What is the Gospel?

3 responses
July 21, 2013

What are you sharing with the world?

By Beau Crosetto

There is a huge debate in our culture about what is the ”full gospel” and as an evangelist this is very important to me because I want to communicate to people very well what God’s good news is.

I am very concerned with the way that we work to reduce and simplify the gospel, compartmentalizing into our theological camp. Some of us fight for the language of the Kingdom and focus on Jesus and the gospels. Others of us fight for the atonement stating the gospel is only and exclusively penal substitution. We argue from Paul’s letters and hammer the cross. Others are sick of the whole ordeal and are reverting back to the peaceful language of shalom found in the Old Testament.

But what if the gospel is all three ideas? Shalom, The Kingdom, and Atonement.

A Stupid Prayer

4 responses
July 18, 2013

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By James Choung

I prayed a stupid prayer a year ago.

As I was looking for a new role in campus ministry, I asked for something that would require me to exercise my faith muscles. And when we were starting our church, I asked God to build something that wouldn’t be credited to the talents of the people in the room. I wanted God to do something that could only be explained by his presence with us, that would be impossible to do without God.

An Evangelist Should Always Have Discipleship In Their View

no responses
July 17, 2013

This is a guest post by Don Bennett. He has spent the past 12 years serving as a Pastor in different roles. Currently he serves as an Associate Pastor at the Meeting House (Oakville – Main Site), a Multi Site Church throughout Southern Ontario. His passion is to invest in people and engage in conversation.

One key thing I have learnt in my time in ministry is the importance for an evangelist to always have a discipleship pathway in mind for anyone they are connecting with. This comes from my journey as well. I Responded to a great gospel message on Good Friday 1992 and was on a high. The Pastor handed me a bible and affirmed my decision. After reading from page one for a few days I quickly realized I had no idea about what to do with this book and the stories I was reading. How does any of this relate to a decision to stand up and receive Jesus? I went on to listen to the teaching, sing in worship services, but not know what to do next. Then I stumbled away for years until I hit rock bottom and reached out to ask questions.

Recent Grad Leads Friend to Faith At Work

2 responses
July 12, 2013

This is a guest post from Carolyn Chow. She is a recent grad from San Diego State InterVarsity and now officially a professional working woman in the marketing industry. She is a great friend of mine and I have had the privilege of watching her develop the last four years in college. I asked her to share her remarkable story of the first month on the job in LA. She is truly becoming a world changer!

Just last week I had the opportunity to lead someone to faith at work. That is right, in my first month on the job, in a completely new city, God used me right out of college to lead a sister to Christ. I couldn’t be more excited for her and the mission God has me on in the working world.

The Power of Habits

no responses
July 8, 2013

From “The Power of Habits”

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]

Our Daily Routine

Looking back, the two of them could see that the tensions in their marriage began six months ago. Heather landed an internship at a graphic design studio. She left their apartment at 7:30am each morning. Four days a week she stopped off at the gym on her way home from work so it was 6:30pm before she got back to their apartment. Jeff worked afternoons at Starbucks to supplement his income as a church planter. He got off at five and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading out to lead a Bible study or meet with neighborhood friends. By the time he arrived home at 10:00pm, Heather was usually in bed asleep. Jeff checked his email, caught the sports highlights and then went to sleep around midnight. Minor irritations that never got talked about grew to become sharp tensions between the two of them. Finally after one heated argument, the two of them realized that something needed to change. Their daily routine was not giving them enough relaxed time to listen and talk together. As a result they were slowly drifting apart.

If Jesus Came For The Sick, Why Does Everyone Look So Healthy?

no responses
July 4, 2013

sick

By Laura Hairston

Last month, my middle school girls neighborhood group wrapped up a series of 6 weeks watching The Bible. Over 13 million people viewed the first of the miniseries on The History Channel. Of course, it’s a bit ‘Hollywood’, but that’s probably one reason for the number of viewers. One of the beautiful things for me was watching my girls, many for the first time, hearing the stories of the Bible. After an episode, I asked the girls what they noticed about the people Jesus was surrounded by, and their response was

“the sick, the sinners, the prostitutes & tax collectors – not the ‘church people’ like you would think”.

This was interesting insight from these teenage girls.

Prop 8, DOMA, and the Christian Response:

2 responses
June 26, 2013

Found this great post by Ed Stetzer that I thought you all might want to read in light of todays events.

Last week, the largest Christian ministry devoted to helping homosexuals struggle against their attractions apologized to the gay community and announced it was shutting down.

Today the Supreme Court of the United States struck down parts of the Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996. The Supreme Court also declined to rule on Proposition 8 from California (Christianity Today has the full story here).

In doing so, same-sex marriage recognition remains a state issue and (although this is not completely clear that this time) it appears to remain legal in California, as it is in 12 other states and the District of Columbia. Also, the United States government will recognize the legality of those marriages with respect to federal benefits. (I’ll update this paragraph as the ruling is analyzed, but this is the first look.)

Needless to say, our culture is changing– quickly and dramatically on this issue. But how should Christians respond?

Read the whole post here

InterVarsity’s Pathway: Activate People

one response
June 25, 2013

pathway diagram

As some of you have asked for more details on the post detailing the New York/New Jersey InterVarsity pathway, I thought it would be a great idea to share with you the pathway that InterVarsity is working on nationally through the Chapter Building Initiative.

A Planting Breakthrough @ LMU

one response
June 21, 2013

LA Greeks gathering this school year for training and vision

As we are planting Greek Ministry with InterVarsity in Los Angeles, we continued to be surprised by a campus called Loyola Marymount. Loyola was not one of the first places we were looking to start Greek Ministry, but as I document in this post, God is growing something there underground. He has made it clear that we need to be there and get something started, so we have been obeying that this year. God took this ministry to the next step last night!

See You Wednesday

one response
June 7, 2013

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.