Dan Tocchini on a roll

My good friend Dan Tocchini has cranked up his blog. Worth checking out for sure.

Along with his wife Aileen, they established the Association For Christian Character Development (ACCD), Global Life Works (GLW) and Culture ROI (CROI). All of these organizations are dedicated to the work of transformation in different parts of our world.

For the past 15 years ACCD has been focused on Christian Character Development and has trained over 30,000 individuals around the world. I first encountered Dan in the spring of 2007 at one of these training. He has blessed me every since.

Valentines Day

Today I kidnapped my daughters for a Daddy lunch date. Taelor is 10 and Addie is 8. We went to Firehouse subs (a favorite for them). What a joy to have wonderful daughters!

Deb Hirsch on Distorted Views

Opening night of the Organic Church Conference, Deb Hirsch (the better looking of the Deb and Alan tandem) gave a great overview of how our distorted views in Western Christianity prevent us from engaging the Kingdom in a powerful way.

She listed seven categories on opening night of the Organic Church Conference. More than one caught me off guard. These bullets do not do it justice.

1. Distorted view of Jesus - not so meek and mild and patsy, but a confrontational subversive anti-religious radical.
2. Distorted view of Self - not as the center but as part of the whole
   
3. Distorted view of Others - not scum bag sinners but created in the image of God
4. Distorted view of the World - not expendable but redeemable
5. Distorted view of Love - not shallow and temporal, but sacrificial and committed
   
6. Distorted view of Family - not small and nuclear, but across blood lines and multi-generational
7. Distorted view of Money and Consumption - basically, we are way to friendly with money and its effect on us.
   

Deb statement on money really hit me. Especially about money having key qualities of deity (and therefore worshipable). Qualities like offering security, being omnipresent and wielding power. This is definitely the God of the West. Forget the threat of Islam, mammon has us in its grip.