Adam McLane

Tag: ministry

  • Vanity in Ministry Life

    When I was new in ministry I struggled with the idea that people were paying me to tell them what I thought. (About God, about how to live as a believer, and about a lot of other things.) It took me a while to realize this simple fact: They don’t really care what I think.…

  • You aren’t going to change

    On Evolution, Biology Teachers Stray From Lesson Plan Researchers found that only 28 percent of biology teachers consistently follow the recommendations of the National Research Council to describe straightforwardly the evidence for evolution and explain the ways in which it is a unifying theme in all of biology. At the other extreme, 13 percent explicitly…

  • Beg, Borrow, and Steal our Retreat!

    That’s the goal of our high school ministries Winter retreat. I’m not talking about a cash neutral event to the youth budget. I’m talking about… we’ve got no money so we need to do this retreat for free. We don’t have budget money and our students literally have no cash to offset expenses. Here’s what…

  • Farm Fresh Offerings

    Right out of college, Kristen and I were full of ideals about where we wanted to serve in a local church. We had a list of things we were looking for: Having been in the midwest for eight years we were ready for a geographical change. We wanted to see mountains and take a break…

  • The God of My Neighborhood

    We want to change the world! We want our church to reach this whole community! God is the God of this city! [The crowd raises to its feet and cheers as the band begins to play…] These are guaranteed anthems to bring a church to its feet. But I’m left wondering if our ecclesiology is…

  • Hit Me with God’s Hammer Today

    A few weeks back I wrote about something I call, the Pastor Man Up Movement. (PMUM) There’s something about PMUM that annoys me and I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what it is. Is it that its mostly men and I have a strong desire to see women lead? Maybe a little. Is it…

  • You’ve Got to Want It

    Ministry isn’t family friendly. I know people in youth ministry from the “biggest and best churches” in America. And I know people in youth ministry in the tiniest churches in America. And both people have the same complaints and struggles– ministry life sucks for family life. My response to that? So what? Cope and deal.…

  • Level of Difficulty

    I’ll admit it. I’m a recovering video game junky. Up until Madden 2005 I used to incessantly play anything football EA Sports produced. One of the fun things about the Madden games is that you can adjust the level of difficulty to match your skill level in the game. So, if you were new, you…

  • 10 Ways Your Church Can Be Good News to Public Schools

    I have a fervent belief that if we want to reach a post-Christian society, we have to be Good News before someone will listen to Good News. I asked some teachers, “How could a local church be Good News to your public school?” Here are 10 of their ideas. Create a team that participates at…

  • What is worship?

    A youth worker in Minnesota asked me to share my definition of worship with her as part of a lesson she’s preparing for her youth group. I thought it’d be fun to post my response to her (with her permission) for a couple of reasons. I hadn’t thought about it like this before. I like…