Year: 2014

Ministry Idols: Metrics

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UntitledThis is a guest post by Scott Bessenecker. He is the Associate Director of Mission for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Each year he helps to mobilize thousands of students to domestic and international mission. He is author of various books including his new release Overturning Tables: Freeing Missions from the Christian-Industrial Complex

I’m not interested in growth, I’m interested in flourishing. And there’s a difference.

Growth has become the ministry altar upon which we have sacrificed seeking the flourishing of God’s kingdom and God’s justice. It is sometimes the only lens through which we understand ministry health, as if constant growth were the Holy Grail of ministry success. But in a living organism there is a word for unabated growth which does not contribute to flourishing, it’s called cancer.

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Evangelism: Who’s Job Is It Anyways?

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This week, in an effort to let people know about my evangelism book, Beyond Awkward, different people are posting blogs I have written taking you deeper into the content of the book.

If you buy the book by Friday night, you also receive 4 FREE bonus resources from me.

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Bob Roberts Jr. is one of those people and he has a blog post on his site from me about the confusion in knowing the role of Holy Spirit and our own role in evangelism.

If you are anything like me then you struggle with this tension too: Who is supposed to make things happen in evangelism, God or me?

When it comes to seeking conversion in our friend’s and families lives, we don’t want to be annoying and pushy, but we don’t want to sit back and wait forever either. Some of us are more temperamentally on the side of things that says, “I need to make something happen” while others of us are more the “If its going to happen then God is going to do it”.

But effective evangelism is more nuanced and partnered than this. Both statements above assume a black or white reality when God is inviting us into the blended.

Read the whole post here

HOW TO REACH “EXPERIENCED-BASED” PEOPLE WITH THE GOSPEL

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A few years back while sitting in a café with a student trying my best to persuade him of the reality of Jesus and that He is in fact God, I became incredibly frustrated as he said to me, “Beau, I don’t care if this is true or not, I want to know if Jesus works?”

This comment both perplexed and opened up a whole new way for me to see how to reach people that are more “experienced based”.

If you would like to see what God showed me about reaching experience – based people, then read the rest of my post over on Linson Daniel’s blog. He was gracious enough to host me this week and help spread the word about my book being released and the 4 FREE bonuses I am offering just this week.

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Evangelism: Awkwardly Silent or Awkwardly Zealous?

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If you buy Beyond Awkward this week, you get 4 FREE bonuses!

When it comes to sharing our faith most of us tend to be awkward – either awkwardly silent or awkwardly zealous.

When you say the word evangelism it doesn’t tend to bring up positive connotations and when you think of a person who is an evangelist, you can’t think of many if any that you’d like to have over to your house.

Evangelism and evangelists are awkward.

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Ministry Idols: Money

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UntitledThis is a guest post by Scott Bessenecker. He is the Associate Director of Mission for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Each year he helps to mobilize thousands of students to domestic and international mission. He is author of various books including his new release Overturning Tables: Freeing Missions from the Christian-Industrial Complex

Serving Two Masters

On any given day I think about and talk about money at least half a dozen times. I talk with my colleagues about fund development, I fill out an accounting report, I check to see how much of my travel budget I’ve spent, I begin working out how to pay for a new ministry idea. As a full-time Christian worker, I am steeped in the world of money.

Jesus warns a great deal more about the dangers surrounding money and possessions than he does about the dangers surrounding sexual infidelity. You could say that followers of Jesus are more apt to be led astray by our coins than by our loins. It is as if there is a highly corrosive quality to my regular obsession with getting and spending money, even in ministry What if the sliver of the Christian church I am part of, one that exists on an island of affluence in a sea of poverty, is straining out moral gnats while swallowing camels?

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Video Series: How to See Breakthrough In Evangelism

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I am so excited to share with you today a FREE video series I have created to help you grow more boldly in evangelism so you can see the people around you come to Christ.

I took a day in August and filmed three videos to take you deeper into my teaching on evangelism. I focused in on three very specific questions and I really hope my answers help you find more courage and boldness to be the witness that God has created you to be.

You can watch the first video here.

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I Need Your Help

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Hey friends! I could really use your help. My book, Beyond Awkward, that I have been working on for over a year and a half is about to release and I want some friends to make some videos to help me promote the book.

I am talking about really easy “home-made” videos on your iPhone. Videos that are one minute long.

Like this example here.

What I want is 50 people making videos telling a 1-2 min story of a time they shared their faith and it was “awkward but worth it.”

My hope is that many of us can release these next week when the book comes out in a fun and encouraging way get the word out a bit. If you aren’t excited about sharing the video on your social media profile, then maybe I could just share it on the blog for all of us to be encouraged.

Some ideas

  • Have your small group make 1min videos this week
  • Have your leaders make these and share them with your church/fellowship

I think this will not only be helpful for me, but very encouraging for your group you are part of or leading. What if you had a number of 1min clips of stories of people overcoming awkwardness in evangelism? That would be pretty cool to share in your ministry or with ministry partners!

Would you please help me?

Directions and an example are here. I would love them by Sunday?

Let me know in the comments if you are in! I really need your help!

FREE Chapter – Beyond Awkward

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Beyond Awkward (cut)I am so excited that Beyond Awkward is just a few weeks away from being released! I have been working on this project for over a year and a half and there is so much anticipation for me as I wait until the day I can get this book into your hands and further encourage you into the sharing of your faith.

If you would like a FREE chapter to read while you wait, you can grab it here.

Also, I had a very kind reader of the blog email me today asking how he could help launch my book when it arrives. I have never met him and was so thankful that he would ask to be part of this. I was ecstatic, and would love the help. It is so much easier to promote a book like this when there is a team of passionate people helping.

So if you are excited about helping people grow in evangelism, or you are just a kind person that wants to help, I have a  few ways that you could do so. The best way for me to communicate with you would be to jump onto this list and I will shoot an email out with ideas I have.

*I will not use your email for anything but this communication – your not subscribing to a blog or newsletter. Joining this list just helps me communicate with you all at once.*

If you are excited with me, feel free to tweet out one thing you are looking forward to with regards to the book using #BeyondAwkwardBook