By Beau Crosetto
Something interesting is happening in my neighborhood – a new wall is going up.
A high school teacher that was arrested three months ago owns the house on the right. He was pulled from his house in hand cuffs – I watched it all happen. Bad stuff went down that day. Furthermore, he throws loud parties into the night and to say the least some really fishy stuff is happening over there. It’s also not the first run in with the law he has had.
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:
By Beau Crosetto
Evangelists bring an un-quenching intensity to see people not following Jesus start following him. They want the community of faith the reach far and wide and if people that don’t know Jesus are not being reached, then the community is not in a healthy spot. Evangelists not only do evangelism themselves and lead others to faith, but at their best this person is creating vision for the community as a whole that is evangelistic where everyone is active in working to see people come to faith. Called evangelists are responsible to train the believers in witness, proclaim the gospel boldly and shape the community of faith to be a place where “sinners” draw near as it was said about Jesus in Luke 15:1
“Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.”
But every gift casts a shadow and the evangelist has two clear dimensions.
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
By Alexia Salvatierra
When I was speaking at an Intervarsity event this week, one of the student leaders expressed some doubt that prophets after the coming of Christ are called to include a social justice element in their message. That is not an uncommon stance in many of our churches.
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.
Since we’re in the final four of World Cup I thought I’d share a story.
Did you know that on penalty kicks the shooter has a 7% greater chance of making a goal if they shoot right up the middle than anywhere else?
The goalie will jump left 51% of the time and right 41%.
But only 17% of shooters kick it up the middle. Why?
[tentblogger-youtube Ls9Cg8iaq1s]
This is a great video of a son who sets up a secret camera to capture his dad’s reaction to his C grade in math.
The he kid has been working hard, hasn’t been able to pass and now finally he makes it over the hump.
Shawn Young shared with us a great word about the joy of the Father in planting and he uncontrollably celebrates our success (even a C) in planting. For some of us planting is so hard and we feel like we’re working so hard to pass.
How does the fathers reaction help you glimpse The Father in Heaven’s reaction towards you?
