By Erna Kim Hackett
How does having kids affect your perspective of stepping out in APE ministry? I grew up in the Korean immigrant church where male pastors ( always married, always with three kids) worked remarkably long hours for the church. Often travelling and leaving their wife and kids at home for the sake of the ministry. I would say, often neglecting their children, with the justification that they were doing God’s work.
Photo Courtesy of Ben Heine (cc)
Technological breakthroughs coupled with the ever-connected global village have birthed a generation that sees the world differently. Millennials are a beautiful generation that is highly creative! Creatives are everywhere — especially in the university context. I believe there are more opportunities now for creatives to express themselves than ever before!
Do you ever feel like your ministry is stuck, jammed or bottlenecked? For whatever reason it just can’t seem to grow to that next level no matter what you do?
May I suggest that it could be that you don’t have a clear pathway for people to develop beyond yourself.
Hate to say it but we wont have a post up until wednesday. I am heading out to Catalina Island for our InterVarsity Regional Conference and will have absolutely no wifi until Tuesday night. My other friends on the blog are busy doing stuff all around the world so I don’t have any posts to load at this point either.
So I guess we can see this as little resting and reflecting point.
In the mean time answer these questions for me in the comments. If you would rather privately tell me, then email me please. Your feedback is important for this blog to serve us all best.
What kinds of things (topics, styles, etc) have you enjoyed on the blog?
What kinds of things do you wish we had more of?
Also here are the five most popular posts, in order, the last quarter incase you have missed them and want to get caught up!
Have a great few days and thanks so much for reading this blog and contributing by commenting and sharing!
This is a guest post by Paul Worcester. He is the director of Challenge at Chico State in California where he lives with his wife Christy and son Owen.
I am an evangelist. Nothing gets me more stoked than sharing the good news of Jesus with someone for the first time. However the role of an evangelist was given to “equip the saints for the work of ministry.” (Ephesians 4:12)
[This is part of a series on "How Do I Develop an Apostolic Leader?" You can read the other posts here.]
By Chris Nichols
“Recently a pilot was practicing high–speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent – and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she was flying upside down.
This is a parable of human existence in our times – not exactly that everyone is crashing, though there is enough of that – but most of us as individuals, and world society as a whole, live at high-speed, and often with no clue to whether we are flying upside down or right-side up. Indeed, we are haunted by a strong suspicion that there may be no difference – or at least that it is unknown or irrelevant.“ – The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard
By Steve Stuckey
Steve is a spiritual director with InterVarsity in Southern California. He writes here on this blog to foster spiritual formation for us catalytic leaders. Our hope is to create some space online to not only stir you up to be an APE leader but also help you connect with God well in your soul. He has developed many APE leaders and knows what our strengths as well as struggles are.
[This post is part of a series called Rooted. Find the other posts here]
His name means El is Yah or God is Yahweh. His job was to confront false religion, clear out the pantheon, and call a recalcitrant people back to their roots. He performed his dangerous task with authority, humility, and humor. Like Moses he had a twin peak experience in life—two high points with a valley in between. (Read 1 Kings 17-19 and view this artistic study). Learning to navigate that type of spiritual geography is an important task for any follower of Jesus, especially for apostles, prophets and evangelists.
[This is an update to a previous post]
By Beau Crosetto
Two weeks ago I shared with you about how I got overly angry at my wife and how I felt like God was going to use that in my relationship with my neighbors who are curious about Jesus. I told you I was going to share with them about my struggle and let them into how I pursue Christ for my transformation.
Well over the last two weeks I have shared with them and I have some powerful updates.
[If you have a great story from college or know a great story please submit here]
“For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.” – 1 Corinthians 4:9
I am Eduardo Lape, Jr, a 17-year old apostle of the Lord from Davao, Philippines. I am a college student at Ateneo de Davao University. I became a Christian when I during my high school years, 3 years ago, when my classmate, who became my mentor, invited me to a 3-day spiritual retreat called “Encounter”. From that day onward, my life was never the same again. And the fire set inside me by the Holy Spirit just made me want others to also experience the joy of being in the Lord. So I immediately started a ministry at my former campus together with my friend prophet, Benedict. We got our whole class dedicate their lives to Jesus.
By Eric Rafferty
As another school year wraps up and we take account of some of the things Jesus has done on campus with students at UNO, we are recognizing that this was an incredible year. The ministry we lead at UNO had its best ever year of growth. We’re three years into planting at this commuter campus and we’ve seen the chapter grow from 30 students in 2011 to 50 in 2012 to 74 in 2013. We’ve seen the number of small groups grow from 7 to 9 to 14, reaching out to different corners of campus from athletes to international students.
Beau Crosetto
James Choung
Erna Kim Hackett
JR Woodward
Grace Biskie
Jon Hietbrink
Dave Ferguson
Linson Daniel
Eric & Stacy Rafferty
Sarah Carter
Shawn Young
Luke Cawley
Chris Nichols
Brad Brisco
Steve Stuckey
