Beau Crosetto
Is Evangelism Going Out of Style?
I just read a great article by David Kinnaman talking about evangelism and if it is going out of style. Here is a great excerpt from the post
The Most Evangelistic Generation
They’ve been called “the social justice generation,” and for good reason—Millennials are actively taking up the cause of the poor, the oppressed, the orphan and the widow. Yet the most common critique leveled at this surge in social compassion is that it comes at a great expense. Sure, skeptics argue, they might feed the hungry and free the captives in this life, but what about the next? According to this view, Millennials are elevating physical needs over spiritual needs and forgoing evangelism altogether.Yet the latest Barna research reveals this is not the case.
You can read the whole post here...it is great!
Party Bus, Planting, & Praying…Reaching Unreached Campuses
Jon Wong, an intern at USC working with fraternity students, is sharing on the bus ride about why he chose to start something new for God.
Last night as a response to my talk on Acts 8 and the story of Philip and the Ethiopian, I a gave a surprising and spontaneous response to the students. I asked them if God was to invite them to “Go South” now, who would be down?
I then told them that I had a bus parked outside and I had 20 tickets for the most eager people that wanted to go to an unreached campus right now and pray.
It was 10pm and we would be back at 1am.
20 students quickly ran down and we were off.
The goals of the night were these:
- To see which students were the most open and spontaneous…who had the planting spirit
- To encourage students to care about not only their own campus but the 70 in Los Angeles. 50 of which have very little to know witness.
- To learn about planting and hear stories and preaching to encourage them to go “where God is wanting to work next”
- To pray for an unreached place and call down the Kingdom of God there.
- To Have fun! Planting should be fun and the most fun…I think 🙂
Check out the video and see how the driver responded! Incredible
[tentblogger-youtube pgJiX0D92Pc]
Sentralized West Coast
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!
Raging Fraternity Bro Comes To Christ
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.
Stick Your Neck Out Faith
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?
Planting is Like Learning To Swim
I have been having a great time watching my son Noah become a swimmer. When we took him to his first lesson in June he was scared of the water and wouldn’t put his face in if his life depended on it. He was really scared.
Just last week as he was kicking up and down the pool with flippers on, turning onto his back, and then onto his face every three seconds. A mom turned to me and said, “how old is your son? He is really good!” I told her he was three and she gasped in disappointment and said, “Gosh, I don’t know if my son can ever be that good.”
I assured her it is possible, just keep coming. A few months ago my boy was kicking and screaming, and now…he is kicking his way through the pool.
A Refreshing Evangelist
We need a refreshing type of evangelist to emerge today that is more like Philip.
Ready to follow the Spirit wherever He leads – spontaneous and not driven by their own agenda – but also trained in the gospel and willing and able to lead people to Jesus from any point in a conversation.
Vote For The APE: Top Blog
We were nominated as a top blog on Verge, a blog dedicated to accelerating movements of the gospel. It’s pretty cool that someone put us up there and now we can vote!
If our blog makes it into the top five, then anyone who voted gets a free digital pass to their conference.
So there are two reasons you should vote:
1) You can get a digital pass to the conference
2) You can help others find our blog by getting it towards the top (The only reason I knew we had been nominated is that I was getting a ton of incoming links from Verge…people were checking us out)
From Verge:
*The list will close on September 4th at 11:59PM. At that time, the Top 5 websites will be tallied. Whoever nominated the Top 5 sites will receive a Verge 2013 Digital Access Pass worth $129!Â
Does “Apostolic” Confuse You?
This summer I have had multiple conversations with long standing people in ministry about the word and calling of the “apostolic”. People that genuinely didn’t know how to talk about it. They were great conversations because the people were open and curious…not hostile. They really wanted to understand and know how we define apostolic on this blog and what we really mean here when we say this word and push people towards it.
But it made me think about many of you and the friends you have. It makes me ask this question,