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Prophetic
Blue Mondays- Part One
By Steve Stuckey
[This post is part of a series called Rooted. Find the other posts here]
What a Weekend
“Wow! What a weekend,” Bill said. “I was up till 2:00am on Thursday night arranging rides for the conference. I woke early Friday morning with a call that one of our seminar leaders was sick and would not be able to make it. Between trying to find a replacement, complete my own seminar, and pack my car with musical equipment, I was tired before I ever reached the dock for our 5:00pm departure to Campus by the Sea. But once on the boat with all the students, the adrenaline kicked in and I was fine. I had a great conversation with a new student on the ride over. My Friday night presentation went well. Students told me how much they appreciated what I had to say and that encouraged me. The next two days were filled with transforming conversations over meals, great worship times, basketball with fellow staff in the afternoon, and a prayer session lasting late into the night. Though I got only five or six hours of sleep each night, I didn’t feel all that tired. The energy of the group and a lot of strong coffee carried me along. So much kingdom work was getting done in such a short time. But then on the boat ride home Sunday afternoon, I noticed that my head hurt and I was starting to feel a little sad. I had worked on the conference for four weeks. It was a fantastic success with numerous students deciding to follow Jesus. But it was coming to an end.”
A Prophet’s Doubts
[This is part of a series on John The Baptist as Prophet. You can read the other posts here!]
By Sarah Carter
One of the most intriguing windows into John the Baptist’s heart is found in Matthew 11 (or Luke 7) as he sits in jail, his life close to its end. Something about this conversation between Jesus and John speaks deeply to the places of doubt and misunderstanding in my own life, particularly in the prophetic or apostolic risks I have stepped into.
In the story, John sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus an important question: “Are you the one who is to come,or should we expect someone else?” This inquiry seems bold in its skepticism, or perhaps disappointment. Without assuming John’s attitude behind such a question, it’s safe to say he was struggling with some serious uncertainty about Jesus’ identity. Maybe it was the lack of fire baptisms, threshing, and chaff burning…basically any judgment in general (Matt. 3:12). Maybe it was tinged with a little more self-interest or even entitlement as John rotted in jail (could you help a ‘cuz out?)
Anxious Toil
It is with great excitement and pleasure that I introduce to you Steve Stuckey. Steve is my spiritual director and many others as well. In a nut shell, he keeps me focussed on Jesus and paying attention to His voice. I would say he is a master at helping to shape the APE type leader and keep them walking with Jesus in healthy and whole ways. I have asked Steve to write a monthly post with us to help us think about the spiritual formation side our lives. He is going to do a year long series called “Rooted” for us! We only need to turn so far to see how many leaders like us have crashed and burned…not because they weren’t well trained, or prepared, but because they lost their inner compass that pointed them to Jesus. I hope these posts from Steve are a monthly online opportunity to stop and reflect as catalytic leaders. He is passionate about helping APE’s get shaped, just in a different way than we normally read about here!
[This post is part of a series called Rooted. Find the other posts here]
Anxious Toil
“It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for God gives to his beloved, even while they sleep.” Psalm 127:2
A recent conversation with a fellow InterVarsity staff member began this way. “I feel anxious,” he said. “I have too much to do with the InterVarsity group on campus. My wife is upset that I am out so many evenings. My donors are feeling the economic crunch and donations are down. God seems distant and I have a hard time sitting still long enough to pray.”
I have noticed that 8 out of 10 people that I meet with mentioned feeling anxious. Maybe it is a disease of our American culture which tends to be narcissistic, goal oriented, and constantly restless. It is certainly a dis-ease of the soul that disturbs our peace, undermines our confidence in God, and focuses our minds upon things temporal and often irrelevant. Leaders who are inclined to be highly responsible and future focused seem to be especially prone to the condition. Some even wear their anxiety as a badge of honor to demonstrate how hard they are working.
We Are Looking For College Student Writers!
I want some college students to start writing on our team! Could it be you?
I work with College students and so do many of our writers, so obviously I am passionate about raising them up and seeing them lead in dynamic and world changing ways. A huge reason I started this blog was to empower college students.
I thought to myself, “What kind of online space would I have loved in college as a young apostolic evangelist?”
The answer was a daily post and community of inspiring leaders that were writing to fire me up. People that were living into the APE calling and understood there was something stirring deep inside to catalyze movements and ministry beyond the current context and for sure beyond the walls of the church.
I would have absolutely loved reading these posts in college and would have loved the opportunity to interact with the different writers here as well.
Spiritual Courage: Taking Down Goliath
By Jon Hietbrink
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” — CS Lewis
What we’re trying to do is hard.
Catalyzing new movements of missional communities is complicated, and our job description as leaders is often a mile long: disciple, pray, vision, witness, fundraise, meet, care, decide, communicate, recruit, repeat. To be a leader is to embrace the reality that more will be asked of us than we can give–we choose to make our home in the deep end not because it’s comfortable, but because that’s where Jesus calls us. In the midst of all that we’re asked to shoulder as leaders, one thing surfaces again and again–the indispensable role of simple courage. Leadership is most certainly about vision, strategy, and organizational behavior, but at it’s most fundamental level, leadership is about exercising the courage to look fear in the eyes and defy it by fixing our gaze on Jesus instead.
Show & Tell
By Beau Crosetto
It is alarming to me how much leaders do not model for the people below them. I see it especially apparent the higher I look up the leadership ladder. It seems that the more and more someone gets removed from the ground level, less and less modeling takes place. It is bothering me. These are the most skilled and advanced leaders. They/we need to be showing people what to do, not just telling them!
It’s time to get back into the pond and show people how to swim instead of shouting from the shore.
The other day I was having a conversation with a person I really look up to as a leader. They asked me about how I was modeling for the guy I am raising up and I realized I wasn’t doing a very good job in one area specifically. Sorry Nick 🙂
I had fallen into the trap that most leaders fall into:
He is Here! (Two Great Videos)
I want to share with you two great videos that help us celebrate the resurrection on this awesome Easter day.
This video is a spoken word that my wife Kristina shared today as she preached at our church, The Vineyard Underground
[tentblogger-youtube STEC2WIk77s]
This next video is Kristina sharing a story of disappointment and then breakthrough in healing a few years back. Really powerful and a total witness to the power of the resurrection.
I hope you enjoy these and have a great day remembering and welcoming the resurrection into your life more fully!
Death is our Call
By Beau Crosetto
I don’t have alot to say today. I mean, its an awkward day.
It’s a good day and a bad day. Its good because our Lord, Jesus Christ, has gone to the cross to die for the sin of the world. We know now because of hindsight that this day had to happen and we are ever so thankful.
It’s a bad day because we have to think about the fact that our sin + the rest of the world’s sent our Lord, Jesus Christ, to the cross to die. If we weren’t such screw ups as human beings this never would have had to happen.
Its such a weird day internally.
But as far as this blog is concerned, and A.P.E. leadership, I have a few thoughts.
Today is a day to remember that the death of Jesus Christ leads us and this is the foundation of all we do and who we are as Christians first, and secondly as apostolic, prophetic, or evangelistic leaders.
A blog like this, and people like us can get confused. I mean, the APE are the catalytic vocations of the body of Christ, the primary activists and extenders of the Kingdom of God and the ones most often intersecting with the broader culture. The APE vocations as called by God are frequently outside the church walls on a daily basis.
Because of this we can forget.
From the Margins…
This is a guest post from Eddy Ekmekji. Eddy works in with me in Los Angeles as part of the InterVarsity Divisional Leadership team. He is the Director for Black Campus Ministries in LA. Eddy shared a devotional with us a few months back about ministering from the margins, not just to them and I thought it was fantastic. I asked him to write us a post and he kindly did! Enjoy!
[This is part of a series on John The Baptist as Prophet. You can read the other posts here!]
A few months ago, I came across Luke 3.1-3 in my morning devotionals where Luke sets up the scene that describes John the Baptist’s ministry. In the three verses, Luke drops eight names, seven of whom would have been some of the most powerful men in political and religious leadership. Along with those names, Luke carves out the various regions of power where these men exercised their might. In contrast to these centers of power and men of power, we read of the word of God coming to John son of Zechariah, and it coming in the wilderness.
The word of God did not come to the men of power or to the places of power, but it came to a person of obscurity living on the margins of society. And as we keep reading the story, we see the incredible ministry that John has in proclaiming his baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People from all walks of life were going out to him to be blessed by his ministry. The person on the margin spoke truth to power.