Mike McClenahan

This has been a red-letter year* for Amy and me. We knew at the outset 2010 would be special: wedding in March, we turned 50 in April and October, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in June, and we spent four months together on sabbatical. As always, we planned but God has his own plans to make this year special. It was a joy, after performing over 100 weddings to be dad and sit with Amy at our son's wedding. It was an awesome day to remember God’s goodness, his faithfulness and his love that brought them together. We are so happy to see them settled into life in Pasadena together. Another son continued his masters and sang in several operas this past year. He came on staff leading worship at our evening service. What a joy to see him using his gifts and developing his music skills, and to see him become more and more of the man God’s calling him to be. We underestimated the significance of our sabbatical pilgrimage, especially to the holy land with...

Last weekend I asked the musicians what it was like performing in our sanctuary. All but three of the 48 musicians are from the San Diego Symphony and they have played in every kind of venue and for every kind of audience. Many have played in our sanctuary for 15 or more years. Their response was unanimous: they love playing each year in our sanctuary because our people are so appreciative. They are inspired by the congregation. I asked the choir the same question. This is not a professional choir. Every choir member (except for our soloist) is a volunteer who responds to the call to lead our worship services. They sing from the heart and believe what they sing. Dan is a great conductor and minister of music who chooses the texts, develops the program to communicate the message of Christmas. Their response was unanimous: they love singing with the orchestra. They are inspired by the amazing musicians. I asked those who attended the services. There were 2500 people who attended our...

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...