All posts in Culture

you don’t need celebrities

by Adam Lehman on February 27, 2010 in Blogs, Culture with No comments

I used to follow a handful of celbrities on twitter. i followed them – not so much because I loved them, but – because I was afraid to miss something shocking, outrageous, or insightful from a Hollywood icon.

Same with pastors on twitter. Some of them (mostly those from the south) tweet more about college football than anything else. I find it annoying, irrelevant and – as a Big Ten fan – misguided…. I continued following them simply because they were pastors of churches with thousands of people in them. I have to follow them, right?

There used to be about 20 church leadership blogs I subscribed to that I found totally irrelevant and would skip on a daily basis. I subsribed to them because it seemed like I couldn’t really be in the church blog world without being subscribed to them.

My wife and I just dumped our cable subscription. We were both a bit scared because there are a couple of shows that we really like that we won’t be able to see anymore. Most of them were on the travel channel, food network, and espn. Our fear of missing out on sports updates, recipes, and exotic locations kept us paying $50 a month for something that was adding ZERO value to our life. We kept signed up because … well … aren’t you supposed to have cable?

The point:

You don’t NEED to be connected to celebrities. Ultimately, it’ll distract you. You’ll start wishing your life/church/faith were something else. You will start to envy  the stories of others. You’ll lose your creativity.

(Last night I asked my wife to keep me accountable with this, to not let me go on and on about celebrity pastors, tweeters, bloggers, authors, etc).

What do the poor have to offer you?

by Adam Lehman on February 1, 2010 in Culture with No comments

(from Arloa Suttuer)

would the world be better?

by Adam Lehman on January 25, 2010 in Culture with No comments

Answer this. Right now.

Would the world be a better or worse place if chain restaurants never existed?

unless you become like a child….

by Adam Lehman on January 19, 2010 in Culture, Media with No comments

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” ~Jesus~

When Jesus said this, He was talking about these Kids.

if you can’t see the video, click here.

authenticity, not required….

by Adam Lehman on January 13, 2010 in Church, Culture, Faith with 3 Comments

buzzword: authenticity

I recently listened to a youth pastor talk about the difficult time he was having with some of his volunteers. His volunteers would be distracting during important portions of their weekly student ministry gathering. Also, he had wanted to call them out on their crude language. When he hinted around that they were being distracting and that they ought to knock off the crude language (especially around the teenagers), the volunteers simply shrugged it off and commented, “we’re just being real.”

first. hear this.

I’m all for being real. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told I don’t sound like your typical church worker. I screen-printed my own shirts with the Coldplay lyrics, “Give me real, Don’t give me fake.” Authenticity is very important to me. Sometimes thats a good thing. Sometimes it’s a bad thing.

second. hear this.

Sometimes when we’re being authentic, we’re being authentically bad.

Here is a list of things you can do authentically:

  • murder
  • gossip
  • slander
  • degrade
  • mock
  • judge
  • blaspheme

For we will know they are Christians by their authenticity? for how real they are?

nope.

We’ll know they are Christians by their love. Jesus said that. He was awesome

Love and care for one another trumps authenticity.

Your office should be like TOMS HQ

by Adam Lehman on January 6, 2010 in Culture, Leadership with No comments

TOMS Shoes and Element Skateboard

Allie bout me a pair of TOMS for my birthday. Ever since then, we’ve been getting their catalogue. In the last one, they had a tiny article dedicated to their “Office.” I’ll reprint it here, I’m sure they won’t mind. I hope it inspires you. Or makes you dissatisfied with your current office….

Welcome to TOMS HQ in Santa Monica.

At TOMS the bike rack is always full.

The music here doesn’t sound like it comes from an elevator.

It usually sounds more like it comes from Argentina.

We don’t wear dress shoes.

We wear TOMS Shoes.

We have a kitched and everyone does his or her part to clean up.

We recycle.

We don’t have AC but we do have fans.

And occasionally, we take a step outside.

The door is always open.

And it’s a big door.

We eat at picnic tables.

They’re painted light blue.

We keep out pencils and pens in recycled shoes.

We keep our focus on helping children.

We have quotes on the walls from Mark Twain.

And Shania Twain.

The art in our office is not from the expressionist movement.

It from the One for One movement.

Our conference room is called the Barn.

And sometimes we run around like animals.

We like to brainstorm.

And eat.

Sometimes on Fridays, we go to the beach.

But every day, we work together.

There are differences and disagreements.

But there is compromise and understanding.

There are mistakes.

And we learn from them.

We have cubicles…. They’re plywood.

We don’t have fancy lighting.

Or carpet.

But we like to think it’s the people that make the company.

And we think we’re on to something.

Maybe more offices should look like this.

Lecrae. His story.

by Adam Lehman on January 5, 2010 in Art, Culture, Media, Music with 2 Comments

Lecrae is a great dude. His rap is so laced with theology . Watch his story.

“they are too consumed”

by Adam Lehman on January 5, 2010 in Culture with No comments

I was going through Joshua Longbrake’s blog. Found this article. Made me stop a second and pause.

“You will most likely never hear about the people who are doing the most good in the world. They probably don’t have a blog. They’re not on Facebook or Twitter. They’re not writing books. They don’t care about marketing themselves, their organization*, their church or their company. They aren’t looking to box up their system in order for others to do the same things they’re doing.

They are too consumed in their community, their neighborhood, their streets, and the people in their immediate proximity to have time for much else.”

Why I’m Not Afraid to Question Everything

by Adam Lehman on January 2, 2010 in Culture, Faith with 6 Comments

There seems to be an entire subset of Christianity that gets all huffy and puffy and terrified when someone asks a seemingly “heretical” question. Maybe a Christian author will write a book asking what the phrase the “Word of God” really means or maybe someone writes a blog post exploring the possibility of the creation narrative being allegorical instead of literal.

When someone asks tough questions, we can grow very defensive. I’m a youth pastor and I can’t tell you how many times (I’d bet $100 other church workers can relate) someone asks me “So what do you even do all day?” I hear that question and I grow super defensive. I feel I need to defend my integrity (and the integrity of other church workers) so those questioning can understand that working in a church can eat up a TON of time and be super draining.

Does God need the same defense? Do we need to defend God?

Wouldn’t a God who longs for deep relationship WANT us to ask questions?

God is in control. God is more concerned with God’s reputation that I am.

So question away. Question everything. Wrestle with hard questions.

Ask questions that make seminary professors turn up their nose.

At the end of the day, are we afraid that God won’t be known?

When tech equals traction. A parable.

by Adam Lehman on December 21, 2009 in Culture, Youth Ministry with 1 Comment

Sometimes people get really immersed in technology. It’s fun to be on the cutting edge and get your hands on cool applications, software, gadgets, etc.

However, the real sweet spot is where those technologies can be used for a purpose.

Here is how tech gained traction for me last night:

We were having our weekly student gathering. My wife says, “You should have all the students bring a white elephant present and do an exchange.” That was 1pm and we gather at 630pm.

I get on our text messaging program. Send out a text message to all the students who’ve signed up (all of them). I then updated our student ministry facebook page with the news.

Not one student or adult leader was without a funny or cool white elephant gift.

We decided to go another direction with that night’s gathering and within 5 hours, everyone was fully equipped and informed.

I’m not sure what tech you’re taking advantage of, but figure out what your people are already using and then dominate it. It’ll free you up. A lot.

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