Beau Crosetto

Beau is the author of "Beyond Awkward: when talking about Jesus is outside your comfort zone". He is called by God is to raise up and release people that want to start new ministries (apostolic) as well as people that want to share their faith (evangelists). He currently is the Director of Louisiana for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Beau is married to Kristina and they have three kids: Noah (12), Sophia (10) and Wesley (8).

A.P.E. Leaders & The Need to Re-Calibrate

one response
December 5, 2012

This is a guest post by Greg Jao. He serves as a National Field Director for the Northeast US for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and is the author of multiple books, including Your Mind’s Mission (an Urbana Onward book), and Following Jesus without Dishonoring Your Parents. A second-generation Chinese American, he helped develop The Daniel Project, a leadership acceleration program for Asian American InterVarsity staff.

In addition, Greg serves as the MC for the Urbana Student Missions Conference www.urbana.org , where 18,000 participants will gather on December 27-31, 2012 to consider again the call to God’s global mission. Since Urbana is around the corner, we asked Greg to share his thoughts on how Urbana can help foster A.P.E. leadership.

“Who among us would make the best cult leader?”

We had collapsed in a lounge after an exhausting day, and we were identifying friends who would be the best (or worst) at various activities. We ran several scenarios involving people in the room. Some of our answers came quickly (e.g., The worst contestant on the television show, “The Amazing Race?” The consensus candidate: a cross-cultural specialist. We imagined him constantly getting distracted talking to locals during international missions). Some answers took time (e.g., the best friend to have after the zombie apocalypse? Did we choose the Asian colleague with multiple refrigerators, the petite friend living in the rural north with a side of beef in her freezer, or the urban leader who knew how to survive in resource-poor cities?)

Travel Guides vs. Sales People

5 responses
December 3, 2012

We are right in the middle of the holiday season with thanksgiving in the rearview mirror and Christmas in front of us. We have a ton of parties coming up and for many of us that means gathering with family and friends that don’t know Jesus.

If you are anything like me I want to see them know Jesus and that can bring a lot of pressure to perform or make things happen.

I want to be on my best behavior, say the right thing, and be bold in the right moment.

But this pressure that I often feel leads me to have more of a sales person mentality and I don’t like how that comes across.

Pushy, pressuring, up tight and a low view God’s sovereignty in the situation.

But Rick Richardson in his book “Reimagining Evangelism” gives us another way

Apostle as Sender

4 responses
November 27, 2012

[This is part of a series called “What is an Apostle?” Check the other post here]

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.'” – John 20:21

Brad wrote a week ago about the sending language in John, and I got message from someone saying,

“Isn’t this the primary message of all of scripture, not just John?”

It is a great point and I would say Yes! But John is clearly focused on this and you see Jesus most clearly concerned with the sending nature of the Father, himself and even the Holy Spirit that is to come in this gospel.

But the commenter makes a great point and one that flows perfectly into this article about apostle as “Sender”.

Thankful!

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November 25, 2012

Here is an awesome place I got to go to this last weekend in WA. Hard not to be thankful here!

[If you want to enter into the drawing for one of five free copies of Real Life, Jame’s Choung new book, you can do so here. I will keep the contest open till the end of the week.]

Hey Everyone!

This last weekend was a good time to stop and reflect on what we are thankful for and one of those things that came up for me was this blog and the A.P.E. community that is reading, contributing and commenting here.

I love that we have started this blog and that we have this space to talk about the apostolic, prophetic, and evangelistic vocations and their role in the church and mission of God.

Thanksgiving Giveaway! James Choung’s New Book!

15 responses
November 22, 2012

We are giving away 5 copies of James Choung’s new book Real Life!

What is an Oikos & how are you called to them?

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November 19, 2012

Nick (lower right) a Greek InterVarsity Staff, with his Greek core team at UCLA

[This is part of a series called “What is an Apostle?” Check the other post here]

O = Oikos

Apostolic leaders are fascinated with oikos and empowering people to reach the many different ones in our world.

What is an oikos?

Oikos is the Greek term for “Family and Household” but it actually means much more than that. It refers to your family, co-workers, relationships and web of people that you regularly come into contact with.

It is a relational web of interconnected people.

Biblically we see oikos all over the place and this was the primary way for the gospel to spread in the New Testament. Two of my favorite times it is used are in these two passages

An Open Learning Posture

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November 14, 2012

On our InterVarsity Divisional Leadership Team we have been doing something very powerful.

The last few times we have met we have asked a leader to come prepared with a scenario in their ministry that they want to let the other people on the team speak into and give them advice about.

This might seem simple, but it has been so powerful!

Today was my turn to go and I presented a case study about Greek Ministry in LA and how I am doing with hitting my goals. I am in charge of starting new ministries to Greek students on 17 campuses in the Greater Los Angeles area. It is a giant planting mission and we have some great stuff going on two campuses and a couple of others emerging after just a few months. There are a couple of complexities bubbling up and some decisions to make about how I should use my time best.

So I presented the scenario to the team and they broke into twos and talked about and messed with my plan for 15min. Then we gathered back and team by team they offered me up their thoughts.

Surprise!

one response
November 12, 2012

How do you feel about surprises?

Some people love them others hate them.

I am growing to love them and I think that is an important thing for planting.

One of the major things God has been teaching me and showing me over the last few months as I start this work in Los Angeles is to embrace surprise and learn to expect it. Planting has so many ups and downs, so many unknowns, that if we don’t live with a welcoming heart towards surprise, we just can’t make it.

We have to have the faith and expectation that God will surprise us with great results and new opportunities.

We have to have the faith and expectation that God is still good and in control when things crash, change, or fall apart.

Planting new works of God means many surprises…some good, and others bad.

Book Winners & Five Great Comments!

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November 11, 2012

That was a fun contest and great to hear the responses about what people are shaping with Jesus! I really was impressed with how you all are pusuing God and letting him use you around the world.

I really felt a strong burden to pray for you as I read the comments and I also felt a strong excitement about this A.P.E. community and what God is doing!

I felt very grateful for this blog space and that you all have taken the time to comment and let us into your world!

This really is shaping up to be an online community and that was one of our dreams in starting “Release the A.P.E.”

It has been very exciting and motivating to read these dreams.

The Winners

Kevin Bennett
Russell Almon

Email me at beau@releasetheape.com to give me your address!

Five Comments

Here are five of the comments that were left on the post. I asked people to share about what they are shaping with God. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. Please say a prayer for them as well for strength, vision, and encouragement.

Free Friday…Book Giveaway

24 responses
November 8, 2012

Hey Everyone!

I am starting a new thing on this blog where I will pick different Fridays to give away some free stuff!

Alan Hirsch and I were at a conference the other week together and he generously gave me a box full of books!

So I am going to share some of that wealth with you and give away two free books today!

“The Shaping of Things to Come” by Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost

I have not read this book myself so I cannot really comment on it. But I know it is about mission and imagination for the future of our church. I cannot wait to read it myself.

Here is how you can enter…

Tell us in the comments what kind of thing you are trying to shape!
- what is a dream or vision you are working on to bring the world to a better place in Christ’s name?
  - give us the 2-3 sentence version 🙂
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share the Facebook Post on our page on your timeline +1 entry

Top Posts

O = Oikos

The Winners

Five Comments

Here is how you can enter…