I am so excited to share with you all that the Release The APE ebook is out!
Jon Hietbrink, Eric Rafferty, and I have been working hard for months to compile top posts from this blog and turn it into a resource that you can share with your teams and friends to help them understand the APE callings more clearly and easily.
Recently Noah, my four year old, has been a bit difficult at home. He is listening poorly, pushing boundaries, and at times willfully going against what we say. We were told the twos were terrible and the fours terrific, but it feels the opposite to me.
Yesterday I took my two kids to the beach and I told Noah he could play anywhere he wanted as long as I could see him.
What ensued was telling.
Do you want access to our training material we are using on campus and in churches? Have you wondered how you are going to personally release the APE in your context?
We have created a library with different training material (seminars, handouts, videos, etc) to help you do just that very thing!
This is a guest post by Chizu Shimizu. She is on staff with Intervarsity in San Diego and works with Urban Projects and Student Missions.
This is an incredible story of being committed to planting new works of God. Chizu, in many ways, was the least likely person in my mind that God would send to get this job done – her role on staff has nothing to do with planting new chapters. But I have known Chizu for almost 15 years and she has a heart that beats for the path of God. I love her obedience to a strange call of God (totally outside her job role) and her willingness to follow God’s planting scent all the way down the trail. Watch this video testimony of her telling the incredible story of a planting mission this last year.
We want to make our blog better and more relevant to your needs and interests. To do that, I need to know more about YOU. As a result, we have created a 2014 Reader Survey.
By filling out this survey you will ultimately be helping you as a reader of this blog! Why? Because your answers are going to help shape the content that we post going forward.
By Linson Daniel
This was an interesting year for me. My leadership was really stretched.
I went from planting new chapters to planting new areas for InterVarsity/USA in North Texas and Oklahoma. Four years ago, my team started as one area with 390 students in 7 chapters. It has since grown to become 707 students in 16 chapters. Now, my area has multiplied into three new areas each with its own area director.
I’ve reflected back on the past four years to figure out which steps nurtured the apostolic impulse needed to generate this growth. As a leader, you can help foster apostolic impulse in every team member! I’ve distilled it down to these three steps:
As you can see our site has been redesigned! Eric Holmer did it for us and I’m really happy about it!
Two New Features
Book 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
This is a guest post by Nick Johnson. He is the Director of InterVarsity for the State of GA and he is working hard with his team to make a culture shift to own the whole field of college campuses and commit to reaching all 90+.
Shortly after my wife and I got married we were wrestling with how we could better love the poor in our city. After reflecting on why it was hard for us to make it a priority, we realized it was where we lived. The Starbucks, nice shopping mall, and trendy restaurants nearby were a distraction. To fully press into this value we had, we needed an environment change. So we moved into a low-income neighborhood.
I wonder for how many of us our environment is hindering our abilities to fully press into our mission?
By Chris Nichols
2 Cor. 5 :11, 20
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others…20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
2 Tim 4:2,5
2 proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching… 5 As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
Planting new ministry is complex, exciting, and all consuming work. The apostolic leader and the community they develop must be able to communicate a kingdom mission, gather others around it, and keep an outward focus even as they are deepening community centered on Jesus.
