Each season, as we invite new people to participate in NCFCA, we all have the opportunity to think afresh about how we explain our mission, our goals, and the personality of our organization to people who don’t know about us and may not even understand the point of speech and debate. We often talk about how this activity helps students learn to think critically and argue in a gracious manner. We mention these benefits of speech and debate because we know everyone wants to see better thinking and more grace in society.
Critical thinking is captured in the idea of reason, but reason takes critical thinking a step further. It moves into the process of synthesizing relevant information into coherent conclusions, often “to talk with another so as to influence actions or opinion” (Merriam-Webster). Likewise, arguing in a gracious manner is an outflow of being able to think in a gracious manner and see the world through a lens of grace.
We’ve selected Grace & Reason as the theme for our upcoming season because we want to think harder and pray more earnestly about these key attributes of our mission as a league.
Our mission is to challenge and equip ambassadors for Christ to communicate truth with integrity and grace. In Christ we see the perfect embodiment of reason and we’re told that He is full of grace and full of truth (John 1:14). Jesus doesn’t switch between grace mode and truth mode in different situations. He wouldn’t even do it in a debate round! He’s always full of grace. He’s always full of truth. And, impeccable reason is part of his very identity.
In the first chapter of John, Jesus is repeatedly referred to as the Word: the Greek word Logos. Logos includes the ideas of “intelligence and expression of that intelligence […and…] the reasoning faculty as that power of the soul which is the basis of speech, rationality” (Zodhiates, S. 1992. The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament).
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
The ability to grasp the connection between reason and grace in a biblical sense requires both intellectual and spiritual understanding. We need what Paul said he prayed for fellow believers in Ephesians 3:19, “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
For followers of Christ, the goal is to know something that surpasses knowing, and to be filled with the fullness of God in Christ–which includes being filled with both grace and reason.
As you begin praying with us for the season ahead, we invite you to think with us about these questions.
- What does it mean to pursue FULLNESS of grace?
- What does it mean to pursue FULLNESS or reason grounded in truth?
As the season progresses, we’ll be praying and talking about different aspects of the connections between reason and grace and our mission as a league. We hope you’ll join us beginning with our annual NCFCA Day of Prayer on September 17.
