I cant help but think about what it means to be a neighbor as I watch this Ohio Case unfold.
If you have been in a cave the last few days, three women have been held captive in a house for 10 years and none of the neighbors knew. the details that are leaking out are just horrible.
But what is interesting to me is the neighbor that found them and rescued them. His interview is below and it is great (this is the recent one by Anderson Cooper).
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By Beau Crosetto
Don’t let nothingness equate to death in your mind. Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean there isn’t life there.
A tomato plant that we had last year died like a tomato plant does every year. I ripped the roots out and threw the vine away, leaving just the dirt behind. The sod sat in that pot for 6 months totally abandoned. Six months later, a sprout sprung up out of nowhere totally surprising my wife and me.
Now that there were signs of life, we started watering it and a few months later it is full, vibrant and producing the first signs of fruit. It is pretty exciting.
It got my wife and I talking as the kids played in the back yard.
By Beau Crosetto
Staring new things for God is such a roller coaster of emotion!
I really hate it some days and love it others. But if we are going to be effective at starting new things for God then we have to be faithful people. We cannot let emotions dictate how we will act. We cannot let how we feel determine if we will go forward and stick it out.
There will be high highs, and low lows in planting.
There will be days you feel super lame, get stood up, and wonder why you are even doing this. There will be days when you have the best conversations and witness the most life-changing encounter and wonder how you could ever do anything else.
But the key in it all is being faithful and showing up no matter what.
abstract moving lights
Last week I had the privilege of being at InterVarsity’s Directors meetings with all the Directors in InterVarsity nation wide. During the time I was in a track on planting and we talked all about planting movements, and how to increase the number of campuses that InterVarsity is currently reaching in the USA. Right now we are on 575. We want to get to 1000 by 2017 (At least some of us are dreaming that way!)
If that is going to happen we need an apostolic movement, and we have to continue to welcome this in InterVarsity. Here is a definition of apostolic that a core group of us have landed on for now:
“An apostolic person is sent by God’s Spirit to expand the Kingdom across boundaries into new places”.
The key thing about apostolic people and therefore apostolic movements is that “sending” is happening and boundaries are being crossed.
I want some college students to start writing on our team! Could it be you?
I work with College students and so do many of our writers, so obviously I am passionate about raising them up and seeing them lead in dynamic and world changing ways. A huge reason I started this blog was to empower college students.
I thought to myself, “What kind of online space would I have loved in college as a young apostolic evangelist?”
The answer was a daily post and community of inspiring leaders that were writing to fire me up. People that were living into the APE calling and understood there was something stirring deep inside to catalyze movements and ministry beyond the current context and for sure beyond the walls of the church.
I would have absolutely loved reading these posts in college and would have loved the opportunity to interact with the different writers here as well.
By Beau Crosetto
I don’t have alot to say today. I mean, its an awkward day.
It’s a good day and a bad day. Its good because our Lord, Jesus Christ, has gone to the cross to die for the sin of the world. We know now because of hindsight that this day had to happen and we are ever so thankful.
It’s a bad day because we have to think about the fact that our sin + the rest of the world’s sent our Lord, Jesus Christ, to the cross to die. If we weren’t such screw ups as human beings this never would have had to happen.
Its such a weird day internally.
But as far as this blog is concerned, and A.P.E. leadership, I have a few thoughts.
Today is a day to remember that the death of Jesus Christ leads us and this is the foundation of all we do and who we are as Christians first, and secondly as apostolic, prophetic, or evangelistic leaders.
A blog like this, and people like us can get confused. I mean, the APE are the catalytic vocations of the body of Christ, the primary activists and extenders of the Kingdom of God and the ones most often intersecting with the broader culture. The APE vocations as called by God are frequently outside the church walls on a daily basis.
Because of this we can forget.
This is a guest post from Eddy Ekmekji. Eddy works in with me in Los Angeles as part of the InterVarsity Divisional Leadership team. He is the Director for Black Campus Ministries in LA. Eddy shared a devotional with us a few months back about ministering from the margins, not just to them and I thought it was fantastic. I asked him to write us a post and he kindly did! Enjoy!
[This is part of a series on John The Baptist as Prophet. You can read the other posts here!]
A few months ago, I came across Luke 3.1-3 in my morning devotionals where Luke sets up the scene that describes John the Baptist’s ministry. In the three verses, Luke drops eight names, seven of whom would have been some of the most powerful men in political and religious leadership. Along with those names, Luke carves out the various regions of power where these men exercised their might. In contrast to these centers of power and men of power, we read of the word of God coming to John son of Zechariah, and it coming in the wilderness.
The word of God did not come to the men of power or to the places of power, but it came to a person of obscurity living on the margins of society. And as we keep reading the story, we see the incredible ministry that John has in proclaiming his baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People from all walks of life were going out to him to be blessed by his ministry. The person on the margin spoke truth to power.
By Beau Crosetto
26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4
Today I am sick in bed 🙁
But I am thinking about all the work we are doing here in Los Angeles and some of the things that have not come to fruition yet are giving me anxiety.
All the InterVarsity Greek Staff
I like going to conferences and being around people, especially when they are helpful. But lets be honest, we have all been to bad meetings, conferences and retreats.
A couple of weeks ago I went to Greek Staff Conference (where all the InterVarsity staff that work with fraternity & sorority students gather) and it reminded me how much I love these meetings.
So it made me think, as an apostolic evangelist, why do I love them so much?