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).

What is the Difference Between an Evangelist & an Apostle?

24 responses
November 4, 2012

Evangelists help churches grow up, while apostles help churches grow out

[This is part of a series called “What is the difference between an evangelist and an apostle?” check out the other posts here]

In a recent post I wrote about the apostolic role as planter and how they love starting new things. Especially when it is new things that involve lots of new people that are checking out Jesus.

But a question arose in my head as I was writing the post:

Why does that mean you are apostolic and not just evangelistic? What is the difference?

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Apostle as Planter

2 responses
November 1, 2012

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

Apostolic Leaders are planters. They are driven to start new things where the things of God are not happening. Most clearly, planting churches. Be it in neighborhoods, businesses, college campuses or an unreached country, apostolic leaders are all about planting communities of faith in areas where there is no community of faith currently!

They want the Blue Oceans

This was a big reason for me moving to LA this year to start Greek InterVarsity in the county. There are 17 campuses with Greek Systems and very little happening to reach these students. What caused me to ultimately move here and take this assignment from God was the obsession with unreached people, starting something new, and being able to give years towards planting a completely new work that not many people were thinking about.

I resonate with Paul big time when he says in Romans 15:20,

“It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.”

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Can You Stop?

one response
October 30, 2012

This guy has no problem at all!

[This is part of the A.P.E. Pitfalls series. Check out the other posts here.]

Athletes, who work out and lift hard, always take rest seriously.

Why?

Because any serious athlete will tell you that it is actually the rest days that help the muscles grow more. Lifting weights helps of course, but the days off when you are sleeping, eating right, and resting the muscles is what gives space for the muscles and body to grow.

WOW!

As an athlete (yes golf is a sport and I did play it in college) this analogy spoke to me.

How am I as a Christian minister and child of God taking regular rest days to let my spiritual muscles grow?

This started to bother me.

Apostle as Architect

one response
October 23, 2012

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

A= Architect

“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.”

– 1 Corinthians 3:10

Paul was a missional architect and we see this no more clearly than the way he talks to the Corinthian church. Paul saw his role as an apostle to lay framework and foundation for the church so others could carry out the mission of Jesus. Paul saw himself as a “wise builder” or “master builder” when it came to the church.

One of the main functions of an apostle is the “architect of mission” and the job here is to create, design and oversee the mission of God moving forward through a church or organization.

What is an Apostolic Leader?

12 responses
October 18, 2012

Apostolic leaders are always plotting where the mission needs to go next

The Apostolic vocation in the church as noted in Ephesians 4 is very important to me personally and vital for the Kingdom of God as it continues to move forward.

What makes the Apostolic vocation extremely important is the fact that it is the primary role in charge of pushing forward the mission of God.

The Apostolic function of the church is responsible for pushing forward the mission of God and designing the way the church carries that out. These are our primary catalysts, visionaries and risk takers in the body when it comes to advancing the mission of God. We need them and we need them fully empowered!

Apostle is a buzz word these days.

At the very worst, it is a negative word, associated with crazies who have distorted the vocation and defined it in unhelpful and unhealthy ways.
At the very best it is being activated day by day as a legitimate vocation in the church and we are seeing the mission of God screaming forward.

However, the majority of people and churches are somewhere in the middle, and they just don’t talk about the Apostolic vocation much. Its just not a word you would find in those people or in the language of the church leadership. Therefore, the apostolic calling is not being released.

Well, we are going to talk about it a lot here as you can tell by now!

Some Helpful Posts

A series of posts on the apostolic calling. Follow along right here

— How To Identify An Apostolic Leader

— Here is my interpretation of Ephesians 4 and the five fold ministry

— Beau’s Story as an apostolic evangelist read this.

— Jon Hietbrink has a great post on owning the whole field

— The apostolic impulse needs to drive our minsitries

— Dave Ferguson says “you know you’re an apostle when…”

— Chris Nichols tells us apostolic leaders are born not made

[Are you finding this article clarifying? Click here to send a tweet to your friends]

So, I would love to know…If you could pick one word to describe an apostolic leader what would it be?

When you hear someone called an “Apostolic Leader” how does that rub you?

2 responses
October 16, 2012

Free Book Give Away: “The Permanent Revolution”

32 responses
October 14, 2012

Here we are again for our next book give away!

The last one was great and we had awesome participation!

Let’s do it again!

This week we are giving away “The Permanent Revolution” by Alan HIrsch and Tim Catchim.

5 COPIES!!!!

And they are really nice and hard back! I am tempted to steal one and not give them all away…that’s how good they look!

This is a great book on apostolic leadership and it really makes the case in an in depth way for why we need to release and empower the apostolic vocation in the church. If we want a “Permanent Revolution” then we need the apostles released.

You think I like this book 🙂

THIS BOOK gives great attention to the apostolic vocation and goes in depth with describing it and giving us language.

I am really excited for you to get this book!

Also, if you are in LA area this Friday and Saturday, there is a great event at Fuller Seminary, LA 2012, where Alan will be presenting his book and JR will be presenting his. It is really cheap to come. Like $20 for a whole group! Check out the event here

Here is how to enter yourself for the drawing…

Doing vs. Praying

2 responses
October 11, 2012

[This is part of the A.P.E. Pitfalls series. Check out the other posts here.]

Since reading Shawn Young’s post the other day about starting new things and how it starts with prayer, I have been really chewing on the tension of doing vs. praying.

As an apostolic leader who is highly activating, and entrepreneurial, it is hard for me to slow down and pray, let alone begin with prayer. My first thought most of the time is “how do we start this?” or “when are we going?”

It is hard for me to start with prayer when I see there is so much to do.
It is hard for me to start with prayer when there is so many people to train.
It is hard for me to start with prayer when there are things waiting to be started.

Do you ever feel that tension as a catalytic leader?

We Don’t Want Clones!

6 responses
October 9, 2012

That is why we are offering a different picture of life in the church than most of us are seeing.

Obviously we have set up this blog to push hard for the vocations of Apostle, Prophet and Evangelist in the church. To some this can seem like favoritism, to others like competition.

I have already fielded a few emails and comments wondering this very thing.

This is a fair question and one that must be answered.

In short, we are not saying that A.P.E. is favored or better. We fully believe we need the whole council of vocations found in Ephesians 4 to be a healthy church.

But the church in the western world has done such a poor job at teaching on Ephesians 4 and we have not differentiated enough, so the A.P.E. has been covered up big time…by clones!

Cloning

I would argue as Alan Hirsch does in his book, “The Permanent Revolution” that we have fallen into an act of cloning in the Western Church!

“Yes, You Did Laugh.”

no responses
October 4, 2012

“Yes you did laugh.”

Sarah, in Genesis 18, laughed when she overheard the Lord tell Abraham that she would give him a son in the next year.

When the Lord asked why she had laughed, the scriptures tell us that she lied because she was scared and said, “I did not laugh.”

But Lord, said, “Yes you did laugh.”

I have been journeying through Abraham’s story and meditating on him as I have moved to LA and this new land. It has been a rich time for me.

In light of the recent breakthroughs in our funding and just reflecting on all that God has done in our life and ministry the last month, I sense God calling me out today.

“Yes you did laugh, Beau.”

You see, God has given me some incredible breakthroughs the last few weeks, but just before that I was living in some great anxiety.

Two of these breakthroughs not mentioned yet is that God has started a Greek InterVarsity in the Asian Greek Council at USC (pic below) and also provided me leaders on the Panhellenic and NPHC (Historically Black Sororities) Council. We could potentially have Greek InterVarsity in every council at USC by winter and that would be unprecedented in our movement. I am praying and believing for this move of God!

The first Greek InterVarsity on the Asian Greek Council at USC. 8 members showed up to dream about a space for God in these fraternities and sororities!

I am taking some time this week to reflect on these breakthroughs and ask God what he wants to teach me about trusting him when I can’t see the outcome.

One of the questions that I am reflecting on this week is

“How does God want to shape me more like Abraham?”

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