Apostolic

Major Problem: Making Mission A Program In Your Church

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[This post is part of the A.P.E. Theology series. Read the rest of the posts here!]

missio Dei 2One of the key theological foundations in the missional conversation involves the concept of the missio Dei, or “mission of God.” It is God who has a mission to set things right in a broken world—to redeem and restore it to what was always intended.

Therefore, mission is not a program of the church. It is not something we invent. Mission is not something we initiate. Instead mission flows directly from the nature and purposes of a missionary God. It is not that the church has a mission; it is that God’s mission has a church. In other words, it is God’s mission, and the church is an instrument created by God to be sent into the world to join in his mission. This is a complete “game-changer” in several ways, but for now lets consider one.

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How Do I Gather An Apostolic Core Group?

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Greeks at USC studying scripture for the groups they will lead!

Greeks at USC studying scripture for the groups they will lead!

[This post is part of the Start Something New series. Read the other posts here!]

By Beau Crosetto

Over the last few months, since the start of this blog, I have had a couple of people reach out to me with these specific questions,

“How do I gather apostolic people on campus?

“Beau, how do you get your core team to actually start new things? I have gathered people, but what do you do to get them moving?

In some ways these are two different questions, as one asks how I gather, while the other asks how I take a gathered group and move them to action. But I think at the root they are similar in that these people want to know how do you get an apostolic, or action based core team that actually takes risks and steps out to start new things?

Here are a couple of things that I practically do with core teams or keep in mind when I am starting a new ministry and gathering a team for the first time.

[If you would like to receive my go to material for new core teams, join the APE newsletter!]

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How Do You Plant 3 Ministries in One Day?

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Network Map

network map of students at Lincoln Nebraska

[This post is part of the Start Something New series. Read the other posts here!]

By Shawn Young

One of the contributing writers on Releasetheape.com is Eric Rafferty.  He and his wife Stacey were selected to participate in InterVarsity’s national planting cohort 3 years ago and have launched a thriving student ministry at the University of  Nebraska in Omaha.  Recently I heard a rumor that Eric had visited another college in Lincoln, NE and managed to launch 3 new missional student communities in one day.  Yes.  You read that right.  In fact, he launched a Black Student Ministry, an International Student Ministry, and a Greek Student Ministry.

I work with hundreds of the most talented ministry leaders in the country and they know how hard it can be to get just one student ministry to launch.  So I asked him to speak with me and several other leaders about how it happened.  The more Eric talked, the more I realized that we were listening to the pure mojo of a genuine apostolic-evangelistic leader.  But I firmly believe that much of what Eric does instinctively can be learned and passed on to all of us—the whole church is strengthened for God’s mission when we learn from examples like Eric and Stacey.

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Ken Kong: Organic Ministry Among Our Immediate & Extended Families

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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.

Working within Community – Ten Commandments for Apostolic Leaders

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community

courtesy of InterVarsity’s 2100 productions

[This is part of a series on “How Do I Develop an Apostolic Leader?” You can read the other posts here.]

“The hand cannot say to the arm I have no need of you…”  I Cor 12:21

It’s tempting for apostolic leaders to think that every new idea should be pursued independently, no matter the cost. But, when we teach apostolic leaders that running without restraint is their Godly task we are in danger of developing misfits who are unable to build a movement of change or have impact on a large scale.

In order for apostolic leaders to achieve the Godly kingdom impact they desire, they must serve within and through a community of faith.

But too often we don’t see this. Either apostolic leaders resist community and letting others speak into their dreams and desires, or the community resists the apostolic leader and their crazy dreams.

This article helps to encourage us towards being healthy in community:

A community where apostolic leaders are humble and let community speak into their dreams, and actions, as well as a community that seeks not to subvert the apostles ideas but focus the apostolic leaders energy to its greatest effect.

So, how do we help apostolic leaders live in that kind of community?

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Modeling our Faith

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noah coffee

“Dad when I get bigger and bigger I am going to drink coffee too.”

One the funniest things about being a dad is the way that my kids try to copy me, repeat what I say, and really aspire to be like me.

It is fun, makes me feel loved, and also gives me a huge dose of humility as I realize what I show them is really important.

Everything I do, especially the things I do every day, are showing my son what it means to be a man.

He wants to drink coffee because his dad drinks coffee…every day.

This hilarious and sobering fact makes me immediately think about two things:

  1. That I want to show him I read my bible and pray every day, not just drink coffee!
  2. That young leaders who follow me also look at what I do regularly as a sign to what they should be doing too.

I have never told my son that he should drink coffee when he gets bigger. He just sees me doing it and infers that when you are a “big guy” you drink coffee.

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What Do Jesus & Pete Carroll Have In Common?

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photo courtesy of @ The News Tribune

photo courtesy of @ The News Tribune

By Beau Crosetto

I know this sounds ludicrous that I would mention the two names in the same sentence, but there is one main thing here that I want to draw our attention to.

If you know me I bleed blue and green and just absolutely love the Seahawks and now Pete Carroll. People close to me know he is probably the #1 guy I want to meet in this world because I am fascinated with the way he goes about building a culture and team. He is dogmatic in his approach to building a program. And one clear-cut part of that approach is what catches my eye!

Some of you can’t stand Pete Carroll but don’t write this article off because of that!

He and Jesus have a one thing in common.

*I don’t know anything about Pete’s spiritual beliefs. I am simply using him as a leadership example and not in any way saying he is a Christian leader.*

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What My Father-in-Law Taught Me

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barrel

By Beau Crosetto

A lot of time we, as leaders, don’t do what we need to do because we don’t like doing it.

I think this is a growing trend today especially with all the “focus on your strengths” material that is circulating our country.

But my father-in-law (Steve) and I had a great discussion today about doing things that you don’t want to do so you can go to the next level in your leadership and organization.

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Is Reaching LGBTQ People Worth It?

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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?

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Multiethnicity: More than a Value

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multiethnicity

By Eric & Stacy Rafferty

[This is the start of a four part series on multiethnicity in the missional church. Unfortunately when we look at many of our churches, even missional ones, there is not much diversity among them. This series hopes to prophetically challenge the church and its leaders to cross cultures and build multiethnic communities!]

If you can’t tell from our tiny little picture, we come from different worlds. While a White guy from Nebraska falling in love with a Mexican

American girl from East LA sounds like the start of a romantic comedy (and a lot of the time it is hilarious), our cross-cultural relationship and the broader context of multiethnic community have been the deep waters of God’s discipling work in our lives.

Multiethnic community is where God called us each to jump ship and follow him in a new direction. It’s where He exposes our sin, selfishness, and cultural blinders every day. And it’s where God has revealed something of what his Kingdom is like.

Multiethnicity has become for us something more than just another value that Christians are supposed to care about. It has become a picture of the Kingdom at work in a community on mission together.

Here’s our story:

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