By Jon Hietbrink

“When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

It wasn’t their first interaction, but it was the definitive one. In the course of an afternoon, Simon went from a fisherman hanging around the fringes of Jesus’ ministry to a fisher of men following his Lord, and this exchange became the fulcrum on which Peter’s life pivoted.  Jesus’ command was simple but ludicrous; Peter’s response was hedged but obedient; the result was abundant but terrifying. Invited into this encounter by Luke, we see far more than an isolated event, but a paradigmatic experience of what it means to follow Jesus: He often asks us to step into deeper water than we are comfortable with, and He does it to show us more of Himself.

Isn’t this “deep water” experience the regular testimony of Jesus’ disciples in the gospels? Consistently engulfed by the destitute, increasingly combatted by the elite, inexplicably commanded to feed thousands, prematurely (it would seem!) sent to proclaim the nearness of the Kingdom, and ultimately entrusted with God’s message of salvation to the ends of the earth, the disciples’ journey of following Jesus was regularly akin to jumping into the deep end of the pool and learning to swim. Being “over their heads” wasn’t an exceptional circumstance, it was relentlessly normal.

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I wanted to write this post and highlight a new feature that has been up for a few months

Blog Series!

You can find the tab on the very top of the blog and inside the page is organized content according to different series we are doing.

One of the great benefits of a blog that has many writers is the opportunity to do series like this and organize thoughts and posts around certain topics.

Let me highlight a couple of my favorites for you.

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It has been an amazing time at Urbana! Over 16,000 delegates have gathered and God has been inspiring us to reach this world! Here are two of my favorite things that have happened so far!

David Platt Brings Conviction

This was one of the best talks I have heard in a long time. One that I want to go back to and listen to again. It was so convicting and it really helped me re-callibrate with Jesus. He preaches out of an often avoided text in Luke and he really called the American Church out for its low risk, high comfortability ways. (Platt starts at 53:50)

[tentblogger-youtube FJDQhsF8sS4]

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Let’s Meet Up @ Urbana!!!

Urbana is kicking off tomorrow and many of us are really excited about it. It is the largest Missions Conference held in North America and we are expecting 18,000 people to show up! It is going to be an awesome time getting re-calibrated to the heart of God for the world.

While we are there we might as well have a meet up!

For those of us that love talking about apostolic, prophetic, and evangelistic things this could be a great time to get together and process what God is doing in our midst and how we can move forward with him.

Plus, if you are a reader or regular contributor to this blog, this could be a fun time for us like minded people to just kick back and have some fun together. Make the 18,000 person conference a little smaller.

Three Reason you should make the effort

1. It’s the first Release the A.P.E. gathering ever!
2. Many of us have never met each other
3. You can have a space to talk with like minded people!

A friend has kindly opened up his suite to us in Ramada Inn, so lets meet there Friday at 10:30pm-12:00am. I don’t know the room yet so Tweet Me or FB message me Thursday or Friday. Or you can sign up to be on our email list and i will email you and update!

I know it is late, but it’s Urbana! Feel free to come and hang as much or little as you wish. It will be casual!

When: Friday December 28th

Time: 10:30pm – 12:00am

Where: Ramada Inn (Room # TBA)

Ramada St Louis

*remember to tweet me or FB message me for room # or you can check back here and I will update once at the conference!)

If you are not going to Urbana, you can follow the conference live here.

[this is part of the series “A.P.E. in the Movies” read the other post here]

Tonight I saw the premiere of “Les Miserables” and it was fantastic. I had never seen the musical or read the book so I was anxious to see it.

Here are two things about A.P.E. leadership that I walked away from the movie with and a song for you to listen to at the end.

A.P.E. Leaders are Called to Be Revolutionaries

The movie is cast in the time of the Revolutionary France and you actually get to see the beginning of a revolution come about in the movie. The Revolution starts with a small band of men and women who decide to step out and catalyze the revolt! Men and women full of courage, conviction and vision of what could be!

They built a barricade and stood strong…even giving their life to see freedom come. This small band of people in the movie were truly catalysts for this revolution.

I couldn’t help but think about A.P.E leaders as revolutionaries in God’s Kingdom and the fight we daily fight to push back the Kingdom of Satan. It is Apostolic leaders who take new ground, Prophetic leaders who call for change and Evangelists who win people to the cause and grow the revolution. A.P.E.s are the catalysts. And our job is to take stands at different times so change can happen!

And when I watched the men and woman sing the song, “Do You Hear The People Sing?” in the movie, I couldn’t help but think of A.P.E. Leaders singing this song with a slight lyric change. It really moved me.

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We have had some great book giveaways so far and I am excited to do it again! I can’t say enough about the writers and the publishers who have generously given us books to give to you all! They definitely want some more A.P.E. Leaders released!

So let’s do it again!

This week we are giving away “On The Verge” by Alan HIrsch and Dave Ferguson.

5 COPIES!!!!

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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. On a personal note, Kate was the very first InterVarsity Staff worker I (Beau) met with after becoming a Christian in college! I look up to her so much.

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?

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Here is an awesome place I got to go to this last weekend in WA. Hard not to be thankful here!

[If you want to enter into the drawing for one of five free copies of Real Life, Jame’s Choung new book, you can do so here. I will keep the contest open till the end of the week.]

Hey Everyone!

This last weekend was a good time to stop and reflect on what we are thankful for and one of those things that came up for me was this blog and the A.P.E. community that is reading, contributing and commenting here.

I love that we have started this blog and that we have this space to talk about the apostolic, prophetic, and evangelistic vocations and their role in the church and mission of God.

Top Posts

We have had this blog up and running for about 2.5 months so it is still very new, but I thought I would share with you the top 5 posts so far. We can have a little bit of a look back moment and thank God for some good posts over this time. In order of popularity…

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