This is a guest post by Mike McArthur. I asked Mike to share his experience after reading some of his posts, particularly this one. Check it out!

“We are too small to be able to afford to pay a pastor, the church will have to close.”

Bad call!

Employing a pastor is not a necessary requirement of a healthy church. In many cases it is really a convenient way to make life easier for the elders and church members.

Many small churches are struggling to balance budgets, yet the last expense to be cut is usually the pastor’s salary. As an elder myself I would never want to make a pastor redundant, but after our part-time pastor resigned a year and a half ago we did not employ anyone to replace him. Despite some doubters, our congregation is still thriving, we have an excellent Sunday school program, great sermons and heartfelt worship singing each week.

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Recently we sat down with author and editor-extraordinaire, Kevin Hendricks, to chat about his latest literary creation, Addition by Adoption: Kids, Causes & 140 Characters. Aside from being a fellow Bethel grad and running his own communications company, Monkey Outta Nowhere, Kevin’s an adopting dad. His book talks about his experience with adoption while integrating his social media life into the fold. Yes, it can be done!

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Why Did I Start Real Fake Ads?

Recently, I did something weird: I started a website called Real Fake Ads (http://realfakeads.com). The premise is fairly straightforward — I create fake ads for fake things and post them on the blog. My intent is to make people laugh and maybe make them think or see the world a little differently. Whether or not I accomplish that on a regular basis, I dunno.

Recently, Justin asked me to write this post and explore why I created the site, and I’m glad he did. Here are the reasons I came up with.

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This is a guest post by Nicole Unice.

I have a confession to make. I like pop music.

And not just the Miley Cyrus, High School Musical flavor. I like the beat thumping, chorus humming, and—dare I say it—booty-shaking kind. There it is. I am a woman in my early 30s, with three children and a minivan. I run a Christian counseling practice and a women’s ministry. People look to me for soul direction and depth, and in my spare time, I like to dance around and get low, low, low.

The best part? I think that’s OK with Jesus.

My senior pastor plays tennis on a team with my husband’s co-worker. Last week, the team finished a game and had some beers in a cooler. One of them offered my pastor a beer and (gasp!) he took it. Later, the co-worker told my husband that he cringed because his teammate must not have known he was offering a beer to a pastor. The co-worker reported. “Wow, I was surprised he had a beer with us. That’s cool.” (more…)

This is a guest post by Andy Whisenant.

I love to read. (I guess it helps that I work at a bookstore.) It feeds my addiction.

If you walk into any bookstore and head to the Christian book section, you’ll likely find,

• A wide assortment of fiction titles (most of which are westerns or ones that take place in a Mennonite community).
• Several books guaranteeing you that God’s desire for your life is to be rich and happy all the time.
• A few books from authors that claim that they have unlocked the secret to knowing when the world is going to end.

Another group of books you’ll likely find includes books all about finding God’s will for your life, complete with formulas and fill-in-the-blanks. It’s all tied up really well in a nice package with a cool cover and a catchy title.

Finding the Formula

For a long time, I thought that was how I was going to find out God’s will for my life. (more…)

The first time I saw the post, I overlooked it. I was browsing through the Christian blogs I’ve subscribed to on Google Reader, starring ones I wanted to go back to later and read more intently. I noticed the post because I had written a post on a similar subject. I figured I’d already learned everything there was to learn on the subject, so at first I passed it in the list.

I’m not sure why I went back to read the post, but when I did, I was surprised at what I found.

It wasn’t the title that looked familiar; it was the first sentence. I remembered writing and re-writing that sentence over and over again. Being a perfectionistic writer, that opening paragraph had frustrated me to no end. I wasn’t even sure I liked it when it was finally published on Revelife, the blog community of which I am the lead editor.

Parts of the post had been changed, but overall, it was the same – my thoughts, my words, my hard work. They had been lifted off the front page of Revelife, copied word for word, and pasted on another Christian blog to be published yet again, passed off as someone else’s work.

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This is a guest post by Sam Mahlstadt.

Have you ever noticed some in the millennial generation are bent on bringing about change to their fields of interest, while maintaining fixed beliefs that actually work against the change they wish to see?

I have a theory: We don’t actually want things to change.

Seriously. Because if things change, we have to learn new systems and alter the way we work.

This effects many different areas in society, but I see it especially in the church.

Young, talented, entrepreneurial Christians with a desire to see the church become a creative expression of Christ’s love for the world, but not committed to change their mindset in order to make their ideas a reality. What’s missing is a belief that we can make a difference from right where we are. Anyone, at any time, can spark change. However, becoming a catalyst for change is difficult, and requires a sacrifice of comfort. Most people will give up on an idea, because even though they want things to change, they don’t really want to give anything up for it.

Trust me, we need your voice. We need your ideas. We need your innovation. If we are going to see the local church become a creative, compassionate and powerful force in our communities, we need you to think differently about yourself. Re-think your views and jump in. We are waiting.

What are you waiting for?

This is a guest post by Michael Meggison. Interested in contributing your voice to BeDeviant.com? Find the details here.

He was a man about to grab the next rung on success’ ladder but it looked like the ladder had teeth. When he rushed into the Road Show Video, it was me behind the counter.

Could I please help him?

It was hard to catch what all he was saying.

His wife and their four-year-old little girl; I-80; Was it on the news yet?

Life flight.  Iowa City.

He’d lost their ATM card.  Three hours away.

He’d run out of gas on his way to get across the state to get to them.

Could I please help him?

I could feel the shock he was in–like the blizzard slaps on our way home from our own Iowa City bad news.

No bone marrow transplant would take.

Pop and I passed my flask back and forth—staring out into the fat white missiles coming straight for us, momma cracking not funny jokes in the back.

This would be her last year, the man they said should know said.

(She beat him by one month to the day

We were right next to the Kelly’s Texaco on 63rd Street south of Grand.

I could see what I guessed was his car aimed at the street next to the pump:  colorless-crappy and apparently on fumes.

My heart went out to him.

I had a young niece.  I could probably…

If I couldn’t, he understood but man, if I could…

He took my number and address and thanked me profusely and God blessed me and I reached into my pocket and I gave him $80.

A lot.

As I watched him streak back to his car–I felt really good. I was really proud of myself at a time, when, for me, that was the exception of how I felt about me.

It didn’t occur to me until later that he didn’t put any gas in the car.

Maybe fifteen minutes later the South Side Road Show manager rang in to warn me to look out for a confidence man telling some boohoo story about his family and life flight. He’d taken them for thirty-five.

I miss the whole Road Show gang—they were very kind to a lonely Megs—Glenny, God Bless You!

It was my decision.  It was my money.

I never saw him again.  But I do remember him.

He preyed on something still alive and hopeful in me.

My heart wasn’t just a funky lonely hole and his short con only cost me $80 to show that to me at a time when I really needed to see it.

Sure, I felt stupid and foolish:  I had been taken. But every time I’ve looked back at it—I admire me in that moment.

I see me the way my Father sees me.  He likes me.  He thinks a lot of me.

Bill Johnson said in a sermon I heard recently that we can’t afford to think lesser thoughts of ourselves than heaven thinks.

I’d back-slidden right down to raw spinal-tap fluid—but I believe in heaven sitting next to Jesus–the One who knows me better than I do–on the best of reel:  that scene at Road Show Video when I got conned out of $80 American shows up.

I bet there are some of those moments where you blew it and someone abused you in some light—but your heart was right.

So—be blessed by it.  Share it, if you’re led.

Ostriches do put their heads in the sand.

But ostrich farmers say they do it in search of something to eat.

This is a guest post from Ryan Johnston. Interested in contributing your voice to BeDeviant.com? Check out the details here.

“Unconform.” You’re right, it’s not a word…..yet.

Usually, the word should be nonconformity, but in the church it is the rare case that there is nonconformity.  If anything, we have conformity.

Which is why we need to unconform.

The church seems to be all about conformity

• You can only go to church on a certain day, at a certain time.
• You have to worship God in a church-nowhere else.
• We’ll sing certain songs, the service will go in a certain order, and you better not mess up the order or God won’t love you anymore.
• You have to begin and end at a certain time, if you’re outside those boundaries then God won’t be present.
• I hope you’re dressed up, because God won’t accept those wearing t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops, or anything else that doesn’t conform to the dress code.  And don’t ask what the dress code is, you’re just supposed to know.

Well, that sums up most churches I’ve been to anyway.  And, I have to admit, it’s hard to not think that way when you’ve done it your whole life.

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