2013 | Release the A.P.E.

Spiritual Courage: Taking Down Goliath

2 responses
April 4, 2013

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By Jon Hietbrink

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” — CS Lewis

What we’re trying to do is hard.

Catalyzing new movements of missional communities is complicated, and our job description as leaders is often a mile long: disciple, pray, vision, witness, fundraise, meet, care, decide, communicate, recruit, repeat. To be a leader is to embrace the reality that more will be asked of us than we can give–we choose to make our home in the deep end not because it’s comfortable, but because that’s where Jesus calls us. In the midst of all that we’re asked to shoulder as leaders, one thing surfaces again and again–the indispensable role of simple courage. Leadership is most certainly about vision, strategy, and organizational behavior, but at it’s most fundamental level, leadership is about exercising the courage to look fear in the eyes and defy it by fixing our gaze on Jesus instead.

Show & Tell

2 responses
April 3, 2013

duck and ducklings

By Beau Crosetto

It is alarming to me how much leaders do not model for the people below them. I see it especially apparent the higher I look up the leadership ladder. It seems that the more and more someone gets removed from the ground level, less and less modeling takes place. It is bothering me. These are the most skilled and advanced leaders. They/we need to be showing people what to do, not just telling them!

It’s time to get back into the pond and show people how to swim instead of shouting from the shore.

The other day I was having a conversation with a person I really look up to as a leader. They asked me about how I was modeling for the guy I am raising up and I realized I wasn’t doing a very good job in one area specifically. Sorry Nick 🙂

I had fallen into the trap that most leaders fall into:

Who Do You Think You Are?

2 responses
April 1, 2013

This is a guest post by Laura Hairston. Laura is a wife, mom & practitioner. She serves on the National Leadership team for Forge America Mission Training Network and is co-founder of Waken Ministries, both organizations helping with missionary formation & discipleship. She lives in the North Dallas suburbs where she mentors teenage girls in her home as well as longs to see her neighborhood look more like the kingdom of God each day. Her heartbeat is for every follower of Jesus to see themselves as missionaries in their every day lives. Twitter | Facebook

“Who do you think you are?” is what I’d really like to say to those “Christians”—yes, those are air quotes—who think they are better than everyone else. Just because we know Jesus and have decided to follow him doesn’t mean we turn inward and raise ourselves in status. On the contrary, we should be turning outward and becoming more gracious and humble.

I’ll preface the rest of this by saying I used to be one of those “Christians.” I only spent time with the people I worked around and attended church with, and most of them were all the same since I worked in a church. I never had time for my neighbors or really anyone else for that matter. I was constantly surrounded by people who believed and valued the same things I did.

He is Here! (Two Great Videos)

one response
March 31, 2013

I want to share with you two great videos that help us celebrate the resurrection on this awesome Easter day.

This video is a spoken word that my wife Kristina shared today as she preached at our church, The Vineyard Underground

[tentblogger-youtube STEC2WIk77s]

This next video is Kristina sharing a story of disappointment and then breakthrough in healing a few years back. Really powerful and a total witness to the power of the resurrection.

I hope you enjoy these and have a great day remembering and welcoming the resurrection into your life more fully!

Death is our Call

2 responses
March 29, 2013

Jesus Christ

By Beau Crosetto

I don’t have alot to say today. I mean, its an awkward day.

It’s a good day and a bad day. Its good because our Lord, Jesus Christ, has gone to the cross to die for the sin of the world. We know now because of hindsight that this day had to happen and we are ever so thankful.

It’s a bad day because we have to think about the fact that our sin + the rest of the world’s sent our Lord, Jesus Christ, to the cross to die. If we weren’t such screw ups as human beings this never would have had to happen.

Its such a weird day internally.

But as far as this blog is concerned, and A.P.E. leadership, I have a few thoughts.

Today is a day to remember that the death of Jesus Christ leads us and this is the foundation of all we do and who we are as Christians first, and secondly as apostolic, prophetic, or evangelistic leaders.

A blog like this, and people like us can get confused. I mean, the APE are the catalytic vocations of the body of Christ, the primary activists and extenders of the Kingdom of God and the ones most often intersecting with the broader culture. The APE vocations as called by God are frequently outside the church walls on a daily basis.

Because of this we can forget.

Cultural Pressure: living as strangers and aliens

2 responses
March 26, 2013

Stand Out From the Crowd

[This is part of a series on “How Do I Develop an Apostolic Leader?” You can read the other posts here.]

By Chris Nichols

I Peter 2:9-11

11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. 12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge. 13 For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, 14 or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. 16 As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. 17 Honor everyone.

If we are fully engaged in the missionary enterprise we will find ourselves at the front edge of life in dynamic interaction with the secular world. At that confluence of worldviews we will be debated, misunderstood, “maligned as an evil doers,” feeling like a constant outsider. We never quite fit, pointed at as the one who doesn’t belong. We often feel alone. It‘s easy to wonder if we’re in the right place, have the right message, or are in the right job.

We are discovering life as an alien and exile.

Discipleship…Catalyzed By Mission

3 responses
March 25, 2013

discipleship 101

By Brad Brisco

Within the missional conversation people often speak of how God’s mission (the missio Dei) needs to be the organizing principle around which all activities of the church should operate. In other words, participation in God’s mission should inform or shape how the church does small groups, youth ministry, children’s ministry, corporate worship, teaching, etc.

From the Margins…

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March 24, 2013

This is a guest post from Eddy Ekmekji. Eddy works in with me in Los Angeles as part of the InterVarsity Divisional Leadership team. He is the Director for Black Campus Ministries in LA. Eddy shared a devotional with us a few months back about ministering from the margins, not just to them and I thought it was fantastic. I asked him to write us a post and he kindly did! Enjoy!

[This is part of a series on John The Baptist as Prophet. You can read the other posts here!]

A few months ago, I came across Luke 3.1-3 in my morning devotionals where Luke sets up the scene that describes John the Baptist’s ministry. In the three verses, Luke drops eight names, seven of whom would have been some of the most powerful men in political and religious leadership. Along with those names, Luke carves out the various regions of power where these men exercised their might. In contrast to these centers of power and men of power, we read of the word of God coming to John son of Zechariah, and it coming in the wilderness.

The word of God did not come to the men of power or to the places of power, but it came to a person of obscurity living on the margins of society. And as we keep reading the story, we see the incredible ministry that John has in proclaiming his baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People from all walks of life were going out to him to be blessed by his ministry. The person on the margin spoke truth to power.

The Parable of the Growing Seed

2 responses
March 22, 2013

growing seed

By Beau Crosetto

26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4

Today I am sick in bed 🙁

But I am thinking about all the work we are doing here in Los Angeles and some of the things that have not come to fruition yet are giving me anxiety.

God’s leading or our work?

no responses
March 21, 2013

sky

By James Choung

From Numbers 10.29-32, Moses is having an interesting conversation with his brother-in-law, Hobab. In the previous chapter, it was clear that God was leading the camp. When His cloud lifted, they would march. When it settled, they would stay. And they would follow the cloud.

What’s clear is that God is guiding them, right?

But when Hobab declares his intent to leave the Israelite community to head back to his family in Midian, Moses begs him to stay. His reason? “You know all the best places to camp in the wilderness. We need your eyes.”

Wasn’t God leading them?