By Luke Cawley
Over the next few months, I’m travelling to a range of countries as part of my work with Chrysolis. Each month I’ll share with you a story from one of those places, and share some of the questions it raises.
This month, we start with the USA:
The words stopped my friend in her tracks: “I’m not a Christian, I hate Christians”.
By Chris Nichols
Life in ministry can be frantically full, especially in a ministry setting where apostolic and evangelistic gifts are being effectively demonstrated. Pushing forward into new territory, calling skeptics and seekers to belief, and gathering them into Jesus centered community are foundational elements of ministry culture and is invigorating for everyone involved. Whether you are planting or building, these are essential qualities that need to be valued and encouraged.
But the leaders of apostolic movements must do more than churn up evangelistic and expansion activity. They need always be aware when ministry activity is edging into chaotic, gospel activity rather than strategic kingdom advancement.
In order to avoid developing that kind of frenetic ministry culture, effective leaders of apostolic movements must be ready and willing to do three things in order to lead effectively.
The term apostle can provoke all kinds of reactions. What exactly does this word mean? Are there really present day apostles? If so, what do they do? And why does it matter? These are all really important questions. This blog post series is an attempt to look at these questions and point to biblical answers. I have asked Tim Catchim, a great thinker and writer on the apostolic, to write a blog series for us. Here is post one in the series “Are Apostles For Today?”
In Organization at the Limit, a book dedicated to looking at organizational dynamics that contributed to the Columbia space shuttle disaster, William Ocasio discusses the unique connection between language and our ability to “see” what is going on around us. Language has the subtle, yet powerful ability to focus our attention. It can point us toward existing problems and solutions, or it can blind us from those very things. In other words, the language we commonly use can greatly influence what gets noticed and what gets ignored. He says it like this, “It’s not that language determines what can be thought, but that language influences what routinely does get thought.”[1]
Join us for the Sentralized West Coast 2014 gathering in Costa Mesa January 23rd-25th, 2014. We will be hosting some of the best missional thinkers and practitioners in the world.
Come spend time with and learn from Alan and Deb Hirsch, Michael Frost, Ori Brafman, Neil Cole, Hugh Halter, Jen Hatmaker, Dan Kimball, Noel Castellanos, Lance Ford, Kathy Escobar, Kim Hammond, Lisa Sharon Harper, Caesar Kalinowski, Matt Smay, Leroy Barber, Efrem Smith, Jon Huckins, Sean Gladding, Beau Crosetto, Brad Brisco and others.
We will be offering 14 main sessions, 27 breakout sessions, and significant “living room” times to network and connect with all the presenters. So get registered, mark your calendar and plan on joining us in Costa Mesa in January!
[This post is part of a series called Rooted. Find the other posts here]
Maybe someone left the gate unlatched. Or maybe one of the animals leaned hard against the wooden rails of the coral. Regardless, the herd of donkeys escaped their quarters and wandered off to who knows where. When the loss was discovered, Kish longed to get his valuable pack animals back. In the 10th century B.C economy, donkeys were the fuel efficient cargo trucks of the day. So Kish recruited his handsome son Saul and a trusted servant and sent them on a search. They looked far and wide. No donkeys. Finally the servant said, “There is a man of God in the next village. Let’s ask him.” So their loss, longing, and search led them, as a last resort, to seek God for help.
But what they found was not what they expected. Their seemingly haphazard search for delinquent donkeys led them into the middle of an epic search conducted by none other that Yahweh himself. The Lord was looking for a man with a heart for God who would serve his people with him. He is still looking.
By Tyler Allred
Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father
(Philippians 2:5-11 ESV)
Today I was listening to a sermon from Tim Keller he gave on February 1st, 2013 titled Imitating the Incarnation. He gave a rather provocative statement that I think can help shape how we approach evangelism:
“We must realize that the only possible way to respond to Jesus is “extremely”
Grant is a recent graduate of San Diego State and personal trainer. He takes fitness and faith very seriously. He is getting into some great conversations at work and I asked him to share about some of those. I love Grant because he is so willing to follow Jesus into any situation even if he doesn’t feel totally ready. We can all learn from him. Enjoy!
Before I talk about what God is doing at my work place I think it would be helpful to share a little about my evangelistic background. I am a graduate and former IV leader from San Diego State University and truth be told, I am horrible at evangelism! At least that is how I originally viewed it until Jesus changed my way of thinking.
I used to envision evangelism as converting as many people to the faith as possible. If that were the case, to this day I definitely have not done a good job. But in reality, it is at its core, simply telling people about the Jesus. The former viewpoint made me into a sales person- trying to hit a quota to be a “Good Christian” but the latter set me free to enjoy sharing my passion!
A few weeks ago I wrote a post “Planting is Like Learning to Swim” and I detailed some of our struggles with Greek Ministry at USC. Well just last week we had a breakthrough. Here is a write up of a fabulous conversion story from one of the interns who works with me, Jon Wong.
“Yeah, I’m actually trying to reconnect with God. But I got to go right now.”
We met Adam while passing out flyers for Greek InterVarsity – he was one of those guys who grabbed a flyer and then disappeared, just another Greek amongst the crowd flowing by our table. He gave his phone number and biked off.
Take a risk, stick your neck out…your friend is waiting.
By Beau Crosetto
Think about a time when you really stuck your neck out on the line. When was that time you believed in something so much that you did all you could to recruit to the cause?
It could be that weekend trip that you are trying feverously to get your buddies to skip work for. It could be that beautiful gal or cute boy that you want to go on a date with you. It could be a cause to save millions of lives and you just need people to donate money. When we really want something, we will stick our neck out and do what it takes.
But what does this look like in the Christian faith? What does, “stick your neck out” faith look like when it comes to Jesus?
This is a guest post by Jordan Seng. He is the senior pastor of Bluewater Mission, and has been engaged in teaching, healing and prophetic ministry, worship, small groups, missions and church planting for the last twenty years. Before helping to begin Bluewater Mission, he served for four years in the Presbyterian church and about 16 in the Vineyard association of churches. He holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of Chicago, with a Ph.D. in Political Theory. He is the author of Miracle Work: A Down-to-Earth Guide for Supernatural Ministries (InterVarsity Press). He and his wife Sonya have two children.
A self-proclaimed atheist came with a friend to a recent spiritual encounter retreat hosted by a young man in our church. She was just curious to see what it was like. The host politely asked the non-believing visitor if he could include her as he prayed for attendees to be filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit. She obliged, and soon felt a surge of power as the Holy Spirit filled her and she burst out speaking in tongues. She was totally shocked. The next day she returned to the retreat and accepted Jesus as Lord.
Another non-believing young woman was brought to our church because of bizarre, uncontrolled outbursts she’d been having. While one of our leaders prayed over her in our office, she lost control of herself physically and cried out in a fashion we recognize as demonic. The young leader cast out the demon, and began a healing friendship with the woman. Today she’s in control and following Jesus like a trooper.
These stories are a little weird, and also very biblical. They reflect, for example, the descriptions of the deliverances and healings Philip used to evangelize Samaria (Acts 8), or the way the Spirit fell upon the gathering of seekers in Cornelius’ house (Acts 10), or Paul’s assertion that tongues are a sign for nonbelievers (1 Corinthians 14:22). The New Testament is filled with accounts of how healings, deliverances, prophecies, and manifest outpourings of the Spirit helped fuel the evangelism and growth of the early Church.
But I find that very few churches today make the effort to use supernatural ministries evangelistically. Why is that?