canes. Shopping lists. Ham. Credit card debt. Somehow God is in all of that, too? Something like 30% of retailers cash flow comes in the 30 days surrounding Christmas.

    That’s a lot of cash spent remembering a baby people don’t believe is the Savior of the world.

    The act of incarnation. God becoming flesh. 2,000 years later it is still sending shock waves, isn’t it?

    Messy, slimy boy.

  • I Support The Marin Foundation

    Recently, I had a conversation with someone at convention that went like this.

    Someone: So, you did the blog design for Andrew Marin’s blog?

    Me: Yep. I had a lot of fun doing that. I really believe in Andrew’s ministry.

    Someone: Well, you make money on stuff like that. So of course you like it.

    Me: Well, yeah I do make money doing that kind of thing. But I didn’t get paid for that one. I did it because I believe in what he is doing.

    Someone: What? You didn’t charge him? That’s crazy talk.

    Me: Of course not. Why would I?

    Someone: Because that’s how you make money.

    Me: But that’s also how I give money. Money he didn’t spend on a blog he can spend doing ministry. I don’t have the cash I want to give to his ministry, but I can give something that costs money so that he doesn’t have to spend it.

    Someone: Oh. Wow, I never thought about it like that. I bought his book…

    I don’t bring this up to make myself look good. In fact, I really wish I had the cash to write checks and support The Marin Foundation. I know, like any non-profit, cash is tight right now and he really does need cash donations. But the simple fact is I don’t have the cash to help The Marin Foundation like I wish I could.

    I bring this up because too often we say we love someone’s ministry, or that we’re behind them, or that we’re excited about what they are doing… but we don’t do anything to actually further their ministry. The tribe of people that I hang with– youth workers– often don’t see the connection between “I’m supporting that person” and “I’m putting my treasures behind that person.” Because we’re fairly low on the church totem pole we feel a little weird about the money thing when it comes to church… and we carry that forward into other areas of life.

    The challenge here is not simple. In fact, it may require some creativity on your behalf.

    The challenge is to tangibly support the things you love with your treasures.

    For me, my commitment to Andrew has been like this. He has my friendship, my support, my prayers, and anything he asks of me I try to make happen. In the past year that’s meant that I pray for Brenda and Andrew daily, Kristen and I have hosted him in our home when he’s in town, I help him with his blog and tech stuff, I talk about him to my friends, I keep my ears/eyes open for things I think are opportunities for him, I tell every ministry leader I know that their staff needs to wrestle through his book. On and on. I find ways to tangibly support his ministry.

    I believe in what he is doing and I try to back it up. Like I’ve said, I don’t have the cash to back up my love for what Andrew is doing to change the church… so I give him my time and talents where I can. The stuff I help him with would both cost him cash and I forego earning cash from helping other people. So, it’s not cash but it is like cash. That’s why I’m saying… if you support something give it your treasures.

    If you’ve heard about Andy’s ministry of bridging Evangelical culture and the GLBT culture, and you’d like for it to continue to help these two communities learn to love one another, it’s time to support The Marin Foundation. Don’t just say you are behind him, get behind him.

    Learn more about Andrew’s story and The Marin Foundation.

  • 61 Minutes: The Storm

  • 5 Clarifying Questions

    As another week begins and another year winds down I hope that you are pausing long enough to reflect on who you have become, who you are becoming, and the trajectory/pace you are taking.

    If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. — Luke 12:28-30

    Where have you set your heart?

    Ask yourself these questions:

    1. If they stopped paying me to do what I do… would I still do it?
    2. Am I proud of what I’m doing?
    3. Am I doing something worth dying for?
    4. Am I doing something worth living for?
    5. If I were to go back nine years, am I on the path of things I dreamed about for ten years in the future?

  • 61 Minutes: The Kitchen

    I’m learning to love time lapse videos so I thought I’d start off by making a series of my own.

    Here’s an ordinary 61 minutes in my kitchen. A mom makes dinner, cleans up, takes the dog for a walk, a dad sneaks a snack, the kids come and do homework.

    There is something extraordinary about the ordinary, isn’t there?

  • December Nights

    Yesterday my family went to December Nights. At the heart of San Diego’s tourist industry stands Balboa Park. It’s a very cool complex of museums, gardens, and of course the San Diego Zoo. Like residents of most tourist destinations, very few San Diego residents regularly go to the tourist industries epicenter. I don’t know what that is, but it’s the same reason why I lived in Chicago for 8 years but have never been to the top of the Sears Tower.

    Once per year, the residents of San Diego go to Balboa Park for a community festival called December Nights. As Midwesterners, we laugh at the Santa Claus’s and hot chocolate stands among the palm trees… but for San Diego folks this is about as cold as it’ll get and they are feeling the Christmas spirit.

    It’s an event filled with wonderful food stands, choirs and dance troupes, and vendors peddling their art.

    It’s also filled with SoCal flavor. Yuppies bring their foo foo dogs. Families bring their kids and grandparents. The singles scene crowds into the 21+ booze area. Political nut cases try to get you to sign their ballot petition. Kids sell candy, some for legit causes some for illegitimate causes. Someone in the parking lot was likely selling weed. Vendors walk around trying to sell you stuff that you don’t want. (But at least they have nice candy canes!) It’s really the same crowd you’ll see at the beach, baseball games, or any other street market in the city.

    Perhaps the most fun thing about living in a tourist destination is being a local who gets to play when all the tourists go home?