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Ken Kong: Organic Ministry Among Our Immediate & Extended Families

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January 23, 2013

Check out this cool video done by InterVarsity’s Asian American Ministries at Urbana:

Ken Kong: Organic Ministry Among Our Immediate & Extended Families

We come from cultures where families are really important to us. How does God move through our extended families? How do we participate with God in this? Ken Kong lays out some practical steps in his video, “Organic Ministry Among Our Immediate & Extended Families,” below:

[tentblogger-vimeo 57380544]

Learn more about Ken or InterVarsity Asian American Ministry.

A Prophet’s Life Verse

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January 17, 2013

Jeremiah

This is a guest post by Nick Price. Nick is a teaching pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lisle, Ill., and a student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield. He is the proud father of two kids and happily married to his wife of four years, Jenny. He writes regularly on his blog, Prodigal Preacher.

Since becoming a Christian I’ve heard lots of people talk about having a “life verse”. Usually it is a passage of Scripture that they feel embodies their own journey with God. It could be something that they received at their baptism or during confirmation, but whenever they discovered it has (hopefully) become a motto for how they live as a follower of Jesus.

[Do you want help writing a life purpose statement? Here is a great resource to help you do that]

For a while I was unsure whether I had a life verse or not. There are tons of passages in the Bible that I love, but a “life verse”? I wasn’t too sure about that. And then I attended a staff training event with InterVarsity. During one of our sessions together we were encouraged to pray for each other. Eventually it was my turn to be prayed for by my team, so I sat in the middle of the group as the others gathered around and began to pray.

Suddenly, one of them said, “I’m getting the sense that I should pray a verse over you.” And this is what she read:

Is Reaching LGBTQ People Worth It?

6 responses
January 11, 2013

Gay Pride Flag

This is a guest post by Kate Vosburg. She has been on IV staff for almost 15 years, on 6 different campuses. She loves serving alongside her husband, Dave, who is a professor on the campus where she serves. With him as a faculty, on the inside of campus, there have been some amazing opportunities to share the gospel. Kate is an evangelist who loves to be on the front-lines with her students, finding ways into unreached communities and sharing the Gospel. Dave and Kate have 3 kids (Nate 6, Isabella 4, Diego 4) who keep Kate on her toes and laughing at their creative, crazy antics.

So, is reaching LGBTQ (Lesibian, Gay, Bi, Transgender, Queer) people worth it? Many evangelical Christians seem to say no. Not explicitly, of course. But when we don’t actively reach out to people in the LGBTQ community and proactively address homosexuality in all its complexity, we basically opt out of LGBTQ ministry. There are very few LGBTQ people who will enter a Christian space that has not made it clear that they’re welcome. And I don’t blame them; everyone “knows” how Christians treat gay people (a stereotype that is grounded in many years of countless experiences).

The Deep Need

However, there is a deep spiritual hunger in the LGBTQ community, as far as I’ve found. There are many gay people with Christian backgrounds, but they feel they were ostracized from Christian community once they came out. There are many other gay folks who are spiritually curious and hungry, but they discount Christ because they have heard that his followers don’t want them unless they’re straight. (And of course, there are also many of us Christians in Christian communities who have LGBTQ sexual desires and don’t know how to work deal with these desires, fearing to ask our Christian communities for help.)

Who will reach this lost group of people? These people whom Christ loves and has come to rescue? Who will help our Christian brothers and sisters who struggle alone?

You Know Your Scripture, But Can You Plant a Church?

9 responses
December 13, 2012

This is a guest post by Peyton Jones. Jones is the founding Coach of New Breed Church Planting UK/USA and is currently planting an urban church for Refuge HB in Long Beach, CA in addition to coaching multiple planting teams. Peyton is also the author of upcoming book Church Zero about A.P.E.S.T. ministries (Publisher: David C. Cook. Release date: April 1st, 2013). You can follow him on twitter here

When a young guy expresses that he wants to go into ministry, it’s usually assumed that he’s gunning for a pulpit ministry. He’s told that he’ll need to buckle down for a lengthy term at seminary and a hefty bill to pay the price. On the day he graduates, he somehow doesn’t feel any more qualified to minister to people than when he went in. He’s had his nose buried in texts, but like Spurgeon once said,

“He’s at home among the books, but at sea when it comes to men”.

Many seminary grads who once dreamed of “tearing it up” for Jesus come to the realization that at the end of their seminary term they have no idea how to do what Paul did in the book of Acts. They can alliterate points, protect Christian orthodoxy, yet they are unable to do the most important thing that Paul did…plant a church.

Paul was not a Pastor. Sure, he did pastoral things, but Paul was a front-line church planting missionary. The New Testament model of ministry is about EXPANDING outwards, wherein most of our churches today are about building upwards…getting a bigger widescreen; a better website; a larger parking lot; more comfortable sanctuary seats…and don’t forget multiple services!

So if Paul wasn’t a Pastor, what exactly was he? The Greek term apostolos means “sent one” or missionary. In other words, he was a man on the move. Like a gospel Navy Seal, Paul would infiltrate a culture, and with deadly efficiency, complete his objective, nail his target, and “whoosh!”, he was gone. On to the next one! The glass slipper of a mega church would never have fit the apostles travel worn soles. Paul would rather plant churches “where Christ has not been named” than to stay in on spot.

Have a Cranky Leader? Use Aikido!

one response
December 10, 2012

Ever felt like your ministry has been attacked—by someone on the inside? That cranky person who seems to just complain and complain about some situation? Maybe you realized the situation and didn’t know what to do about it? Maybe you were blind-sided by the person’s complaint?

How do you respond to cranky, complaining people?

Listening is a Key Function of Evangelism

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November 15, 2012

This is a guest post by Don Bennett has spent the past 12 years serving as a Pastor in different roles. Currently he serves as an Associate Pastor at the Meeting House (Oakville – Main Site), a Multi Site Church throughout Southern Ontario. His passion is to invest in people and engage in conversation. You can read his last post on this blog here

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…”

– James 1:19

What I have been learning recently is that listening is key to being effective in any form of evangelism.

Questions to Ask:

Do we take time to really listen to people or do we just angle our way in to talk and give insight?

Do we feel the only way to be effective is to make sure the crisp gospel message is proclaimed?

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12 Indicators that Leadership is Lacking

4 responses
November 6, 2012

Today I was coaching the staff on my team planting Greek ministry at UCLA. His name is Nick Kwok and he is a great leader with a desire to see God move big time in the Greek system on campus.

But he is also a new planter and is learning on the job how you create, with God, ministry from scratch. Like I have all people under my leadership do, Nick is reading through “Exponential” by Dave and Jon Ferguson and we are talking about what it looks like to develop leaders inside of a movement. How do we reproduce ourselves and others under us?

Well today, he came to me with conviction and said,

“I don’t think I am doing anything that Dave says a leader should do.”

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Apostolic Movements Beyond The Church

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October 21, 2012

This is a guest post by Bob Roberts. He is the founder and Senior Pastor of NorthWood Church.
Through his leadership, NorthWood has planted 130 churches in the US. Bob is an international speaker and thinker in transforming people, churches, communities and the world. He has led
NorthWood and other churches to provide international development projects which include building schools, clinics and hospitals, micro-businesses, water systems and exchange student programs. You can read the rest of his bio here

[This post is part of the “Non Conventional Places A.P.E. Giftings Show Up” series. Read the rest of the posts here!]

Everyone talks about how there is no division between the secular and the sacred – but do we really believe that, and if we do, how does it change the way we act? Everyone talks about how we believe in the priesthood of every believer but do we really believe that? Everyone says it’s all about making disciples – but do we know what they really look like? We are using new language – but continuing in old applications – even in our missional conversations.

When you talk about “apostolic” or leadership in the 5-fold (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher) it’s tied primarily to ecclesiology and positions in ministry. Not long ago I heard several “missional” church planting guys (primarily house but not exclusively) talk about “apostolic” and to them the “apostolic” was seen in guys who planted a lot of churches. It sounded real spiritual and transformational – “Apostolic leaders plant communities of faith in the city to engage and serve.”

Unless we release the “apostolic” beyond church planting – and hang on – the church framework, we will never see a move of God

And I mean all forms of the church, simple, house, organic, included. For a government to work, for a business to make a profit, for a hospital to work – you name it – it requires those 5 “practices” or functions if you will, in it’s own unique context.

God’s grid for engaging the world is found in the city, not the church. It’s the disciple and the city, not the preacher/planter and the church. The church is the gathering of disciples that are equipped and strategically deployed to engage the world/city/society for transformation. We teach our church planters the concept of “domains” which is found in human resource and urban studies. Domains are the infrastructure that a city is built on: education, governance, economics, health, agriculture, communication, art, civil society, etc., Sadly, most start churches to hopefully engage the city – I believe the reverse is even more powerful – engage the city through the infrastructures through disciples, and let the church emerge out of that.

Apostolic Bankers, Doctors & Diplomats

I have a friend who is an international banker who loves Jesus. For years, as a banker not a church planter, not a pastor type (even though he’s led a significant house church movement) he sees the functions of the 5-fold as relevant for kingdom business.

How Does A.P.E. Show up in Parenting?

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October 12, 2012

[This post is part of the “Non Conventional Places A.P.E. Giftings Show Up” series. Read the rest of the posts here!]

Ever wondered how your spiritual gifts play out in your parenting style? It’s pretty easy to assume the way you parent is due to your wonderful planning combined with the 55 gajillion parenting books you’ve ingested. Ever considered that the healthiest aspects of your parenting style are all bound up with your spiritual gifts? Well, duh. I hadn’t.

Like most areas of my life I hadn’t realized I was “leading” my children out of my spiritual gifts because a) I tend not to notice the things I’m doing well that I haven’t horded enormous effort into and b) the connection between spiritual gifts and parenting styles is talked about so infrequently.

Due to all the duty and responsibility wrapped up in being a parent it can seem daunting right to figure out which is which? But, we are leading our kiddo’s and we may as well do that in an informed way. We need to do that in a way that lovingly invites them to share with us in our work to expand the Kingdom of God. When the hubs & I parent R1 & R2 with these intentions in mind we are shepherding their gifts as well as watching them learn and risk alongside us.

Today I’m kicking off a 4 part series on four non-conventional places A.P.E. gifts show up: in parenting, marriage, blogging & friendships. On our Belief page, we describe the Apostolic gift set as “leading in a sent way” to reach those in the fold or to expand the Kingdom of God where it is not yet. Since I’m a stronger A than P or E I’ll explore how we can apostolically lead in these 4 areas in a sent way with a little P & E thrown in for good measure. (And yes, apostolically is my very own made up word. Can you handle it?)

So. How can we model A.P.E. giftings while shepherding our kiddo’s into their unique gifts and callings?

Here’s a few ways I’ve given it a shot…

An Apostolic Call to the Marketplace

7 responses
October 7, 2012

Daniel and his wife Jamie and son Liam

[This post is part of the “Non Conventional Places A.P.E. Giftings Show Up” series. Read the rest of the posts here!]

This is a guest post by Daniel Hawthorn. He lives in the San Francisco bay area with his wife Jamie and son Liam. He works as a software engineer and is the founder of eduschedu.com, a small education technology company serving students and teachers in K-12 schools. He carries a strong vision for incarnating Christ in business by releasing believers to express the fulness of Kingdom life and creativity in the workplace. He thoroughly enjoys any conversation that involves the cross section of education, technology, and the Kingdom, and in the early evenings can usually be found on a run with his toddler and trusty jogging stroller.

I am a teacher-slash-software engineer-slash-entrepreneur with an apostolic call to the marketplace. An ‘A’ with regards to the A.P.E. acronym and called to the marketplace.

Yeah, it’s a mouthful, and it can be tough to explain what this means to people. I feel like the Church has traditionally had a very limited understanding of what it means to bring the Kingdom to business and the marketplace, and so many of us have no grid for what it means to be an apostolic entrepreneur. Let me put it this way: bringing the order of the Kingdom into the marketplace through business means a whole lot more than reading your Bible during lunch and telling your coworkers you are a Christian! That may be a tough one to wrap your head around, and it’s been a journey for me as well.

I have spent many years in churches feeling deeply misunderstood. I could almost describe it as constrained. I am only beginning to understand what it means to carry an apostolic call, but as I begin to step into this role it is the most exciting, terrifying, thrilling, and alive way I could imagine to live my life.

A Frustrated Leader

Let me take you back. For years, I have carried a deep burden to see and experience what I read in the Bible in my day-to-day life. But I also found myself frustrated. I often said, “Lord, there must be more!” I loved (and still love!) the churches I attended. But as I joined various ministries or participated in leadership teams, I always felt like a piece of me just didn’t fit. I wanted to see Christ impact every aspect of my life and the lives of people around me – the people who I would never see next to me in the pews on Sundays.

Looking back, I understand this was the apostolic call tapping me on the shoulder.

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