• Feed Count 1.2.1

    feed-count-1-2-11

    Tonight I downloaded the Feed Count 1.2 created by Francesco Mapelli. When I downloaded and installed his plugin it became instantly clear that he hadn’t updated it for blogs who had converted their Feedburner accounts to Google Feedburner. Everywhere I saw the plugin I saw an ugly “N/A” displayed where the numbers should go.

    So I fixed a few links in the feedcount.php file and presto… you see I was able to get it working.

    Looking at the creators site I can tell he hasn’t been actively checking complaints nor updating the plugin. With that in mind, I’m making it available here at adammclane.com. Hopefully, for other users who were liked Feed Count 1.2 but couldn’t get it working, this will do the trick.

    feed-count-download

    [download id=”1″]

    Features

    – [New in 1.2] CURL support (more hosting provider are supported!)
    – [New in 1.2] Unsupported empty URL bug fixed
    – Customize the wording by altering before and after tags
    – Full CSS styles support
    – Customizable refresh time
    – Customizable link
    – Integration with WordPress administration panel

    Installing Feed Count

    – Get Feed Count zip file & Unzip it
    – Upload feedcount.php to your wordpress plugin directory
    – Activate the plugin from the plugins tab
    – Play with the options (Options -> Feed Count) to fit your needs
    – Be sure to have Awareness API for your feedburner account enabled (to enable it log in to your feedburner account, go to the Publicize tab, click on the Awareness API service and enable it).
    – Put <?php if (function_exists('fc_feedcount')) fc_feedcount(); ?> where you want your feed count to appear.

    Support

    I’m not a professional WordPress coder. But if you leave a comment I will do my best to help you get your problem resolved.

    If you like Feed Count, you should consider writing a post to tell the world how cool is it, maybe adding a link to www.mapelli.info and Feed Count homepage.

  • Real-life Superhero

    So this may be taking my byline, “Crazy enough to change the world” and lean towards the crazy end of things. But it is fun nonetheless. Can’t wait to get back to Cincinnati this Fall.

  • The World Doesn’t Change Itself

    change-depends-on-you

    This weekend the family hosted my friend Andrew Marin. I suppose most people know Andy as a controversial speaker and author who is trying to help the church build bridges with the gay community. I know Andy more as a friend. We met last summer in preparing for National Youth Workers Convention where he was a general session speaker. In exchanging some Facebook messages  for a guest post I knew Andy was the real deal. There was something about him I instantly liked. Humble, yet bold. Courageous, with a healthy measure of fear. I could tell he had been biten by a few sheep as well. Then when we met in Sacramento he joined Cathy and I for a trio of fun that carried us all through the convention season.

    The point of this post isn’t my friendship with Andy.

    The point of this post isn’t that sheep bite.

    This post is about you and I bringing change to the world.

    The reason for change goes back to two core things which shape the world. First is the fall of man, which leads man towards a life in pursuit of sin, expressing enmity towards God and entropy in all systems of people. (Governments, local organizations, Christian organizations, etc.) Second is the redemption of mankind through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t come to the world merely to provide a way to salvation and for us to patiently wait for the world to go to pot until His return. [Honestly, this is the view of the Evangelical church in the last 30 years.]

    No! The Gospel cannot be limited to a singular, man-focused individualistic message! He came, first and foremost to be the Savior of mankind… but He also charged the church to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and the rest of the earth. He set us up to be agents of His. As Ephesians 2 points out… we (both individually as believers and as the church) were called by Him to do good works. We are meant to effect change. Our role as believers to to make life better. Our job in a life with Jesus is to change the world and make it a better place for others. Our desire must always be to fight systemic entropy. Our focus as belivers must be to continually force Jesus’ redemption into systems of church, government, charity, and friendship.

    The world will not right itself. The world will never wake up by itself and say… “You know what, we should stop this injustice. We should stop oppressing people. We should stop trapping them into slavery. We should stop corruption. We should stop stealing.”

    The world needs us to be agents of change. The world needs people who are absolutely driven, like Andy Marin. He is brave enough to look eye-to-eye with the most powerful men and women in Evangelicalism and say, “How you treat gay people is wrong. Let me help your church apply some principles that build bridges instead of walls.”

    One of my favorite songs right now is John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change.” I listen to it every Monday morning on my walk to work. It fires me up, it reminds me that I am not meant to wait for the world to change. I am meant to change the world. If you know Jesus as your Savior, you are meant to lean into the insane call of changing the world.

    Me and all my friends
    We’re all misunderstood
    They say we stand for nothing and
    There’s no way we ever could

    Now we see everything that’s going wrong
    With the world and those who lead it
    We just feel like we don’t have the means
    To rise above and beat it

    So we keep waiting
    Waiting on the world to change
    We keep on waiting
    Waiting on the world to change

    What are you waiting for?

  • Your Weekly Dose of Adam

    Here’s a round-up of stuff that I’ve appeared in lately. It’s kind of crazy, but of all the stuff I write and do on a regular basis… only about 33% of it is here on my blog. So, here’s the tour de Adam:

    [Commercial] I have to give a special shout-out to Matt Cleaver. His blog has been giving me tons of love lately. I look forward to his posts popping up in my Google reader, if you do youth ministry you should head over there and subscribe to his RSS too. [/commercial]

    – Youth Hacks interview: I spoke to Josh Cook about all sorts of stuff we’re doing at this year’s NYWC. It starts off slow and gets increasingly better. When  I do early morning stuff like this I need to remember to drink 2-3 cps of coffee first.

    – YS Podcast: Each Monday I host the podcast for Youth Specialties. My part is typically pretty small in that what appears on video is just me doing the intro, segway, and closing. It’s just a little dose of Adam McLane with your big meety dose of youth ministry goodness.

    – We’re hosting a rummage sale: We’re downsizing our offices at work, this is a little post I did letting local folks know. If you live in SoCal you won’t want to miss it. (Though, I’m actually missing it! Kristen and I are sneaking off to San Franscisco that weekend.)

    – Cell phone poll: This is my shortest post, but I was very interested in the results. Who would have thought that 20% of youth workers currently have an iPhone?

    – Bagillions of youth ministry links: Part of my role in putting together the 3 newsletters per week at work is to help keep youth workers around the country up on news effecting adolescence. I use Delicious to do that, I’m really thinking I need to start adding blogs to Delicious too. Thoughts?

    – The Trust Business: Each week I write an article for YMX. This week’s one struck a cord (in a good way) with folks.

    – May conference call: One of the smaller changes we’re making to NYWC is trying some new ways to communicate to folks about our conference. Here’s a recording of May’s conference call with Mark Oestreicher. Just like the podcast, I’m the moderator. (June’s conference call will feature Mark Matlock.

    – The best small group ever: This post continues to live on. I was happy to hear that the story was distributed to our church staff. I guess it connected with them, they re-posted it an article in their quarterly newsletter.

    – What Happens to the Coddled?: Rants never cease to amaze me. This one touched a nerve. It continues to float around the internet… forwarded from parent to parent. There’s even a rumor that this may re-surface as a parenting resource. I’m brewing another parenting rant. One that will hopefully continue to wake up the parents who coddle.

    Am I missing something? Probably. Each week I am amazed at how much I write! What’s my secret? Discipline. Things don’t write themselves, you know? What’s my second secret? A journal. Want to write more? Get a journal at Target for $7.

  • Tom Sine on Movements in Church Planting

  • Saturday Tunes

    Saturday TunesFully in life’s rhythms now. I can’t think of another period of my adult life where I’ve been in such a looonnngggg stand of just doing normal things. Going to the office and coming home at the same times. I have a morning routine, an evening routine, and a firmly established weekend routine. It won’t last much longer… so I’m soaking up the final few weeks. (The travel part of my year kicks back in soon.)

    bates-nut-farmToday, we’re going to take Stoney to the beach so he can run, play, and swim. Low tide is in a couple of hours and we totally look forward to playing with him the tide pools. Each time the kids claim they don’t want to go and they won’t have fun… then we have to drag them home. After that we’re meeting my mom at the nut farm. No really, we’re meeting her at Bates Nut Farm near Escondido. Let the nut jokes and innuendo begin. When we told Paul (5) where we were going he whispered to Megan (8), “When we get there I can say, ‘Oh my nuts.”

    Later tonight, we may be getting a houseguest for one night. More on that later.

    Right now, I am just chilling out and listening to music. Here are the next 10 tunes streaming from my iPod to my brain. I’m sharing them with you since we’re such great web-friends. As always, these are completely random and my ratings are included.

    #1 Fall for You by Secondhand Serenade ****

    #2 Oh the Glory of It All by David Crowder Band ****

    #3 Disco Inferno by Bee Gees *****

    #4 Seven Days of Lonely by I Nine ***

    #5 Amazing Grace by Jadon Lavik ***

    #6 Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve *****

    #7 The Saints Are Coming by U2 & Green Day *****

    #8 God of Wrath by David Crowder ****

    #9 Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows *****

    #10 Tonight by High Five ***** (Seriously, but this song.)

  • Cool Optical Illusion

    See more of these at Illusion Sciences

    HT to Cory

  • Top 5 iPhone Apps I Use

    As they say, my dock is full. Kristen and I have been iPhone users for a couple of months now. So far we love it! One unintended consequence of using iPhone is that our monthly cell phone bill actually went down. Never expected that.

    Like most users, I actually use the phone part of the iPhone very little. That said, I use the iPod and wireless device parts all day. As of right now, here are the 5 apps I use the most.

    tweetieTweetie. I should clarify. Up until last night my most used app was Twitterfon. But Twitterfon was stupid and decided to drop a bunch of ads on their latest upgrade. I hate silent upgrades that dump in ads. I mean, I get it that they need revenue and all, but don’t ruin an app to do it! Anyway, Tweetie is a great Twitter app. It allows me to manage all my various accounts.

    yelp-icon100x100Yelp. I already use Yelp to post quick reviews of stuff as well as read up on places I want to visit. Now when I’m on the go I can use Yelp’s community driven review sites to chose places to eat… and even find addresses to places that are hard to find. (I like stuff that’s way off the beaten path!)

    mint-iphone-iconMint. Kristen and I use Mint to track all of our finances. So having a Mint iPhone app is a total bonus. This allows me to keep an eye on our accounts, spending, budget, and investments anywhere I am. If you are a an iPhone user but don’t use Mint… you should really think about checking it out. It is pretty powerful.

    google-reader-iphoneGoogle Reader. Technically, I don’t think this is an app. But if you bookmark it in Safari it becomes this sweet little app on your dock. I use Google Reader all day, everyday for my job. So being able to scan through endless vanity searches, twitter searches, and of course blog posts is essential. I love being able to read, share, and comment on stuff no matter where I am. As a few friends have pointed out… they can tell when I’m on the trolley because I’m sharing a lot!

    facebook-iconFacebook. What social media person wouldn’t love to have a mobile Facebook that is, in some ways, better than the web version? I love posting pictures and changing my status with my iPhone. So much less clutter.

    A few people have asked me to put together a list of apps for youth ministry. Give me a few weeks and I’ll definitely be posting about that.

  • Discretion as a Virtue

    discretion

    Discretion: dis-cre-tion [di-skresh-uhn] link

    1. the power or right to decide or act according to one’s own judgment; freedom of judgment or choice: It is entirely within my discretion whether I will go or stay.

    2. the quality of being discreet, esp. with reference to one’s own actions or speech; prudence or decorum: Throwing all discretion to the winds, he blurted out the truth.

    If there is one virtue anyone in ministry has to be fantastic at, it’s discretion. Knowing when to tell what– to whom.

    Heck, if there is one virtue to being a good friend, it’s discretion.

    In a low trust society people are asking, “Can I trust you?”

    The question is: In an age where transparency is a value and discretion is a virtue, how do you reconcile being openly discrete?

  • Rethink Church

    HT to Sara who left this as a comment for the post, Church of the world and not of the church. I think Mr. Wesley would be proud.