Archive - September, 2010

gracenomics – a review

September 27, 2010 in books & reviews, culture, thoughts with 0 Comments

i was excited to hear that mike foster was rolling out another good book.  this one, GRACENOMICS: Unleash the Power of Second Chance Living seemed aptly titled as many of us need to be both a larger giver of grace and also probably at the same time  a bit larger at receiving grace.

in a funny sort of way its a paradoxical title as the suffix tends to imply a “law”.  So when reading it i was stretched in a lot of different ways on a number of fronts.  With the idea simply being we must live  our lives in such a way to allow for each persons larger part of the Story to shine through…and to more deeply realize that there is a larger purpose we are called to but in our pursuit we must walk corporately…realizing that each person has their place and dignity.

here’s a clip on giving each other more of break in the context of our relationships, particularly in the area of divorce…

It makes no sense….And if you think we’re bad to the people we love, think about the people we used to love.
Take our ex-spouses for example. Isn’t it amazing how we can come to thrash on a person who we…
• once thought was the funniest, hottest human being on the planet?
• loved enough to make us rent tuxedos, dress up our friends in silly bridesmaid dresses, and drop thousands of dollars on wedding cake and finger sandwiches?
• got naked with and made babies with (or at least enjoy the attempts)?
But now, all of the sudden, these once fabulous, glamorous, intelligent people are the epitome of evil.
I’m not buying it. Our exes can’t ALL be mentally deranged monsters.
The more likely scenario is that we let the grace get sucked out of our families and marriages. And it all went downhill from there. Instead of unleashing second chance living we sent it packing.

that clip just rocked me as i’ve seen more disconnects between husbands and wives in our outpost then i care to process. mike sets up this observation with a discussion of how we are quick to use  what he calls a “pricing gun” to assign value to others and when we feel as though the value has gone out of something…we are quick to label it or them and push them to the “clearance rack”.

This book is an excellent read.  I appreciated the space in the book that invited the reader to think out and develop some action steps on how to be more of a grace-giver.  it was also helpful to have many practical stories of how folks are trying to make second chances a reality.  the book closes with an invitation to anyone who is willing to accept to join into what he calls a “scandal” of second chance living…to a place where we live our lives in the “economy of grace”.

I for one am wrestling through what that means and how i can live that out daily, personally and professionally.  the book gets released next week at catalyst.  til then you can hop over  here to sign up and join in as people of the second chance.

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September 26, 2010 in thoughts with 0 Comments

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six flags over Jesus?

September 25, 2010 in adventure, culture, leadership, thoughts with 0 Comments

catching up on my google reader this morning and i caught this video that lenoard sweet used to close out his session at story 2010. it caught me off guard but also touched a recent memory from our summer camp.

tim schraeder, blogging notes from story 2010 offered this on sweet’s talk… sweet suggests that the reason why this song resonated with so many people…especially for the people of Haiti…and even for our kids at camp…

  • That was the cry of a TGIF (Twitter, Google, iPhone, Facebook) generation.
  • When I get older then I’ll be stronger, they’ll call me freedom… just like a waving flag.
  • It’s a cry of hope.
  • This a culture looking for waving flags.
  • We are flying a lot of flags… leadership, justice, causes… of the Kingdom?
  • We don’t know what a Kingdom is because a kingdom has to have a king. We don’t understand that in America.
  • You know where the king is because they fly the flag of the king where he is present.
  • We need to start flying the right flag.
  • Jesus is the King.
  • Our storytellers need to start flying the flag of Jesus and His Kingdom.
  • We’ve been waving “Six Flags” over Jesus… we need to wave the flag of Jesus for a world desperate and searching for Him.

I think Len is on to something.  this summer at camp this same song, in its original version, easily became the theme song.  it resonated with the students. though they are only beginning to see the journey ahead of them, those of us in leadership in the church need to direct their paths with more intentionally…more is required from them and therefore more must be directed by us to help them live out what Greg Stier has renamed the Cause…for us pre-TGIF generation we called it the Great  Commission.

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September 19, 2010 in thoughts with 0 Comments

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1 by Youth – Detroit

September 13, 2010 in adventure, books & reviews, culture, student ministry, thoughts with 1 Comment

Last week i took 9 students and 4 adults to southwest detroit to take part in  a 1 day of serving.  this is a new program from the folks at Group Cares.  The mission of…
1 By Youth™ unites youth groups to SERVE people in need and TRANSFORM entire neighborhoods… …IN ONE DAY!

we joined up with the other 500 + volunteers and got our assignments.  We were partnered with Pastor Justin and his students from Mt Hope Congregational Church in nearby Lavonia, MI.  Our serving site was Boyer Playfield at the insection of Vernor and Dragoon about 10 blocks from our rallying point, Clark Park.  Our task for the day was to clean & paint Boyer Play area, a local neighborhood park.  The task’s included painting over graffiti on local garages and fences that faced the park, trimming overgrown bushes and some landscaping.  The whole day was a stretch for all of us…that started from the moment we left at 5am and continued even after we arrived at our work site.

the first thing we encountered was a sickly pit bull who had a fighting collar on.  our site supervisor contacted the animal cruelty department, who upon arrival determined that the dog had been shot.  the dog looked haggard and it was a sad sight.  there was a pit bull next to the park that was actually padlocked to its chain.  it was good to see the students immediately step into the task and made quick work of the listed tasks.  During the cleanup the students found 5 used drug syringes, which was just one more indication of the brokenness of the neighborhood.

We were reminded of the key verse for the day from Matt 5:14-16 about letting our good deeds be a shining light.  To that end early in the our efforts a young man named Atoro approached and asked how he could join in our serving.  he was a local construction worker and readily offered his strength and his tools to help clear the heavily overgrown brush around the park perimeter.

During our lunch we spent some time doing some debriefing and reflecting again on Matt 5:14-16.  One thing that was very noticeable about our work site, that although it was a park…there wasn’t any children present.  as our final act we gather is a prayer circle and prayed over the ground upon which we were standing and for those that would be served by the park.

this was  a great one day event for our students and adult leaders.  the  1 by youth team was excellent and the whole experience was a great investment.  if you get in early the cost is $29.  I’m not sure about their other venues offered, but the detroit experience offered the added weight of being on the 9th anniversary of 9/11. So there was an extended partnership with local community development folks. We were told by many of the locals how blessed they were that our group would drive 3 hours to serve them. it was also good to see the city come together and join efforts to impact this neighborhood. the only disappointment to the day was the rain which forced the cancellation of a block party. it should be mentioned that the rain stopped the party…but not the the students…they all refused to come in from their tasks and just kept working.

here’s the wrap-up video of our effort.

EVO: Mission Detroit- 1 by Youth – 9.11.10 from nhloud video messages and media on Vimeo.

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