• Pray for Bishop Bill

    Bishopbill
    And his staff at the Albany Diocese.

    Going into last weekend I had a lot of preconceived ideas about what to expect. I was well aware of all the headlines about division and homosexual clergy and of course the root of the issue for the Episcopal Church, USA… is the Bible true and authoritative or is the church something else?

    Most of my life in "the evangelical circles" the ECUSA has never really been considered "orthodox." In fact, it seems most times when people hear the word "episcopal" Christians kind of struggle to say something positive. Most of my knowledge of the ECUSA rests in the frame of "liberal, very liberal."

    I don’t have a clue what’s going on in the larger group of churches. But as a complete outsider I got to see just how incredible the work of the Albany Diocese is. These are people who obviously love the Lord, His Word, and are willing and able to stand up for Jesus in the face of adversity.

    I was greatly impressed with Bishop Love’s opening address. For me, he hit all my hot buttons! The reason I ask for prayer for this man and his staff is clear.

    Just scroll down on that link and the attacks begin in the comments.

    Let me close with this. It’s very easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It’s easier to shrug our shoulders and say "what happens there doesn’t mean much." May it never be! May the church be full of people who encourage men and women willing to stand up for Jesus no matter what their background.

    I know I’ve posted a lot about last weekend. I think it is pretty simple. I was excited to see God move powerfully. Moreover, I was excited to see God’s people celebrate a life in Christ in an unexpected place.

    I certainly hope that conservative people from all sorts of backgrounds rally behind Bishop Bill and his staff as they do their best to change the course of what is to come one heart at a time.

    Join me and commit to praying for Bishop Bill Love and his staff.

  • Why I blog.

    Chris Brooks asked the question, "Why do you blog?" Here was the comment I left:

    I blog for a few reasons. First and foremost since about 7th grade I’ve journaled. I remember by 7th grade reading teacher telling the class "if you want to be a good writer, you need to keep a journal to practice." That same year I wrote a book review that got published in my hometown newspaper and I thought… Hmmm, I like that. So I kept journaling in notebooks all the way through middle and high school.

    In 1999 I started my first blog. I liked that people read what I wrote… and I quickly got tired of it. But the seed had been planted and a couple years later I tried again.

    My current blog is version 4.0. I’ve changed the "why" of it often but the original reason still stands. I want to be a good writer, so I journal. To me, if other people read it… that’s OK, but the audience is really myself.

    Sometimes I get the question, "How do you find time to blog?" I have two responses to this…
    a. I type really fast. So a thought that I’ve had in my brain doesn’t take long to type.
    b. If I don’t record thoughts… the good ones, the bad ones, and the boring ones… I won’t remember them.

    Blogging is more than just an outlet for me. It’s all part of the writing/speaking process to me. Just like I wouldn’t stop reading the Bible, I wouldn’t stop journaling.

    For those who don’t blog but read blogs, why do you do that?

    For those who blog, why do you blog?

  • New members of the McLane family

    Kittens_005Yesterday the kids finally got their kittens. We answered an ad in the paper and found a family who had a litter from a cat that adopted them. (People in rural areas know how this works!)

    So we all went over there and the picking began. At first we wanted two of the same sex. But then the kids negotiated to each get a kitten of their own gender. So we ended up with a female and a male.

    Meet Lovely.     (lower) Lovely is Megan’s kitten. She has stripes like her mom but a couple white and black patches like her dad. Her most distinguishing characteristic is that she has a white tip to her black tail. She is also quite vocal for a 6 week old.

    Meet Explorer. (upper) Explorer is Paul’s kitten. He has markings similar to a milk cow. He is like his name… very curious about his world. Yesterday was his kind of day… he got to wonder all over the living room, dining room, and front porch.

    So far Stoney is just curious. He sniffs them a lot and they hiss at him. We’re just hoping that Stoney doesn’t explore a lovely snack if you know what I mean.

  • Albany talks

    Adam_teaching
    A couple people have been asking me "what did you teach in Albany?" Well… I taught an overview of 3Story Evangelism. We wrapped it around a "metametephor" for the weekend of a Rubik’s Cube. The basic idea is that most Christians want to tell non-Christians about their faith… they just don’t know a strategy for figuring it out. So they just make things more confusing or they get frustrated and quit. And as some of the students demonstrated with their Rubik’s Cube, some get frustrated and smash it.

    Additionally, each talk had an object lesson. So… here are the notes.

    Talk 1: Walk First (powerpoint only) wheel barrow
    Talk 2: Walk Intentionally ax
    Talk 3: Walk Together hedge clippers
    Talk 4: God makes all things new one story at a time (This was the closing "Youth Mass" of the convention.)

    One of the interesting details of this retreat was that I worked much more collaboratively in the talk preps than I normally do. That made this weekend even more fun. Seriously, I need to do more of that.

  • Video Rewind

    For those looking for some of my weird videos… here’s a link to my YouTube channel.

    Below are two of my personal favorites.

    (more…)

  • the toilet story

    Toilet_mainSo here is my "behind the scenes" story from my trip to Albany. (As promised to the students at the Youth Rally… Welcome!)

    Thursday night I spent the night at Patti’s house. As we were finishing some stuff for the weekend I went to bed at about 2 AM. When I heard an alarm clock go off at 6 AM my brain thought "there are 5 people in this house and one bathroom… I better go now."

    So I jumped up off the couch and scurried upstairs to take care of morning business before the showers were taken over by those who had to go to school and work Friday morning. Now… this is a good time to point out that I have always had low blood pressure. That’s not a health concern but it does mean that when I switch from horizontal to vertical in the morning I need to take my time or I will get dizzy.

    So I flip on the switch in Patti’s brand new bathroom and I remember thinking "Hmm… they did a great job in…" Just then the world went black and I remember hearing a massive thud. A few seconds later I found myself slumped over on the tile floor. I had fainted… I jumped up so fast that the blood in my brain couldn’t get up there quite fast enough!

    On the way down, nose and teeth crunched off of the Gibbon’s families brand new toilet, displacing the lid. Somehow when I fell I also managed to hit the top of my head on their tub and thump my left wrist on their floor. So I "woke up" to this terrible pain in my mouth, my face covered in blood, and terribly dizzy. I kind of sat up and sat on the edge of the tub for a few minutes… really not sure what had just happened to me or if I was ill or anything else.

    When I felt OK enough to stand I checked myself out in the mirror. To my surprise I hadn’t done any visible damage. My glasses weren’t broken. My nose didn’t seem to be broken and after I counted I was convinced that I hadn’t lost any teeth. The only real problem was this massive cut inside my mouth from when my face made contact with the corner of the toilet. (Teeth are dangerous!)

    After I got everything all situated and cleaned up… I decided to head back downstairs. In the course of all this I decided that since I didn’t want to go to the emergency room, I had better not tell anyone! Especially Patti.

    So, that’s my "crazy, stupid" story from the weekend.     It was just one of those weird things that happens to me. Why do all these weird things happen to me?

  • Quick weekend report

    I’m going to try to contain the superlatives about the weekend. But it is going quite well. From the actual facilities to the staff to the convention goers… everything far exceeds my expectations in approaching this weekend.

    It’s been fun, encouraging, refreshing, and stretching. It hasn’t been exhausting, disappointing, or overwhelming.

    I’m having a hard time explaining the convention to myself. It’s clearly not what I thought it was… I expected stuffy people and kids who were  "present." Instead I’ve found some of the most loving, thoughtful, diverse, and genuine people I’ve ever encountered. The feel of this convention is fantastic. It feels like a family… 800-900 people… feeling like a family. That is impressive. I was talking to a woman tonight in this big common area they call "the tee-pee" and I explained it to her that I feel honored just to be around something like this. Much less having the privilege to speak at.

    The students are very approachable and teachable… to be honest, that’s refreshing! The two sessions today rocked. The band is great… a good ability to create the "worship lather" that every speaker longs for. Tonight’s session wasn’t monumental in its response, but it definitely stirred people. All-in-all I think my part of the weekend has gone smoothly. I’ve tried very hard to "just be Adam." (Let’s just say I’ve been a bit better behaved than "just be Adam." Ha!)

    I have one major thing left as I’m speaking at the "youth mass" tomorrow morning. I’ve talked to enough of the "old people" to know that it’s going to be a rockin’ good time. For the students and adult delegates here… there is a lot of anticipation for a homerun service. I hope I can be a small part of that homerun.

    A "funny to me" moment.

    Tonight the band did an amazing job of moving the students. Just before I was about to speak, the worship leader asked me to pray. (I thought to close the music part of worship and transition into the Bible portion.) The funny part was that there was this very serious "moment" and my opening illustration was the story, "fish farts save lives." It ended up being no big deal as I needed to take some time to help people transition… but it was one of those "funny to me" moments. Kids were spending holy moments in the presence of God and I was getting ready to talk about farting herring.

    In the next day or so I’ll be sharing a story that involves my face and a toilet. I promised the students tonight that I’d share it with them… Believe me, it will be memorable.

  • A weekend at camp!

    Globe_rubiks_cube
    This weekend I am off to upstate New York to help out at a great retreat. I’ve never been to this part of the world, so I am pretty excited to see what "the camp capital of the world" is really all about.

    I also don’t get to go to a lot of retreats… so this is going to be fun. (Our group kind of lost interest.) I’m looking forward to encouraging the students of the Albany Diocese, making new friends, and connecting face to face with Patti’s family.

    As I’ve been reminded. It’s bad of me to travel on my wife’s birthday. Naughty, naughty boy. But it’s all for a good cause!

    Here’s a blog post from my buddy Jason about speaking at this event last year.

    I look forward to being back in Romeo Sunday night. Lord willing next week will be back to 100% normal.

  • Wild Ride in the Bend

    This came from my hometown newspaper, The South Bend Tribune.

    PAW PAW, Mich. — A 21-year-old man was taken on a wild ride Wednesday
    afternoon when the wheelchair he was in became attached to the grille
    of a semi-truck and was taken four miles down a highway at about 50 mph.

    The
    man, whose name police did not release, was not injured. The driver was
    unaware he was pushing the man, according to a news release from the
    Michigan State Police.     Story

    Here’s my favorite quote of the article, "The man spilled his soda pop, but he wasn’t upset," Sgt. Kathy Morton of the Michigan State Police said."

    Best part of that story… no one was hurt or charged with a crime. Just a wildly fun accident.

  • Happy Birthday, baby

    Ni_240Today is Kristen’s birthday. (I’m 5 days older than her)

    This may be controversial… but I’m not giving Kristen a gift. I’m not even taking her out for dinner. In fact, I’m leaving her for the weekend!

    You see, I just "gave her Ireland." People keep asking me, "What was the best thing about your trip to Ireland?" To me it’s a no brainer… spending 9 days with my wife was the best trip money could buy. I loved showing her some of the places I’d been. And I absolutely adored exploring Northern Ireland with her.

    There are a lot of things I could say about Kristen. But it’d get too cheesy, so I won’t.

    Happy birthday!