By James Choung
I prayed a stupid prayer a year ago.
As I was looking for a new role in campus ministry, I asked for something that would require me to exercise my faith muscles. And when we were starting our church, I asked God to build something that wouldn’t be credited to the talents of the people in the room. I wanted God to do something that could only be explained by his presence with us, that would be impossible to do without God.
This is a guest post by Don Bennett. He has spent the past 12 years serving as a Pastor in different roles. Currently he serves as an Associate Pastor at the Meeting House (Oakville – Main Site), a Multi Site Church throughout Southern Ontario. His passion is to invest in people and engage in conversation.
One key thing I have learnt in my time in ministry is the importance for an evangelist to always have a discipleship pathway in mind for anyone they are connecting with. This comes from my journey as well. I Responded to a great gospel message on Good Friday 1992 and was on a high. The Pastor handed me a bible and affirmed my decision. After reading from page one for a few days I quickly realized I had no idea about what to do with this book and the stories I was reading. How does any of this relate to a decision to stand up and receive Jesus? I went on to listen to the teaching, sing in worship services, but not know what to do next. Then I stumbled away for years until I hit rock bottom and reached out to ask questions.
There are tons of reactions after the verdict came down saturday night. You may be wondering how you should be responding, or how to help those in your ministry that are responding in various ways.
I know I responded with a tweet like this
Watch this video testimony of a guy sold into slavery as a boy and then rescued, trained up, and now is planting churches all over India.
This is a thought provoking post from an African American leader that has many great things to say about the missional movement but has one big critique. I share his feelings and so do many of my friends in InterVarsity and beyond. We need more leaders in the missional church conversation that are not white men.
Let God speak to you through this please.
There’s a complex question that gnaws at my heart as I observe evangelical culture; “Does the broader evangelical church in America recognize that there is something that they can learn from the African American church?” I follow conferences and as of late, I’ve kept up with the missional movement. I love listening to those who have mined the themes associated with everything missional and topics around justice and mercy for the marginalized. I frequent blogs, YouTube videos and the major declarations put out by the evangelical machine. During the past couple of years I’ve recognized the homogeneity of these circles—most of the speakers are white.
This is a guest post from Carolyn Chow. She is a recent grad from San Diego State InterVarsity and now officially a professional working woman in the marketing industry. She is a great friend of mine and I have had the privilege of watching her develop the last four years in college. I asked her to share her remarkable story of the first month on the job in LA. She is truly becoming a world changer!
Just last week I had the opportunity to lead someone to faith at work. That is right, in my first month on the job, in a completely new city, God used me right out of college to lead a sister to Christ. I couldn’t be more excited for her and the mission God has me on in the working world.
From “The Power of Habits”
By Steve Stuckey
Steve is a spiritual director with InterVarsity in Southern California. He writes here on this blog to foster spiritual formation for us catalytic leaders. Our hope is to create some space online to not only stir you up to be an APE leader but also help you connect with God well in your soul. He has developed many APE leaders and knows what our strengths as well as struggles are.
[This post is part of a series called Rooted. Find the other posts here]
Looking back, the two of them could see that the tensions in their marriage began six months ago. Heather landed an internship at a graphic design studio. She left their apartment at 7:30am each morning. Four days a week she stopped off at the gym on her way home from work so it was 6:30pm before she got back to their apartment. Jeff worked afternoons at Starbucks to supplement his income as a church planter. He got off at five and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading out to lead a Bible study or meet with neighborhood friends. By the time he arrived home at 10:00pm, Heather was usually in bed asleep. Jeff checked his email, caught the sports highlights and then went to sleep around midnight. Minor irritations that never got talked about grew to become sharp tensions between the two of them. Finally after one heated argument, the two of them realized that something needed to change. Their daily routine was not giving them enough relaxed time to listen and talk together. As a result they were slowly drifting apart.
By Laura Hairston
Last month, my middle school girls neighborhood group wrapped up a series of 6 weeks watching The Bible. Over 13 million people viewed the first of the miniseries on The History Channel. Of course, it’s a bit ‘Hollywood’, but that’s probably one reason for the number of viewers. One of the beautiful things for me was watching my girls, many for the first time, hearing the stories of the Bible. After an episode, I asked the girls what they noticed about the people Jesus was surrounded by, and their response was
“the sick, the sinners, the prostitutes & tax collectors – not the ‘church people’ like you would think”.
This was interesting insight from these teenage girls.
By Eric Rafferty
Last week my three year old son, Memo, had the experience of going through Vacation Bible School for the first time. As a three year old all I really wanted for him was to get through the week without hitting anyone (he did great on that front by the way). Learning deep truths about Jesus wasn’t really an expectation I had for him, and I definitely didn’t expect him to teach me a foundational truth about mission with Jesus. But that’s exactly what happened.
Eric Metcalf is the Lead Planter of Community Lincoln Park | Old Town – a new church being launching in downtown Chicago on Oct 20, 2013. Eric also provides leadership to NewThing’s Leadership Residency Program – a program designed to apprentice church planters to start new churches. Previously, Eric led NewThing (www.newthing.org), a growing church planting network focused on catalyzing a movement of reproducing churches. Under Eric’s leadership, NewThing was able to double in size every year for 3 years straight; reaching a goal of planting 1 new church every 11 days. Eric has been married for 14 years to his beautiful wife Erin and has three incredible children: Joey (9), Lydia (8), and Max (5).
Because of his leadership with New Thing, I asked him to write a post on the top 3 things church planters must do. He has seen tons of churches plant over his years, so he has a thing or two to teach us!
I led NewThing for almost 4 years and I found 3 things to be true. I’m now planting a church, a Campus of Community Christian Church, in downtown Chicago (Lincoln Park) and I’m still finding those 3 things to be true. Want to know what they are, keep reading you will find out what I believe are the top 3 things churches must do.