This is a guest post by Paul Worcester. He is the director of Challenge at Chico State in California where he lives with his wife Christy and son Owen.
I am an evangelist. Nothing gets me more stoked than sharing the good news of Jesus with someone for the first time. However the role of an evangelist was given to “equip the saints for the work of ministry.” (Ephesians 4:12)
[This is part of a series on “How Do I Develop an Apostolic Leader?” You can read the other posts here.]
By Chris Nichols
“Recently a pilot was practicing high–speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent – and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she was flying upside down.
This is a parable of human existence in our times – not exactly that everyone is crashing, though there is enough of that – but most of us as individuals, and world society as a whole, live at high-speed, and often with no clue to whether we are flying upside down or right-side up. Indeed, we are haunted by a strong suspicion that there may be no difference – or at least that it is unknown or irrelevant.“ – The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard
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]
His name means El is Yah or God is Yahweh. His job was to confront false religion, clear out the pantheon, and call a recalcitrant people back to their roots. He performed his dangerous task with authority, humility, and humor. Like Moses he had a twin peak experience in life—two high points with a valley in between. (Read 1 Kings 17-19 and view this artistic study). Learning to navigate that type of spiritual geography is an important task for any follower of Jesus, especially for apostles, prophets and evangelists.
[This is an update to a previous post]
By Beau Crosetto
Two weeks ago I shared with you about how I got overly angry at my wife and how I felt like God was going to use that in my relationship with my neighbors who are curious about Jesus. I told you I was going to share with them about my struggle and let them into how I pursue Christ for my transformation.
Well over the last two weeks I have shared with them and I have some powerful updates.
[If you have a great story from college or know a great story please submit here]
“For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.” – 1 Corinthians 4:9
I am Eduardo Lape, Jr, a 17-year old apostle of the Lord from Davao, Philippines. I am a college student at Ateneo de Davao University. I became a Christian when I during my high school years, 3 years ago, when my classmate, who became my mentor, invited me to a 3-day spiritual retreat called “Encounter”. From that day onward, my life was never the same again. And the fire set inside me by the Holy Spirit just made me want others to also experience the joy of being in the Lord. So I immediately started a ministry at my former campus together with my friend prophet, Benedict. We got our whole class dedicate their lives to Jesus.
By Eric Rafferty
As another school year wraps up and we take account of some of the things Jesus has done on campus with students at UNO, we are recognizing that this was an incredible year. The ministry we lead at UNO had its best ever year of growth. We’re three years into planting at this commuter campus and we’ve seen the chapter grow from 30 students in 2011 to 50 in 2012 to 74 in 2013. We’ve seen the number of small groups grow from 7 to 9 to 14, reaching out to different corners of campus from athletes to international students.
By Brad Brisco
When discussing what it means to live a missional-incarnational lifestyle I will often say that the word “missional” denotes our “sentness,” both individually and collectively as the church. It is about our direction—we are sent. The term “incarnational” reflects the idea of “staying.” It is about how and where we are sent. While missional speaks to being sent, incarnational speaks to embedding our lives and the gospel of the Kingdom into a local context.
By Beau Crosetto
Last week a few of my buddies and I went to play tennis. We needed a 4th and it dawned on me to invite a guy I play volleyball with. He said yes and we had a great time playing that night. But when we were done I wanted to see if God was up to more so I asked the guy if he wanted to grab a drink and talk a bit in my man cave.
He stuck around and we had a great conversation until about 11:30 at night. The guy is an Indian man with a Hindu background. He is very spiritual but has a completely different view of God than I do. We had a great discussion about faith and at the end I asked him if he would be willing to read a book with me and debate the ideas in the book instead of the ideas in our head.
He said yes! So we are now going to start chewing through “Mere Christianity” and talking about the ideas of truth, morality and if there is one God or not.
I am really excited to keep talking with this guy, but I almost missed the moment. I almost didn’t invite him, almost went to bed when tennis was over, almost didn’t push into the spiritual conversation, and almost didn’t ask him to read a book with me.
It got me thinking about the disciples in John 4 and how they totally missed the moment Jesus had with the woman at the well.
[This is part of the College Writers series. We are looking for students who want to post great stories like below.]
This is a great story of conversion told by Christine. She is a college student at UCSD, majoring in Literatures in English. She is a Vision Team Leader for InterVarsity’s international chapter (International Christian Fellowship).
Grace and I first met through UCSD’s language exchange program in Fall of 2012. Our first conversation was light and simple, but things changed when she asked me about what I did for fun. I told her that I like to sing at my church on Sunday mornings, and surprisingly, she asked if she could join me. Her intrigue about church surprised me, and I responded with excitement! She then asked me what else she could do in San Diego to have fun while improving her English. I recommended that she come to International Christian Fellowship (ICF) so that she could meet both American and international students who would become good potential friends for her. Immediately, her eyes widened, and she told me that two other people had told her about ICF that week! This seemed like perfect orchestration. From that moment on, I asked God to show Himself to be real to Grace.
Annie & Stephanie: Two Alaskan students starting something new
By Shawn Young
Do you think it’s possible for students to plant ministries, or does it take a “professional minister” to do it? Historically, Christian student initiatives have been controlled, limited or dismissed by professional clergy because they “lack the theological training necessary”. But the simple fact is, there are not enough campus ministers to reach the 4000 colleges and universities just in the United States, much less the rest of the world. We simply cannot afford to confine the expansion of new ministry to the number of “full-time campus ministers” we can hire. The only way that every campus will have a witnessing community is if students are taken seriously as planters themselves.
I believe that every Christian student carries within them the potential to start a Jesus-centered community that can reach others with the gospel. Annie and Stephanie are two students who proved this to be true.
