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Being scared is part of the human condition and no one can avoid it. But being scared cannot be what dictates how we lead and press out. If we are going to be on the edge of faith and lead initiatives to start new things, then two things are guaranteed:
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!
Any community that wants to be on mission with Jesus has got to be marked by incarnation. The heart of incarnational ministry is to encounter the love of God and to embody that love in a particular place with a particular people. Look at any community that has brought the gospel to a new environment in a transformational way and you’ll see them encountering the love of God and embodying his love in that place. They incarnate the gospel and lives are transformed. Sounds great right? So why isn’t every Christian community living incarnationally? We see two ways that a community can miss the mark of incarnation and fail to see transformation occur. We can fail to inhabit a community and we can fail to actually incorporate the gospel into our lives.
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.