Mike McClenahan

Wednesday night we tried something different for the Thanksgiving Eve Worship--we incorporated Students in each part. Students played in the band, read a litany and shared the reflection on Psalm 100. They also served communion alongside pastors. So how was it? I think the students felt honored.  'We are the whole message?'   'We get to serve communion?' Spencer and Molly and intern Rachel did a great job reflecting on Psalm 100 ... personal, funny, deep.   The congregation clapped after each meditation, not as a performance, but I think out of gratitude . Junior higher Grace and intern Jessica read the litany of thanks. Stew led us in a reading of Psalm 100. 'Best service.'   'Students have so much to teach us.' 'Inspiring.' Jamie shared his experience of asking junior highers, "What celebrity would you swap for a family member?" None of them answered the question, saying, "I don't want to lose anyone in my family...

I have blogged recently about how we experience community in the church. We are brothers and sisters, we are family members, we are members of one body and all the parts work together. Because of our relationships in Christ, what forms is a kind of intimacy with each other. This closeness grows as we learn together, worship together and serve together--but especially when we risk together. The risks we take can be internal risks of trust and grace--can I share authentically with this person and still be accepted? Other risks are external risks of experimentation and leadership--can we walk through this new door together and come out the other side still friends, still trusting God together? The real joy of ministry is never the predictable times of meetings, worship services or planning sessions, but it is always those times of risk, both internally and externally where we depend on God together and we actually are transformed . That change is miraculous because it's not somet...

"Build yourselves up in your most holy faith..." Jude 1:20   Last night at the 6:45 service we had a community question: What is something you have built that you are most proud of? It's a great question because there are so many things that we can build and what am really proud of? I thought about: building a culture in our church (better communication, service and small groups), building a house in Mexico (many times), building family traditions (like toasting each other for special occasions), building faith in students (over two decades of student ministries), building a staff that works well together. But I quickly realize that I am proud of what has been built but I didn't build anything alone. Everything I mentioned above was built together with others. In this little-read epistle, Jude (maybe the brother of Jesus) writes in the plural to dear friends , and to build yourselves up. Is it possible to build faith, ministries, traditions, alone ? As w...

"Humble yourselves..." 1 Peter 5:6 It's Thursday and I'm sitting in the Fuller Seminary Youth Institute "Sticky Faith Cohort", a gathering of pastors and youth pastors from twelve churches across the country who desire to make faith stick in the lives of adolescents. This morning Scott Cormode, professor of leadership, talked about leading change and the conflict that often comes with change. He acknowledged that in any conflict there are competing commitments or values that frame the conflict. In conflict situations rarely are two people bad people who want the worst for each other, and usually conflicts involve good people who want the best. In the church, one person might value nurturing those who are already in the church, another values reaching out to the community. Both are good values, and we can assume both people have good motives. Humility means I'm willing to acknowledge my own agenda or my own commitments that might be in conflict with ...

...and each member belongs to all the others... Love must be sincere... Romans 12:5 We sang on Sunday night "We are the temple of God... Christ is here and he reigns, take a look around..." We are brought together from different backgrounds and experiences to be the place where we are no longer strangers to each other or to God. We are members of Christ's body, the temple of God. Only together are we Christ to the world.  Last Sunday twenty-four people became members of SBPC and will be presented to the congregation on October 24. Thirteen from the hispanic congregation and eleven from the english speaking congregation. Our new Campus Master Plan and Phase 1 specifically has our spanish speaking and english speaking worshipping congregations facing each other. My prayer is that somehow we will know and love each other and we can see Jesus more fully in each other. God has brought us together, not to be strangers Isn't that a great picture of t...

You are no longer foreigners... but members of God's household. Ephesians 2:19 Most of four months we were on sabbatical we felt like foreigners. Street signs and menus in different languages, finding out where to buy bus tickets, adjusting our meals to fit the local customs, decifering the meaning of words spoken in English but carrying a different meaning. There were times when we were welcomed into a home, a restaurant, a bed and breakfast and no longer felt like strangers, we felt like we belonged. Other times we felt out of the conversation, not really apart, not understanding what was going on, on the outside. To be a foreigner ( xenos in Greek) in bible times was to be an outsider. Some outsiders were separated out (gentiles), despised (ie, samaritans) and others feared (babylonians). In the temple there was a court designated for the gentiles. They couldn't get as close to the Holy of Holies as the female jews (close) or the male jews (closer) or the priests (clo...

He is a faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations... Deuteronomy 7:9 Covenant is not a word we use very often. We talk about the covenant of marriage which describes a relationship of mutual love and commitment. In marriage (which scripture tells us is an illustration of our relationship with God) a man and a woman make a promise to love and be partners in life regardless of the circumstances (for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health...) and do their best to fulfill their vows. In scripture, God is the one who commits himself to us so that we can commit ourselves to him. He loves us first and last with an unconditional love. He chose us to be his people.  He is the faithful God who never leaves us or forsakes us. He takes the first step and then we respond. John says, "This is love, not that we loved him, but he loved us and gave us his Son..." (1 John 4). In Jesus we see the unconditional love of God in its ...