Author: Adam McLane

  • Themes from NYWC

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    I had a great weekend in Cincinnati. I had lots of time to connect with old friends, meet tons of new people, and got into a multitude of deep conversations about life, work, ministry, and family. Over and over again themes came into conversation. These weren’t things I brought up… it just seemed like everything came back to these things eventually.

    • Mentorship, tutoring, education: Apparently, I am not the only one thinking that if youth ministry needs to be Good News to students it needs to somehow involve education. It seems like this is a youth ministry-wide tribal reaction to the realization that programmatic stuff isn’t as effective as it was just 5 years ago.
    • Calling: Living on the West Coast I’m a bit insulated from what is going on in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio churches. My friends would say, “it’s bad, real bad.” And I think that means giving is way down, they are taking pay cuts, and they are having to go back to God and say… “Are you absolutely positive I am called to this?“
    • Ministering to gay and lesbian students: When Andrew Marin came to NYWC last fall and talked about the big rainbow elephant in the room… it opened up a can of worms! One of the things I’ve learned is that while teens were coming out of the closet to youth workers EVERYWHERE, the youth workers were still closeted about it. I can’t tell you how many times a conversation brought this up.
    • Dependency. I think this is related to calling– it’s just the theological “aha” so many are embracing. We all know God’s got this. We all know that no matter how bad things look for the church, the church will be fine. But this weekend I ran into a bunch of people who literally are putting their life out there and depending on God. Even during the convention I ran into people who told me they had been let go that weekend. But they aren’t giving up. They aren’t freaking out. They are depending on God.
    • Fun! Even with the heavy stuff right under the surface. This is a tribe of people who loves life and wants to have fun. Check out what they did on Halloween.

  • Glows world-wide welcome

    The New Colossus

    Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
    With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
    Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
    A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
    Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
    Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
    Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
    The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
    “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
    With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

    —Emma Lazarus, 1883

    With another NYWC kicking off this morning, this is exactly how it feels. Youth workers are the most misunderstood tribe of church workers. Maligned, misrepresented, dispatched to the corners of the building these resilient men and women endure a lot to be in youth ministry. They do it because they’ve answered a calling to minister to the tribe of people often cast aside as lepers in the church, teenagers.

    And they come to convention looking for rest, ideas, and encouragement. Convention is a place of shared known where we can laugh, cry, and celebrate what God is doing. As they come today, I hope to pour what I can into them.

    This is a homecoming for them and I intend to welcome them home!

  • John Piper on the Radical Results of Being a World Changer

    Dang. Pastor John should spike his Bible at the end of this. I needed to hear this today. I pray you do as well. Let’s reject the ways of this world and go another, more impossible direction.

    Who’s in?

    HT to Travis

  • Desert Questions

  • Headed to Cincy!

    NYWCYS_09logo_smallThursday morning I head out to the beautiful state of Ohio for the second NYWC of 2009. After a year’s worth of planning, preparation, and trying to get people to come– I am beside myself ready to get on site and do my job! The Midwest version of NYWC is always my highlight as “these are my people.”

    Thirty days ago I wrote this, it summarizes my feelings today, as well:

    I may have the best job in youth ministry. Sure, I’m not on stage or writing books or in any way famous. But, I am doing work I love. I get the unique job of meeting lots of people– practitioners of youth ministry, researchers, authors, speakers… And loads of folks who do they day to day work of reaching this generation for Jesus Christ.

    I still believe I have the best job in youth ministry. I am thankful for the opportunity to encourage and invest in this group of heroes.

    Will you join me in praying for a fantastic convention for this group of youth workers? It’s been a tough year to be in youth ministry all-around. But especially in the Midwest.

  • Grocery Shopping: The Musical

  • Build Something Endearing

  • Get Out and Explore

  • 6 What Ifs for My Friends in Ministry

    6-simple-questions

    1. What if the model we do church is wrong?
    2. What if the way the Bible describes the church in Acts and the pastoral epistles is really the way Jesus expects the church to be run?
    3. What if it isn’t about programs?
    4. What if it isn’t about buildings?
    5. What if it isn’t about drawing a paycheck or taking an offering or trying to grow your church?
    6. What if what the Bible says… is literally true?

    Does that change you?

  • Al Franken on Medical Bankruptcy

    Check out this sarcastic line of questions from Senator Al Franken. I love it that he sets her up to look so stupid. At the end of the day the health insurance industry is perfectly fine with the uninsured going bankrupt. Remember, it is not the poor or the rich who are struggling with health care. It is the middle majority. Millions of families like you and me. This rookie senator is fighting for your family.

    Senator Franken is refering to the Dartmouth longitudinal study which reveals that 33% of medical procedures performed in the United States are either completely unnecessary or detrimental to the patients health. This includes treating and curing cancers in which the best course of treatment for the patient involves not treating the cancer as it will never harm the patient.

    You can download the study right here:
    [download id=”5″]

    You can learn more about the health care crisis in America and why reform is so necessary that even the hospitals, doctors, drug companies, and health insurance companies agree that reform is needed by listening to episodes 391 & 392 of This American Life.

    HT to Cory