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).

Quick Announcement and a Favor

no responses

3_D Beyond Awkward #3688Book Launch in 65 Days!

I am really close to wrapping up my long-awaited book “Beyond Awkward”. I will be releasing it September 19th! But before I do, I have to ask you a couple of questions. Can you help me out?

I would love to know what you as APE’s are thinking about evangelism and would love to have some of your collaboration in this!

You can answer the questions here (and get a little more detail on the book) at this link:

http://beaucrosetto.com/?p=392

Thanks so much!

Beau

Uncontrollable Joy

no responses

[tentblogger-youtube Ls9Cg8iaq1s]

This is a great video of a son who sets up a secret camera to capture his dad’s reaction to his C grade in math.

The he kid has been working hard, hasn’t been able to pass and now finally he makes it over the hump.

Shawn Young shared with us a great word about the joy of the Father in planting and he uncontrollably celebrates our success (even a C) in planting. For some of us planting is so hard and we feel like we’re working so hard to pass.

How does the fathers reaction help you glimpse The Father in Heaven’s reaction towards you?

Don’t Let Your Weakness Fray Your Leadership

no responses

“People are going to judge you by your weakest areas, not your strongest.”

I was having a great conversation with my father in law and brother in law yesterday and this is one golden nugget was shared with me by my father in law. He just retired as the President of AT& T in the South East and he has led thousands of people.

He went on to inform me that once you start to rise in leadership, people are going to judge you by what you are weak in.

Continue Reading

Can You Lead Someone to Jesus? 

no responses
BeFunky_14240223372_6ee2c03bc7_z.png

*Photo Credit: Conversacion, Creative Commons

By Beau Crosetto

My online friend Miguel raised an interesting question on FB:

And it got me thinking (as he usually does) about the tensions that this questions raises.

  • Do we have a role in leading others to faith in Jesus?
    • If so what is it?
  • Is it total arrogance to say something like that? Of course God saves people not us.
  • If it is all God’s role then why am I needed?
  • Maybe what bothers us has nothing to do with what is actually being said, but more to do with the type of people who say that kind of statement?

Continue Reading

4 Ways My Dad Has Shaped Me As A Leader

no responses
one thing I didn't get from my dad was his jump suits :)

one thing I didn’t get from my dad was his jump suits 🙂

Bobby Clinton, an expert in leadership development, talks a lot about the sovereign foundations the Lord gives us growing up. Even if we are not believers growing up, the events good and bad, lay a foundation that God uses to shape our character and our calling in ministry as we grow old.

I did not grow up a Christian, we never talked about it in my family, and so my dad did not lead me in the way of the Lord. But who my dad is in his ethic as a person and the way he developed me and modeled for me life growing up were essential to who I am as a planter of ministry today. So much of how God has used me as an evangelist and apostolic (planter) leader is because of my dad’s life and input.

In honor of Father’s Day (I was going to post on Sunday but my neighbor came to faith), here are four concrete ways my dad shaped who I am and how God in His sovereign plan has used these qualities to extend the Kingdom through me.

Continue Reading

My Neighbor Surrendered His Life To Jesus Today: Full Story

one response

Untitled

Since the first time I pulled up to my drive way two years ago I have been in relationship with Ben. I love this guy so much. We play volleyball together and talk deeply on our way to the games. He has a very troubled past and has had no belief in God or religious experience. We have had many deep talks on those drives, but he has never followed through to meet with me outside those car rides to go deeper. I have been praying and praying and hoping and hoping for God to draw him close, and today it finally happened.

You can read about the first time Jesus came up in our conversation here. You can read an update to that first conversation here. This will give you perspective on a two year conversation and how his conversion has happened over time through God’s Spirit softening him, us doing life together, and me incarnating myself into his world. 

Here is the detailed story of how it happened and how our conversation went (I have his permission to share).

Read the full story here.

Evangelism: Todays Christian Curse Word

no responses

Preacher

Most of us cringe at the word evangelism. Christians I talk to are creeped out by it, uncomfortable and want to run as far away from “witnessing” as possible.

Evangelism, witnessing, sharing the gospel, has a horrible image.

As my mom said to me the other day, “it seems that evangelists always need to go find people. Why?”

Evangelists and evangelism strikes fear in people’s hearts. It has the connotation for being pushy, agenda driven, careless with humanity and furthermore, slick and salesman like – INAUTHENTIC.

Ya that is the word we were looking for. Maybe forced, showy, and aggressive.

Evangelism therefore is a curse word and we want nothing to do with it.

So my question to you as a Christian is this:

Are you going to perpetuate, ignore, or change that image?

You have to pick one as a Christian.

Read the full article over at www.beaucrosetto.com as I unpack all three options

Expelled: Evangelical Groups Being Removed by Universities This Fall.

no responses

10464029_786833218017396_5980111837932552792_n

In a collision between religious freedom and anti discrimination policies Christian groups are being removed from campus. Any group holding to the policy that one must be a Christian to be in leadership is being systematically removed this Fall.

We who work on the campus have known this was coming for a while, but this recent NY Times article brings it to the forefront for many of you.

At Cal State, the nation’s largest university system with nearly 450,000 students on 23 campuses, the chancellor is preparing this summer to withdraw official recognition from evangelical groups that are refusing to pledge not to discriminate on the basis of religion in the selection of their leaders. And at Vanderbilt, more than a dozen groups, most of them evangelical but one of them Catholic, have already lost their official standing over the same issue; one Christian group balked after a university official asked the students to cut the words “personal commitment to Jesus Christ” from their list of qualifications for leadership.

Continue Reading

4 Questions To Ask Before Joining A Church

no responses

Screen-Shot-2014-06-10-at-9.22.41-AM

I found this article really helpful over at Missio Alliance on how to pick a church.

The long-standing effects of a Christendom-shaped imagination incline us to misunderstand the nature and purpose of the Church. It continues to influence the way we view leadership, mission, and evangelism. It can even shape the questions we ask when we find ourselves in the position of seeking out a church community to belong to. One example of this can be seen in a current post on The Gospel Coalition website. The article presented four questions to consider before joining a local congregation. I understand the limitations on fully articulating a position via a blog post. Further, I realize the author limited himself to just four questions. I would assume, if given more time, there would be additional questions to consider. However, recognizing the limitations, I still found the post to be woefully inadequate. I believe the essence of each of the four questions highlights the deeply rooted, and some cases, devastating effect the legacy of Christendom has on the American church.+

In my opinion each of the questions flow out of a Constantinian ecclesiology that is organized around an understanding of church leadership that is skewed towards the gifts of shepherd and teacher, while at the same time void of the apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic gifts. As a result, the body doesn’t mature (read Eph. 4), and does not experience multiplication. Apostolic movement (which I believe is at the essence of the church) simply will not happen if we rely only on the ministry of shepherds and teachers. We need to understand the “marks of the church” from a fully functioning five-fold ministry model.

Get the 4 questions by reading the whole article