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.

Continue Reading

Will you willingly give God your best bull this year?

I want you to think about getting into some trouble this week and more importantly this year!

What if we actively put ourselves into trouble for God, fully aware of our need for Him to rescue us?

What if we did that instead of calculating how much we could really handle and would we really be able to get ourselves out if in fact we did wind up in trouble?

This last week at our Greek Staff Conference with Intervarsity, we had some excellent training by Rich Lamb. One of the things he encouraged us with is the idea of “Leader as Patient”. Not patient as in waiting, but patient as in a sick person needing healing.

Continue Reading

Here is a great post from Doug Bursch on visionary leadership and how the prophetic fits in. I think it is a great read to at least stir the juices a bit!

There have been many words written about vision. From vision casting, to vision statements, to visionaries, the world is full of vision. On many different occasions I’ve been asked to describe my vision or the vision for the church I pastor. My first response is usually an issue of clarification. “What do you mean by vision?”

From a Biblical perspective the word “vision” is usually used with the idea of prophetic insight and utterance. In other words, the Bible uses “vision” to describe an actual vision that has come from God or is ascribed to God. In an Old Testament context, prophets were set apart to see God’s vision and to communicate God’s visions to the people.

It is important to distinguish this prophetic vision from the modern corporate culture use of vision. Vision is not a nice idea, a good plan, or a strategic next step. It’s not long term goals or objectives. Rather vision in the Bible is synonymous with vision from God. God shows the prophet a vision of what is or what will be. The prophet writes down the vision and proclaims the vision to the people.

Read the full article here