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Archives For Evangelistic

See You Wednesday

Beau Crosetto — June 7, 2013 — 1 Comment

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!

In Apostolic, Conversion, Evangelistic, Prophetic

10 Simple Ways For Evangelists To Equip Everyday People!

Beau Crosetto — June 5, 2013 — 1 Comment

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)

In Evangelistic

Blue Mondays- Part Two

Steve Stuckey — June 3, 2013 — Leave a comment

Elijah 052 (2)

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]

Elijah the Prophet

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.

In Apostolic, Evangelistic, Prophetic

[update #1] God is Moving in My Neighbors

Beau Crosetto — June 2, 2013 — 2 Comments

small typical german small city of bonames in birds view

[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.

In Evangelistic

Why We Miss Moments With God, And How To Fix That

Beau Crosetto — May 27, 2013 — 5 Comments

water well

By Beau Crosetto

Last week a few of my buddies and I went to play tennis. We needed a 4^th and it dawned on me to invite a guy I play volleyball with. He said yes and we had a great time playing that night. But when we were done I wanted to see if God was up to more so I asked the guy if he wanted to grab a drink and talk a bit in my man cave.

He stuck around and we had a great conversation until about 11:30 at night. The guy is an Indian man with a Hindu background. He is very spiritual but has a completely different view of God than I do. We had a great discussion about faith and at the end I asked him if he would be willing to read a book with me and debate the ideas in the book instead of the ideas in our head.

He said yes! So we are now going to start chewing through “Mere Christianity” and talking about the ideas of truth, morality and if there is one God or not.

I am really excited to keep talking with this guy, but I almost missed the moment. I almost didn’t invite him, almost went to bed when tennis was over, almost didn’t push into the spiritual conversation, and almost didn’t ask him to read a book with me.

It got me thinking about the disciples in John 4 and how they totally missed the moment Jesus had with the woman at the well.

In Evangelistic

International Student Comes to Christ!

Beau Crosetto — May 22, 2013 — 1 Comment

[This is part of the College Writers series. We are looking for students who want to post great stories like below.]

This is a great story of conversion told by Christine. She is a college student at UCSD, majoring in Literatures in English. She is a Vision Team Leader for InterVarsity’s international chapter (International Christian Fellowship).

Grace and I first met through UCSD’s language exchange program in Fall of 2012. Our first conversation was light and simple, but things changed when she asked me about what I did for fun. I told her that I like to sing at my church on Sunday mornings, and surprisingly, she asked if she could join me. Her intrigue about church surprised me, and I responded with excitement! She then asked me what else she could do in San Diego to have fun while improving her English. I recommended that she come to International Christian Fellowship (ICF) so that she could meet both American and international students who would become good potential friends for her. Immediately, her eyes widened, and she told me that two other people had told her about ICF that week! This seemed like perfect orchestration. From that moment on, I asked God to show Himself to be real to Grace.

In Conversion, Evangelistic

If You Share Your Weakness, You Can Reach Your Neighbors

Beau Crosetto — May 20, 2013 — 7 Comments

Couple screaming

If we want to reach our unreached neighbors with the love of Jesus Christ, then we have to show them what Jesus can do for them. We have to show them what transformation really looks like.

And unfortunately that transformation is going to be seen through your weakness being perfected in Christ. They need to see the places that we fall short in our character so we can then allow them to watch us as we pursue Christ and He transforms us.

It might be anxiety, lust, materialism, envy, jealousy, or greed. I don’t know what your genuine short fall is.

But mine is definitely anger.

In Evangelistic

Do You Wish Your Ministry Grew By Conversion?

Beau Crosetto — May 17, 2013 — 2 Comments

Nick (R) & Jon (L) are two of the guys leading Greek InterVarsity with me in LA.

By Beau Crosetto

I am a happy man today and that is because Nick Kwok, the Greek InterVarsity Staff at UCLA, is doing a phenomenal job planting the ministry and seeing it grow. But not just growing by accumulating believers. He is growing the ministry with God through conversion.

Earlier this year Nick was able to lead a student to faith in a fraternity and that was obviously exciting. But the news just gets better. Last night Nick led another guy to faith in that same fraternity. It is a great sign of growing by conversion and an answer to our prayers. At the beginning of the year, this was a fraternity without a believer in it, and now God led one guy to faith in Jesus and that guy opened the door for his fraternity brother to experience the same. That is the kind of ministry that excites me and that is growth through conversion!

One of our goals this year in the plant was to see 7 students come to faith in the ministry. So far we have 6 as of last night. Nick has been radically committed as he plants this ministry to not just accumulate believers in Christ but to articulate a vision that makes tons of space for people who are skeptics and seekers of Jesus. He makes space by doing four specific things.

In Conversion, Evangelistic

Solitude is More than Separation

Beau Crosetto — May 15, 2013 — Leave a comment

By Beau Crosetto

Often times when we think about getting some solitude we think about getting some free space to do our own thing. We just need that hour to unwind, relax and catch our breath. But this is not what solitude is at all.

The last two days I took a retreat with a few of my friends to step back and reflect on the year and how God has been moving.

I love these times because it gives me a chance to soak up all that God has been up to and not just move on. It also allows me to address problem areas with him and let him shape me more into his image.

One of the things I did on this retreat is re-read through Henri Nouwen’s great book The Way of the Heart.

The first part of the book is all about solitude and just what it really is. Here is a great quote from the book that struck me.

In Apostolic, Evangelistic, Prophetic

Hospitality

Beau Crosetto — May 13, 2013 — 2 Comments

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This is a guest post by Laura Hairston. Laura is a wife, mom & practitioner. She serves on the National Leadership team for Forge America Mission Training Network and is co-founder of Waken Ministries, both organizations helping with missionary formation & discipleship. Connect with her on Twitter | Facebook

Flower arrangements. The smell of homemade bread. Martha Stewart. This is what used to come to mind when I heard the word “hospitality.” If you know me at all, even the mention of ‘homemade’ or ‘Martha Stewart’ would have kicked me out of the running already.

Or, if you’ve grown up attending church or attend currently, you probably had a Hospitality Team or may even serve in that role now. These individuals typically manage the coffee table, greet you with a smile, and were probably placed there because it was in the top 3 of their Gift Assessment. Turns out the church has a very SMALL view of hospitality and so did myself.

In Apostolic, Evangelistic

Beau Crosetto

Bio:Beau's calling by God is to raise up and release apostolic & evangelistically gifted men and women into the world.

He currently is the Greater Los Angeles Director for Greek InterVarsity and in charge of specifically seeing new Greek InterVarsity chapters start on college campuses. The vision of Greek InterVarsity in Southern California is to see a "witnessing community in every fraternity and sorority in SoCal."

He has been on staff for 7 years and previously oversaw the ministry at San Diego State. Beau is married to Kristina and they have two kids: Noah (2) and Sophia (5mo). Beau became a Christian in college at the University of San Diego where he played golf. He has a passion for helping students connect with Jesus, and right behind that is his passion for the Seahawks!.

Follow @beaucrosetto

James Choung

Bio: James Choung seeks to empower rising generations of Kingdom world-changers. To this end, he currently serves as national director of InterVarsity Asian American Ministries, and is a licensed pastor with Vineyard USA.

He has also written True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In and Real Life: A Christianity Worth Living Out. He has taught at Bethel Seminary San Diego on leadership development and evangelism, and his work has been featured in many publications, including Christianity Today and Leadership Journal. For fun, he likes to travel with his wife, tease his two sons, play board games with his buddies, hit some jazzy chords on the keys, enjoy Los Angeles' endless summer, and swing a racket in hopes of playing something like tennis. He blogs irregularly at www.jameschoung.net.

Follow @jameschoung

Erna Kim Hackett

Bio: Erna works with Black Campus Ministers with Intervarsity in Los Angeles and is the interim Director of the Los Angeles Urban Project.

Follow @ernasings

JR Woodward

Bio:JR Woodward (M.A., Global Leadership, Fuller Theological Seminary) desires to awaken people to join God in the renewal of all things. He is a church planter, activist, missiologist and author of Creating a Missional Culture (IVP 2012). He founded [nlcf] and cofounded Kairos LA as well as the Ecclesia Network. Starting in February of 2013 he will be serving as the coordinator for the V3 Tribe, a missional church planting movement in the United States. He serves locally with the District Church in Washington D.C, and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Manchester (UK). He enjoys blogging and you can find him tweeting here. He loves to surf, travel, read, skateboard, and meet new people. He enjoys photography and film and tries to attend the Sundance Film Festival whenever he can.

Follow @dreamawakener

Grace Biskie

Bio:Grace's passion is to share the hope she found in Jesus through relational leadership, writing, evangelistic speaking & advocacy. For the past 12 years she's cultivated these gifts in ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as the Black Campus Ministries Coordinator in the Midwest. Currently, she's enjoying serving high school students in NYC & Kalamazoo, MI at a non-profit foundation whose vision is to empower high school students towards leadership in social change, academic achievement & healthy, drug-free lifestyles. Grace heartily enjoys social media + blogging. She has written for Rachel Held Evans, Jim Walis' God's Politics blog, Ministry Matters and has been featured & syndicated on Blogher. Grace is working on her first book, Detroit's Daughter, a memoir about surviving her father, her brother, abuse, racism, Christians, boys, and poverty, while growing up in Detroit. Grace speaks as often as she possibly can and is half-way through a Masters of Divinity at Western Theological Seminary. Grace & the hubz have been married 12.5 years and have two ridiculously cute sons, Ransom, (6) and "R2", (2).

Follow @gabwithgrace

Jon Hietbrink

Bio:Jon works with InterVarsity/USA as the Regional Director for the Central US where the vision is to see "a movement of missional communities planted in our 'Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth': 500 Cells, 50 Chapters, and 1 overseas student movement". Jon and his wife Steph have been married for 10 years and have two children, Elijah (6) and Abigail (4).

Follow @jonhietbrink

Dave Ferguson

Bio:Dave Ferguson is the Lead Pastor of COMMUNITY, an innovative multi-site missional community who is passionate about “helping people find their way back to God”. CCC has grown from a few college friends to thousands every weekend meeting at thirteen locations throughout Chicago and was recognized as one of the most influential churches in America. Dave provides visionary leadership for NewThing (www.newthing.org) whose dream is to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches. He is the author of The BIG IDEA (2007) and Exponential (2010) and On The Verge (2011). Next to Jesus, Dave loves his wife Sue immensely and his three terrific kids Amy, Joshua and Caleb.

Follow @daveferguson

Linson Daniel

Bio: Linson Daniel serves as Area Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in North Texas and Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Mesquite, TX and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) with a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering.

While at UT, Linson helped plant the first-ever South Asian-specific chapter for InterVarsity named OneWay Christian Fellowship. OneWay is celebrating over 12 years of ministry in Texas, and has produced three other South Asian-specific chapters within the region.

Linson worked as an engineer in the corporate world for six years before taking the plunge into full-time ministry. In the past 3 years of ministry, Linson has helped plant 7+ new InterVarsity chapters in the Red River Region and also helped plant a new church in Dallas, TX.

He is married to his wonderful wife, Betina, and they have a talkative 2 year old daughter named, Sophia. Linson loves teaching, leading worship, playing music, and making people laugh. His newest hobby is writing/blogging and you can find him at www.linsondaniel.com.

Follow @Linson_Daniel

Eric & Stacy Rafferty

Bio:Eric and Stacy Rafferty are passionate about helping college students get to know Jesus. They fell in love with missional community, evangelism, and discipleship as students at the University of Redlands in Southern California. They’ve since moved to Omaha, Nebraska to work with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship planting multi-ethnic communities that bring the love of God to every corner of Nebraska college and university campuses. Eric and Stacy long to see Jesus break down “dividing walls of hostility” in the city of Omaha and for the gospel to break into every culture of the city. They have two awesome kids: Memo (2 years) and Elena (5 months).

Follow @eric_rafferty

Sarah Carter

Bio:Sarah is passionate about raising up apostolic leaders that unleash the Kingdom of God in neighborhoods and communities around the world. She is currently part of two church-planting movements, one in Southeast San Diego, and one in Southeast Asia. She went back to school to get her MBA through Bakke Graduate University, specifically to figure out how business and mission can intersect and bring transformation to our cities and neighborhoods through jobs, small businesses, and entrepreneurship. She is excited to use this training to create job opportunities for urban youth and families in Southeast San Diego. Sarah and BJ live on an urban farm with another family, where they raise goats, chickens, cats, dogs, and various other living things.

Follow @sarahannecarter

Shawn Young

Bio:As the first National Director of Chapter Planting for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA, Shawn leads the organization's efforts to establish new campus ministries at colleges and universities. He was one of the original architects of InterVarsity's successful Planting Cohort, which has launched 115 new chapters nationwide over the last 6 years. Shawn also leads a group of "thought-leaders" (a.k.a. mad scientists) who continue to create, innovate and experiment with the latest ideas for starting missional communities.

Follow @shawnlad13

Luke Cawley

Bio: Luke Cawley is the Director of Chrysolis, which exists to help you relate the story of Jesus to all of life, so that you can help others become convinced of his truth, beauty and relevance.

Luke has spent most of his adult life founding and developing missional communities on university campuses in Europe. During this time, he has overseen the establishment of thriving Christian communities on six university campuses which previously lacked any public Christian witness. He was also previously in charge of the bible teaching ministry of a small church plant in the UK.

He has an MA in Evangelism & Leadership from Wheaton College in Illinois, and is currently studying Christian Apologetics at Oxford University.

Luke is a regular speaker at conferences and outreach events in various countries. He is also a former newspaper columnist who now writes primarily on issues of Christian mission. You can read more of Luke's writing at www.chrysolis.org and InterVarsity Evangelism

Follow @lukecawley

Chris Nichols

Bio:Chris has been developing apostolic ministry among students for 33 years, first in CA and now in New England. As Regional Director for IVCF New England he is responsible for calling out and developing gifts for ministry that advance the gospel. He's married to Ellen and father to Nate and David.

Brad Brisco

Bio: Brad is currently the Church Planting Strategist for a network of churches in Kansas City; where he recruits, trains and coaches church planters. He holds a doctorate in the area of missional ecclesiology; his doctoral thesis was on assisting existing congregations in transitioning in a missional direction. Brad blogs regularly at missionalchurchnetwork.com He serves on the National Leadership team for Forge America Mission Training Network and is co-founder of the Sentralized Conference.

Follow @bradbrisco_kc

Steve Stuckey

Bio: Steve has served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship since 1971. His first thirty years were spent in pioneering and developing the work of InterVarsity in Central and Southern California. That effort involved identifying, positioning, and resourcing catalytic leaders. Since 2004 he has served as a spiritual director and retreat leader for current and former IVCF staff, helping them to abide in Christ and be rooted in his love. His website www.stevenstuckey.com has additional resources. Steve and his wife Nancy have three grown children and five grandchildren.

Archives For Evangelistic

See You Wednesday

10 Simple Ways For Evangelists To Equip Everyday People!

Blue Mondays- Part Two

Elijah the Prophet

[update #1] God is Moving in My Neighbors

Why We Miss Moments With God, And How To Fix That

International Student Comes to Christ!

If You Share Your Weakness, You Can Reach Your Neighbors

Do You Wish Your Ministry Grew By Conversion?

Solitude is More than Separation

Hospitality

APE Sayings

Our APE Writing Team