As some of you have asked for more details on the post detailing the New York/New Jersey InterVarsity pathway, I thought it would be a great idea to share with you the pathway that InterVarsity is working on nationally through the Chapter Building Initiative.
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Being scared is part of the human condition and no one can avoid it. But being scared cannot be what dictates how we lead and press out. If we are going to be on the edge of faith and lead initiatives to start new things, then two things are guaranteed:
LA Greeks gathering this school year for training and vision
As we are planting Greek Ministry with InterVarsity in Los Angeles, we continued to be surprised by a campus called Loyola Marymount. Loyola was not one of the first places we were looking to start Greek Ministry, but as I document in this post, God is growing something there underground. He has made it clear that we need to be there and get something started, so we have been obeying that this year. God took this ministry to the next step last night!
Do you ever feel like your ministry is stuck, jammed or bottlenecked? For whatever reason it just can’t seem to grow to that next level no matter what you do?
May I suggest that it could be that you don’t have a clear pathway for people to develop beyond yourself.
Hate to say it but we wont have a post up until wednesday. I am heading out to Catalina Island for our InterVarsity Regional Conference and will have absolutely no wifi until Tuesday night. My other friends on the blog are busy doing stuff all around the world so I don’t have any posts to load at this point either.
So I guess we can see this as little resting and reflecting point.
In the mean time answer these questions for me in the comments. If you would rather privately tell me, then email me please. Your feedback is important for this blog to serve us all best.
What kinds of things (topics, styles, etc) have you enjoyed on the blog?
What kinds of things do you wish we had more of?
Also here are the five most popular posts, in order, the last quarter incase you have missed them and want to get caught up!
Have a great few days and thanks so much for reading this blog and contributing by commenting and sharing!
[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.
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.
If we want to reach our unreached neighbors with the love of Jesus Christ, then we have to show them what Jesus can do for them. We have to show them what transformation really looks like.
And unfortunately that transformation is going to be seen through your weakness being perfected in Christ. They need to see the places that we fall short in our character so we can then allow them to watch us as we pursue Christ and He transforms us.
It might be anxiety, lust, materialism, envy, jealousy, or greed. I don’t know what your genuine short fall is.
But mine is definitely anger.
Nick (R) & Jon (L) are two of the guys leading Greek InterVarsity with me in LA.
By Beau Crosetto
I am a happy man today and that is because Nick Kwok, the Greek InterVarsity Staff at UCLA, is doing a phenomenal job planting the ministry and seeing it grow. But not just growing by accumulating believers. He is growing the ministry with God through conversion.
Earlier this year Nick was able to lead a student to faith in a fraternity and that was obviously exciting. But the news just gets better. Last night Nick led another guy to faith in that same fraternity. It is a great sign of growing by conversion and an answer to our prayers. At the beginning of the year, this was a fraternity without a believer in it, and now God led one guy to faith in Jesus and that guy opened the door for his fraternity brother to experience the same. That is the kind of ministry that excites me and that is growth through conversion!
One of our goals this year in the plant was to see 7 students come to faith in the ministry. So far we have 6 as of last night. Nick has been radically committed as he plants this ministry to not just accumulate believers in Christ but to articulate a vision that makes tons of space for people who are skeptics and seekers of Jesus. He makes space by doing four specific things.
By Beau Crosetto
Often times when we think about getting some solitude we think about getting some free space to do our own thing. We just need that hour to unwind, relax and catch our breath. But this is not what solitude is at all.
The last two days I took a retreat with a few of my friends to step back and reflect on the year and how God has been moving.
I love these times because it gives me a chance to soak up all that God has been up to and not just move on. It also allows me to address problem areas with him and let him shape me more into his image.
One of the things I did on this retreat is re-read through Henri Nouwen’s great book The Way of the Heart
The first part of the book is all about solitude and just what it really is. Here is a great quote from the book that struck me.
