• We saw Narnia

    We saw Narnia

    I suppose this post may be considered heresy by some. But, while I didn’t mind Narnia, I didn’t really see the hype.

    Today Kristen and I had the pleasure of taking Megan to see “the movie.” In my mind, the best part of the movie was sharing the time with my girls. I like that they liked the story. I liked that I got to sit by my girls and enjoy popcorn. I had a blast explaining to Megan who the lion was and that the witch was a really bad lady. I had fun seeing her joy when Aslan came back to life. I revelled in hiding her eyes from the battle scene. (OK, so my second favorite thing was seeing some LF folks and their families there… that’s wicked cool too.)

    But the movie itself? Not to my palatte. I have long been a C.S. Lewis yawner. I think he was a clever guy with a great testimony. But I really struggle to put him in my top 25 “greatest authors” list and I cringe when I hear the Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe mentioned in folks lists of best books. It is a good story, it is a nice allegory, but it is not one of the great fiction books of all time in my life. Lewis is no Dickens, Twain, Dostievski, Hemingway, or any of the other great fiction authors out there.

    Nor did the movie live up to the hype. It failed to provide a compelling impact on me or Megan. Before we got out of the parking lot Megan was singing the tune from Madagascar. Hardly a memorable event!

    What’s wrong with it? To me, it’s too plainly an allegory. Too obviously an attempt at communicating the gospel to really be compelling or thougt provoking.

    Why’s it so popular? Because the allegory is so clear, Christians love it! Afterall, they hardly have to think to see the message of Christ.  It’s wrapped up in a bow!

    Here’s my disclaimer. I’ve been a “Lewis-hater” for a long time. It’s not that I don’t care for him… in fact I think he’s a good writer. But I have always done my best to keep him in his place. For what he is, he is fine. I remember back in my Moody days I would love to mess with my fellow students by picking on their favorite books series. My first roommate proudly told his friends that he read the Chronicles of Narnia each semester. I would always tease him that this was the reason for his single status. Does this mean that  I’m some sort of hypocrite for teaching the book? Not at all! I really, really do thing that teaching the series is important. There are a lot of non-Christians who may see the movie… and being prepared for a good spiritual conversation about the series is a good investment. Probably not what I would have wanted… but LF is rarely about what I want anyway.

  • Snow has arrived for good

    Mclane_fall_045Last night we got a fair amount of snow. Practically speaking this means that Kristen and I got to do a little bonding this morning as we shoveled the snow in the driveway and the sidewalk.

    Since Romeo didn’t have school today this hardly seems like a big deal, but there is a village ordinance and we don’t want a ticket for not clearing our sidewalk!

  • the candy cane thief

    Tday_005Each you we put candy canes on the family Christmas tree. It’s a fun little treat for the kids and a great reward for them.

    Well, that is until this year. We keep finding candy canes all over the place and Paulie has been stealing them off of the tree and hoarding them all over the house. In fact, in a 2 year old kind of way, Paul announced to Kristen "look what I’m hiding" and found a whole cache of them hidden in his "secret hiding place."

    We know when our little theif is up to no good. He disappears under and table or behind the couch. When you catch him he throws his arms back and hides the candy cane behind his back! It’s cute, but naughty!

    There is a spiritual tie to this as well. Don’t we try to hide our "candy canes" from our Heavenly Father in the same way? We know God is omniscient and omnipresent… and yet we try to hide our shame behind our back.

  • Check out YMX!

    Hey, a buddy of mine and I launched a website lately for youth workers to connect up. This is filling the forum void left behind since YS closed their forums back in June.

    Anyway, check it out at ymexchange.com

    You can see my new blog at http://www.adammclane.com

  • In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. 2 Peter 2:3

    False teachers. I mean, Jesus warned us about this. He told his disciples and they told their disciples that there would be days ahead full of falso teachers.

    The question in my mind is, "If the church isn’t focused on teaching the Bible, sharper than any double edged sword, how can we expect the church to recognize false teachers?’  I am no conspiracy theorist… well actually I like conspiriacy theories for their entertainment value… but that’s for another day!

    As I talk with others in youth ministry and they talk about all that is going on and all that they are doing I just wonder… "Man, are these guys focused on teaching what they think of the world or are they teaching the Bible?" It’s my hope and prayer that as I interact with people personally and through the world wide web that I constantly point them to scripture. It’s God’s holy word, set apart for all mankind… this is what changes lives and offers hope… not anything that comes out of my mouth compares in value to a single word of God’s inspired Word.

  • 15,000 visitors

    I’d like to congratulate Jon on being my 15,000th visitor to my blog!

  • sabbath

    SabbathYesterday in Sunday school I started off with a little devotional thought about the sabbath. I’m no legalist, and I don’t tend to believe that the Jewish laws of the Temple apply to Christians… so how do we or even should we use the sabbath.

    This is what I told my class. If God did it, I think we should do it too. I don’t know how or when students will be able to do this… but I know that we all should do it.

    Why? It’s my experience that when I don’t get regular rest from what I am doing, I go crazy. So since I don’t want to be known as a crazy person I take rest.

    What do you mean by rest? Simple think about this… what do you call work? When you’ve got that figured out… don’t do that!

  • the new Romeo

    First_baptistromeo_smallerThis is a rendering of what Romeo will look like after Phase 1.

  • Wow, this was fun!

    Polar This morning I had the pleasure of seeing Polar Express with my kids at the Henry Ford Museum’s IMAX.I can’t express how much fun this was for the whole family.

    It didn’t even matter that we were a bit late and I was a bit miffed about the bad directions… a Detroit tradition of terribly marked roads strikes again… none of that mattered.

    What did matter is that we were treated well when we got there and we had a really nice time. A friend from church gave us tickets last night to this "special presentation’ paid for by a financial services company. It came complete with free popcorn and drinks.

    This was the 3-D version… very cool. I had a blast watching my kids enjoy the thrill of a massive screen and the visual trick of 3-D imaging. It was fun going to Paul’s first "real movie" and having him sit on my lap mesmerized. Not to mention, it’s a nice film worth seeing.

  • turning over a new leaf for LF?

    Last night was our regular monthy concert of prayer and pizza night. I have grown very fond of this "crazy idea" that we launched in 2004.

    The really incredible part about what is happening this year is that we’ve been asking students to just come and share their stories. These stories of intruige, salvation, and messy life stuff may be the most powerful stuff the youth group has ever said and it didn’t come out of my mouth.

    The idea was born out of desperation. As an intern I ran a large high school group going through a nasty transition. When I was given the reigns as the interrim… the whole thing was a mess. The adult leaders didn’t trust the church leadership. The students didn’t trust the adults or the church leadership, they had even been meeting on their own in addition to our weekly times. The previous youth pastor had left, sadly, unprofessionally and it was all very messy.

    It was a time for that group when the 3 hours on Thursday nights was just too much and wasn’t helping anything… in fact I feared that it was making problems go from bad to worse. So one day I asked the leaders, "What do you think about asking people to share stories?"

    It began simply but as the months wore the stories began to get more and more of what’s really going on in my life.

    It’s that feeling of meeting the "what’s really going on" needs that LF wants to go for. We just wnat to help guide students and point them to the cross…