• Grace is a form accidental to the soul

    Any substance is either the nature of that of which it is the substance, or a part of its nature. In this sense, matter and form are both called “substance.” But grace is higher than human nature. It cannot then be its substance, nor yet the form of its substance. Grace is a form accidental to the soul. What exists as substance in God occurs as accident in the soul which shares in divine good, as is obvious in the case of knowledge. But since the soul shares in divine good imperfectly, this participation itself, which is grace, exists in the soul in a less perfect mode than that in which the soul exists in itself. Such grace is nevertheless nobler than the soul’s nature, in so far as it is an expression or sharing of the divine goodness, even though it is not nobler than the soul in respect of its mode of being.

    Nature and Grace, Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Question 110 Article 2

    Photo by Lawrence Lew via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    Four questions:

    • Is grace a quality of the soul?
    • Was it in us at birth?
    • Is every action of grace learned behavior?
    • Or is it given to us as an exhibition of the Holy Spirit’s work through us?

    Last night, I was driving home from Costco and Ikea with Megan, and we listened to an interview with Jessica Chastain about her role in Tree of LIfe. She made a few interesting points which I’ve been chewing on.

    • The film is spiritual, not religious as it’s not calling someone to conversion. I don’t know if she was just trying to be politically correct or not. But Jesus made an important distinction between those who know about God and those who have a relationship with God in Matthew 7:21-23. In Jesus’ eyes, knowing about God without looking to conversion is pointless.
    • Grace is at war with human nature. I really like this distinction. It’s not Ms. Chastain’s– she doesn’t take credit for it, it comes from Aquinas. Her example had to do with getting slapped. When you are slapped by someone your nature’s response to to fight back. But graces response is to return a slap with love and compassion. What’s revealing to me about that is how little of that I see in Christian culture. Oh, that we may be a people who respond to one another with love and compassion.
    • Grace is not owned by Christianity. While Ms. Chastain made an attempt to argue that grace is a universal religious expression she couldn’t be further from the truth. This is a uniquely Christian response. While I’m certain other religions have a form of grace… the response she described  is uniquely Christian grace.

    Here’s what I know: When God’s grace shows up it takes your breath away.

    You experience it or you witness it and– in your humanity– you try to replicate it in how you live your life.

    But when grace arrives and it’s from God it comes out of no where and leaves you in awe.

  • 5 Minute Strategy Session: Define Your Ministry Goal

    Discussion questions:

    • Do you agree with the assumption that ministry programs have relational capacities?
    • Do you agree with the assumption that you need to grow or risk losing your job?
    • What are other strategies you could employ in the next 30 days which would impact adolescents in other spheres?

    Here’s the link to download my slides:  [download id=”19″]

  • Boogity boogity boogity AMEN

    ht to Danny via Facebook

  • Coyote Fear

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    Yesterday, I opened my front door to this letter. Everyone in my neighborhood did. Take a second to read it.

    There are so many things wrong in this letter. At its core it teaches us a lot about the power of fear in our lives.

    • The letter is completely anonymous. It’s a letter about fear from a person too afraid to reveal who they are.
    • A concerned neighbor expressed a legitimate concern. Coyote are dangerous to pets. Let’s agree that this note came from a very good place, right?
    • The solution offered is counter-intuitive. Hiding your animals and yourself in your house will not scare away predators.
    • The neighbor doesn’t talk about the one obvious solution: Calling animal control.
    • There’s a cynical side of me that wonders if this isn’t really about coyote, it’s a passive-aggressive note about keeping your pets indoors at night. Maybe this neighbor was awakened by a dog barking or two cats fighting? And there are plenty of neighbors feeding lots of stray cats.
    • The note talks about facts, says there is evidence to back up these facts, but provides no specifics as to where you could see the facts.
    • The notes use of hyperbole is impressive, poetic even, like a chapter of Inferno.
    • “Every cat left outside will be attacked, killed and eaten.” That’s my favorite line. It reminds me of the nightly news.

    Fear is big, bold, all caps… and delivered on your doorstep while you sleep.

    Remember: Jesus is not the author of fear.

    The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ~ John 10:10

  • Kid’s Attention Valued at $1.12 Trillion Annually

    My kids can tell me about all the latest Disney movies. And they can rattle off the specs of just about every toy that they want. Worse yet? They are armed with lines that tell me all about why buying that toy is good for them and the deal they will get if they buy it online by a specific date.

    The culprit? Savvy marketers are hitting them where I’m not looking. Sites that I’ve deemed safe for them to play on are now rewarding them for watching well-placed ads. My own kids are earning Webkinz bucks by watching trailers for movies. It’s not just Webkinz, it’s all of them.

    On the table? Getting kids to influence their parents spending habits.

    $1.12 trillion. That’s the amount that kids influenced last year in overall family spending, says James McNeal, a kid marketing consultant and author of Kids as Consumers: A Handbook of Marketing to Children. “Up to age 16, kids are determining most expenditures in the household,” he says. “This is very attractive to marketers.” 

    Marketing to Kids Gets More Savvy with Technology, USA Today, August 15th 2011. – Read the rest

    What does this have to do with youth ministry? Absolutely everything. I’m not saying you need to market your ministry to your students. But I am saying that you need to know that there are others out there marketing to your students in ways that are more savvy and more influential than your flyer and stage announcement.

    Your retreat, your camp, your mission trip… things like that are competing for the same $1.12 trillion. Sad. But true.

    Tip for Webkinz parents: Go into your kids account and turn off third-party ads.

    Question: Should the government regulate advertising to children? 

  • My Own Casey Anthony

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    You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.

    Matthew 5:21-22 The Message

    I don’t live in Florida. And I barely keep up with the news. In fact, the first thing I heard about the Casey Anthony trial was that people were upset that she had been acquitted on charges of murder.

    There’s no way I can put myself in her shoes, having stood trial, and been declared not guilty on accusations that I’d killed my own child. As the foreperson read the verdict you could see her breath taken away. How her knees didn’t buckle I’ll never know.

    In that moment, either a burden had been lifted or one had been applied. Either way– she wasn’t going to go to jail.

    Tears were natural. I don’t know if I could have stood up to that moment with my future literally written on a piece of paper for a woman to read like she did. She stood there and took the verdict. And in the moments afterward I am sure her mind raced… “Now what?”

    There hadn’t been a next step in her life. But suddenly, in a breath, there was.

    I’m not Casey Anthony.

    While I’m not Ms. Anthony– I am Mr. McLane. And I can put myself in my own shoes. My shoes aren’t much cleaner than hers.

    According to Matthew 5 I am a murderer. And one day I will stand trial and be found guilty on hundreds of counts of murder according to Jesus’ standard. I’m a hopeless case. As I think about my trial, there may be some counts in which I’d plead guilty. And there might be others in which I plead innocent. And, who knows, there might be some in which I’m guilty of both the charge against myself and providing a false report to try to get myself out of trouble for committing the crime which I’d been charged.

    I’m my own Casey Anthony

    I have no idea what really happened with the real Casey Anthony. But my life is full of excuses and lies and manipulations of fact, too.

    Just like her I need a second chance on life. Who am I kidding? I need a 4,635,128th chance on life.

    That’s what is so amazing about second chances in Jesus’ eyes. I might be a hopeless case. But, hanging on the cross, Jesus bore my punishment so I could continue on. In a breath and suddenly, tetelaste, my second chance on life was given.

    Just like Ms. Anthony’s life– from this day forward– her life will be defined by what she does with her second chance.

    So will mine.  So will mine.

    Check out more stories in this series at People of the Second Chance

  • Daddy, if you love me…

    I love spending solo time with my kids. And I really want them to enjoy spending time with me. We spend lots of time doing stuff together as a family, but I think there’s something special about the ratio being 1:1 (or 1:2) instead of 5:2.

    At least once per month I try to take them out to do something– just the two of us. It’s often something simple. Like a trip to Target or Home Depot or out for a taco. But my goal is always to do something a little bigger. Something that’s really special. (When you live in a tourist destination like San Diego, this is actually pretty easy.)

    I also try to mix passions in hopes of passing on some of the things I love. My love for college sports was passed on to me by my dad taking me to Notre Dame football, basketball, and hockey games as a kid. So they go with me to San Diego State football and basketball games. And this year we added the San Diego Padres to the mix because they both seem to enjoy baseball.

    In March, Paul and I were walking to the SDSU vs. Utah game. The Aztecs were ranked in the top 10 in the country. The game was sold out. And the country was just discovering that Viejas Arena had become the most exciting venue west of the Mississippi. Paul dragged his feet a little as we walked across campus.

    “Paul, don’t you want to go to the game? It’s sold out. The Aztecs are awesome this year. And I love sharing this with you.” He got up the courage to tell me the truth. “I really like hanging out with you dad. But we always do things that you love, like sports, and it doesn’t count as a dad date unless it’s something I want to do.”

    My 7 year old prophet hit me… Right. Between. The. Eyes.

    What do you want to do?

    In some ways it seems silly to miss this. But I had a default to want to take my kids along to things I wanted to do. And they picked up that I would have gone to this stuff with or without them, so it didn’t feel as special. While they liked the games they wanted me to come spend time on their turf. They felt loved as we went to games. But they would really feel the love if I’d bypass what I wanted to do for what they wanted to do.

    Yesterday was case-in-point as we went to the Pokemon World Championships. (Pictures above) Thousands of people geeked out on Pokemon. They spoke a language of characters I couldn’t comprehend. The card games, the collectables, the people dressed like the characters. I couldn’t have been more out of place.

    But my kids? It was a giant “I love you” card for them. They couldn’t believe we actually went. (Paul asked me about it months ago but thought I had forgotten.) I didn’t rush them. I just tried to figure it out. I sat and watched as they played in table tournaments. I got excited when they won. I was disappointed when they lost. We took pictures. We wandered around the hotel to make sure they’d seen everything. I learned the names of some characters.

    Parenthood is humbling. There’s times you think you’re winning when you are losing and visa versa. For every miss I’ve had– it felt good to get a win yesterday.

  • An example of Good News to a public school

    A while ago I wrote a blog post called, 10 Ways Your Church can be Good News to Public Schools. Here’s one church doing just that.

    Amazing.

    Check out more like it at 20/20 Vision for schools.

    Imagine what could happen if your church got together and said, “How could we be Good News to a public school?” Anything is possible.

  • If Your Phone Could Talk

    We used to say you could tell a person’s priorities by looking at his checkbook. I’d submit to you that today you can tell a person’s priorities by how he uses his phone.

    If your phone could talk… what would it say about you?

    • Who is he talking to?
    • Who is he texting?
    • How is he talking about people?
    • How does he talk about people via text?
    • What is he looking at when no one else is looking?
    • When is he using his phone?
    • Does his phone fill his hand more than the hand of the one he loves?

    Here’s what I know about technology. One day your phone will tell on you. One day everything you’ve posted on Facebook may become public. One day everything you’ve ever Googled may be public. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

    One day… it will all tell the whole story of you. Every key stroke on that device could one day be exposed. Every text message, direct message, email, and Facebook message could one day become public.

    I believe your smart phone is amoral. It’s can be used for noble or ignoble purposes. My hope is that as I use my phone,  (and technology like it) I use them as instruments of Good News in how I conduct my personal, family, and business affairs.

    The story your phone tells is up to you.

  • Do we live on the same planet?

    Sometimes I’ll meet a person in ministry and think, “Do we live on the same planet?” 

    • I’ve got a really solid core group of kids each Wednesday night– I think they have a chance at winning the Bible quizzing championship.
    • Our high school students are very involved in the community. Each year we get together with other churches in our district for a youth rally. They love it.
    • I always take my sword wherever I go. You have to be prepared for battle at all times.
    • I had to pull my kids out of public school because in California there’s a new law that teachers have to include gay history in the curriculum. (What’s really weird is that they don’t live in California!)
    • I teach my students that they need to take a stand. A life with Jesus is all about taking the stand, right?

    Code language. Insular communities. Church-centric attitudes. It leaves me wondering who they are trying to reach?

    It makes me wonder how they have a conversation with their neighbors? I wonder what they are thinking as they get to know Diane next door, who just had to put her mom in a home. Or what they talk about with the gay couple across the street? Or what their neighbors think about them when they turn off their light on Halloween? Or refuse to come to the block party because people are drinking?

    I wonder if people think of them as good news in the neighborhood?

    I’m guessing that there are a lot of neighbors hiding from a lot of their Christian neighbors in this country.

    I believe in Jesus. He is my only hope for salvation. And I fully acknowledge that the church is God’s chosen instrument for believers. But there is this sliver of people in every church who… are really weird.

    And no one ever has the guts to tell them the truth: “You’re weird. And you really need to work on that. Jesus asks us to be different in a good way. Your weirdness is making it harder for me.”

    The Flip Side – The culture wars are dying

    Not all church staff are like that. It’s actually very few.

    More and more I’m hearing a bad strategy being replaced with good strategy.

    • In order to reach a community you have to meet the relevant needs of the community.
    • In order to start reaching more people we had to stop fighting culture and stop teaching that the output of a life with Jesus is behavior modification.
    • We recognize that to reach our neighbors we have to be good news before they will hear Good News.
    • Rather than bring a program into our community which worked elsewhere, we’re going to the community and asking how we can serve them.
    But it’s the really weird ones that we now have to shake and ask, “Do we live on the same planet?“