Adam McLane

Tag: Church

  • A Dare for Pastors

    I am daring you and your staff to take this challenge. I promise you it isn’t as dangerous as it sounds. In fact, I think it may just fundamentally change the way you interact with the people in your ministry. Here’s the dare. Lock every staff person out of your church building for a work…

  • Rock that Quirky Church

    I think some of my harsh criticisms of the evangelical church come from a love of our church. The mission of Harbor Mid-City is one that is quirky by design. We have a hyper-qualified staff brought together despite significant theological difference who lean into that tension for the sake of the Gospel in the neighborhood.…

  • Medium-sized Church Crisis… Let’s Talk Money

    The first time I talked about this topic, the assumption in comments was that the reason the medium-sized church is struggling is because of money. In my last post on the topic I explored the core problem… that there are no “medium-sized church people” in America. There are big church people and small church people.…

  • Sunday Normalness

    Pretty much every Sunday is the same for our family. It’s our new normal and we love it. For the first time in my adult life I have weekends off… and I’m still enjoying the novelty of it. Here’s what a typical Sunday looks like. 7:00- Everyone up. We don’t set alarms, but we all…

  • Two Kinds of Medium Sized Church People

    Here are some more thoughts on the medium-sized church crisis. My post the other day attracted a fair amount of comments and attention… and I was pretty frustrated that people jump to the issue of money. I only think that the money problems of current are bringing the Medium-sized church crisis to the forefront. At…

  • Medium-sized church crisis

    I guess this diagram is rather self-explanatory, eh? Over the last 4-5 months I’ve had several conversations in which the discussion centered on this diagram. So I submit it to you to chew on. Thoughts? If you are seeing the same thing, what are the plusses and minuses of this trend? If you think I’m…

  • How come?

    I was reading a couple ministry blogs this morning who were talking about worship services they either produce or visited. I don’t need to link to them as they are easy enough to find. Now that we go to a church with zero theatrics… and new people still come, and people still worship, and people…

  • Love is an Orientation

    I’ve been so impressed with Andrew Marin and his work to help bridge the church to the homosexual community. Check out Andy’s promo video. If you want to buy his book, you can join me in pre-ordering it from Amazon.

  • Alpha Male Pastors

    I long to see this as a caveat for ministry job openings: Dominant alpha males need not apply. Dear Lord, let it come soon! I had three different conversations with or about lead pastors Thursday. Two were horrible and one was exhilarating. All three encounters lead me to express my frustration with alpha male senior…

  • How Should Church Staff Be Treated?

    One of the fascinating aspects of senior church leaders blogging is that you get an opportunity to see inside their minds a little. Sometimes it is encouraging and sometimes it is not. Recently, I’ve been disappointed by some comments and principles that would be considered unethical or illegal in the professional world in relation to…