Adam McLane

Tag: strategy

  • 7 Ways to Build a Sustainable Movement

    Want to see change? Don’t start a church. Don’t start a business. Don’t hire a bunch of experts. Those things are great. But they are a bit finite in their ability to affect macro-level-change in society. Instead, start a movement of people. And if you really want to see change, start a sustainable movement. As…

  • Outsmarting Your Opponent

    Rocky Long is crazy. Yesterday, he told reporters that as head coach of the San Diego State football team he is planning on always onside kicking and always going for it on 4th down. Rocky Long is genius. By telling his opponents he is not going to traditionally kick the ball off and not planning…

  • The 48 Hour Self-Retreat – How to plan your Fall 2012 Ministry Strategy

    It’s August 1st.  For most youth ministries things really kick off in 30 days. That means in the next 30 days you need a publishable Fall calendar, you need to check in with all of your volunteers to make sure they are coming back, and you need to host a volunteer training meeting as well…

  • Freebies for registering early – The Summit

    This week we opened registration for The Summit. This is our brand new, TED-like, national youth ministry event. [Here’s the announcement] And, as excited as I am about The Summit, this post isn’t really about the event itself so much as it’s about the type of ministry organization we want to be. Here is a…

  • Is your strategy as big as your vision?

    Our vision is to provide high quality, age-appropriate experiences which invite every student in our community to experience the Good News of Jesus Christ. This could be the vision statement of any youth ministry team in the country. Like you, I’ve seen vision statements like this in youth ministry literature, on youth group websites, and…

  • The Apostles Stayed in the Neighborhood

    Did you know that The Way wasn’t the only Jewish cult in Jerusalem in the first century?  Visit a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit and you’ll learn all about the strict rules and discipline of the Qumran community. While they didn’t have a Messiah figure, they were disciples of a teacher. Who had his own beatitudes…

  • The cup is 95% empty

    “Adam, why are you always assuming that the cup is half empty?”  Youth workers say this to me over coffee. Their lives are run wild with activities, planning, teaching, and meetings. Their ministries are full and something I’ve said has called that busyness into question. My response, not trying to be trite, is “Oh no,…

  • What if we made youth ministry’s goal simpler?

    “What’s the goal of your youth ministry? Not like your purpose statement, but why do you do this thing?” I love to ask this question. It usually takes people a few minutes to articulate something they feel comfortable with. And it always sparks a great conversation. The answer to that question typically lands like this,…

  • Youth Ministry is Flatlining

    If I were to plot out the average youth ministry attendance in a local church this is probably what it would look like. So when I say, “The way you are doing ministry is failing to reach students. It’s not you, it’s your strategy.” Youth workers look at me and say, “No, that’s not true.…

  • Lessons from the Cloud

    I have a fundamental belief that the problems we experience in church leadership are technologically based. It’s not that we have the wrong mission or wrong people, it’s often that we are working on the wrong technologies. (Programs, agendas, projects) You might not see the connections between this presentation and your church. But the parallels…