Release The APE - Part 146

An Apostolic Call to the Marketplace

7 responses
October 7, 2012

Daniel and his wife Jamie and son Liam

[This post is part of the “Non Conventional Places A.P.E. Giftings Show Up” series. Read the rest of the posts here!]

This is a guest post by Daniel Hawthorn. He lives in the San Francisco bay area with his wife Jamie and son Liam. He works as a software engineer and is the founder of eduschedu.com, a small education technology company serving students and teachers in K-12 schools. He carries a strong vision for incarnating Christ in business by releasing believers to express the fulness of Kingdom life and creativity in the workplace. He thoroughly enjoys any conversation that involves the cross section of education, technology, and the Kingdom, and in the early evenings can usually be found on a run with his toddler and trusty jogging stroller.

I am a teacher-slash-software engineer-slash-entrepreneur with an apostolic call to the marketplace. An ‘A’ with regards to the A.P.E. acronym and called to the marketplace.

Yeah, it’s a mouthful, and it can be tough to explain what this means to people. I feel like the Church has traditionally had a very limited understanding of what it means to bring the Kingdom to business and the marketplace, and so many of us have no grid for what it means to be an apostolic entrepreneur. Let me put it this way: bringing the order of the Kingdom into the marketplace through business means a whole lot more than reading your Bible during lunch and telling your coworkers you are a Christian! That may be a tough one to wrap your head around, and it’s been a journey for me as well.

I have spent many years in churches feeling deeply misunderstood. I could almost describe it as constrained. I am only beginning to understand what it means to carry an apostolic call, but as I begin to step into this role it is the most exciting, terrifying, thrilling, and alive way I could imagine to live my life.

A Frustrated Leader

Let me take you back. For years, I have carried a deep burden to see and experience what I read in the Bible in my day-to-day life. But I also found myself frustrated. I often said, “Lord, there must be more!” I loved (and still love!) the churches I attended. But as I joined various ministries or participated in leadership teams, I always felt like a piece of me just didn’t fit. I wanted to see Christ impact every aspect of my life and the lives of people around me – the people who I would never see next to me in the pews on Sundays.

Looking back, I understand this was the apostolic call tapping me on the shoulder.

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“Yes, You Did Laugh.”

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October 4, 2012

“Yes you did laugh.”

Sarah, in Genesis 18, laughed when she overheard the Lord tell Abraham that she would give him a son in the next year.

When the Lord asked why she had laughed, the scriptures tell us that she lied because she was scared and said, “I did not laugh.”

But Lord, said, “Yes you did laugh.”

I have been journeying through Abraham’s story and meditating on him as I have moved to LA and this new land. It has been a rich time for me.

In light of the recent breakthroughs in our funding and just reflecting on all that God has done in our life and ministry the last month, I sense God calling me out today.

“Yes you did laugh, Beau.”

You see, God has given me some incredible breakthroughs the last few weeks, but just before that I was living in some great anxiety.

Two of these breakthroughs not mentioned yet is that God has started a Greek InterVarsity in the Asian Greek Council at USC (pic below) and also provided me leaders on the Panhellenic and NPHC (Historically Black Sororities) Council. We could potentially have Greek InterVarsity in every council at USC by winter and that would be unprecedented in our movement. I am praying and believing for this move of God!

The first Greek InterVarsity on the Asian Greek Council at USC. 8 members showed up to dream about a space for God in these fraternities and sororities!

I am taking some time this week to reflect on these breakthroughs and ask God what he wants to teach me about trusting him when I can’t see the outcome.

One of the questions that I am reflecting on this week is

“How does God want to shape me more like Abraham?”

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Owning the Whole Field

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October 3, 2012

View IVCF Central Region Scouting 2012 in a full screen map

What if Jesus had given a different “great commission”?

Imagine the scene. The eleven disciples are likely still reeling from the dizzying effects of the last few weeks: betrayal, murder, failure, suicide, disillusionment, doubt, and now appearances of hope. Perhaps because they have no where else to turn, they find their way to “Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go”, and there he is. They see him and do all they know how to do–they worship and doubt.

Unwilling to let them merely look on him from a distance, Jesus “came to them” and issues perhaps the most compelling command in history– “Go and make disciples of all nations…”– and though impossible to believe at the time, their actions set in motion a movement that will one day fulfill that command.

But what if Jesus had followed conventional wisdom and given a different command?

Consider what Jesus could have said. Instead of “go and make disciples of every nation”, could he not have said, “Go back to the 120 disciples in Jerusalem and focus on them…”

If I’m honest, that’s likely what I would have said–focusing attention on what was already and attempting to build on that.

But Jesus was (and is) an apostolic genius, and here we see that brilliance on full display. Rather than focusing his disciples on what was (the 120 disciples in Jerusalem), he unswervingly commands them make disciples of all nations, and in a moment reframes our starting place for apostolic mission–not what is, but what isn’t yet. Fundamentally, it’s a question of “what are we responsible for?”, and Jesus’ answer is a resounding “all of it!”

The Call to Fundraise…joys, challenges & more

12 responses
October 2, 2012

Rome - mosaic - miracle fishing from New Testament in basilica of st. Peters

Jesus talking with Peter about the great catch

Raising support is a huge part of any missionary, pastor, or A.P.E. leaders life. I would venture to say that especially for apostolic leaders that are either going to oversee the mission of an organization or leave and go start new things, support raising and trusting God for provision will be a huge part of their life and calling.

I would also say that apostolic leaders in the marketplace, many who are entrepreneurs, are going to have to raise capital and trust God for financing in many projects.

Apostolic leaders risk big by God’s leading and many times those risks are financial.

I hope this story below really encourages you to stay the course and follow God into your calling no matter the financial ramifications or amount of trust you have to exercise.

Challenges in Fundraising

In a previous post about God calling us onward, I explained the joys and challenges of leaving your life behind in one city to go to another. I laid before you the difficulty of moving to Los Angeles and losing $25,000 of support in our transition.

As I shared with people the vision, some moved on because they felt called to other things. That is totally understandable and expected.

One person who stopped supporting our mission asked me,

“when do you get too old for this?”

Ouch.

After a number of people leaving our team, and not having any new people say yes to funding our mission to LA Greeks, it was hard many days to keep the faith and believe in our calling. As strong as you want to be and no matter how much you know you are called and heard from God, this kind of repsponse can be discouraging.

On my worst days I needed people to remind me of my call and not to give up as I dreamt about other jobs.

On my best days, I was full of faith, reminding my self that I do not live by sight but by faith and that God would provide what we need. Just hang in there and keep doing what you are doing. Be faithful in the little things every day.

However, the reality at the end of every day the last three months was this:

We were in LA now: a more expensive city, a bigger ministry, and more money to raise.

Because I took a director position I wasn’t just responsible to oversee my own support, but the other staff in the ministry and all the operating costs as well.

Breakthrough in Funding

Well just last Friday I got a game changing call!

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Raising Up Prophets…CCDA Conference

2 responses
October 1, 2012

If you want to find a gathering of prophets within the North American church today, look no farther than the Christian Community Development Association. Founded by John Perkins and others. You can read more about their vision here.

I attended the national CCDA conference this past week in Minneapolis, and it was a rich time of theology, inspiration, and rubbing shoulders with everyday believers that are radically living out the gospel of reconciliation and justice.

There were some fantastic plenary speakers, and one talk in particular given by Chris Rice and Emmanuel Katongole offered some profound insight that applies to the “Releasing the A.P.E.” context as much as it does to the work of reconciliation, which was the theme of the CCDA conference this year.

Here are their three essentials, taken directly from their talk. Most of the content is theirs, and I have interpreted it within an A.P.E. lens.

Check out the book winners! “Creating a Missional Culture”

one response
September 30, 2012

That was a fun competition everyone! I really enjoyed reading all of your comments, tweets and facebook posts! Thanks for participating and we will definitely do it again! This month to be exact!

Alan Hirsch has kindly shipped me five HARD BACK copies of “The Permanent Revolution” that he and Tim Catchim have written. We will be doing another competition and giving those away as well later this month! I Can’t wait!! make sure to subscribe here and stay connected with us!

Here are the winners and what they wrote!

Brian Chung – “Awesome Book!” (shared on his facebook timeline)

Michael Stalcup – “I’m working toward building up a missional community at Claremont McKenna College, especially trying to plant a group in the heart of CMC’s party culture. Already seeing God do some amazing things and I want more! And I want this book. :)”

Chris Land – He is our twitter winner and simply tweeted out the contest 🙂

Jorge Bermudez – “Missional is a way of living your faith wherever you are, intentionally and with passion.”

Kyle – “Missional means having a purpose-mindset to reach others near or far for the sakeof the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Good job guys! You will love the book! And sorry there aren’t any lady winners! I promise this was completely random 🙂 email me and I will ship them off to you!

Get to Know the A.P.E. Writers…Luke Cawley

one response
September 27, 2012

[This is a series designed to bring you into the the unique A.P.E stories of each writer on this blog. We hope each one of you can find a little of your A.P.E story inside of one of us. Read the other stories]

Growing up, my sisters and I were the only kids in our school openly from a churched background. My family went to a small church of about thirty people, and there was only one other bible-believing church in our whole town. It’s the kind of background which programs into you the assumption that most people don’t know about Jesus and unless you talk to them they won’t get to know him.

Initially I had just a dull awareness of the need to speak about Jesus, but as my teenage years wore on I became increasingly frenetic in my attempts to talk with others about Jesus: I would bring him up in conversation with friends, I initiated a regular street outreach in my home town and I spent every summer involved in short-term mission projects.

The strange thing was that for all my activity and enthusiasm I didn’t see a single person open their life up to Christ.

Shortly before leaving for university, I read a book called The Cross and the Switchblade written by a man from rural Pennsylvania who nervously stepped into the heart of New York’s gangland and saw hardened criminals hand their lives over to Jesus. The book amazed me because it was told by somebody who actually seemed to know God.

It began to slowly dawn on me that for all my efforts to introduce others to Jesus, he was really little more than an idea or a doctrine for me.

I realized that the person most in need of God’s transforming power was me.

How quickly can God change a life?

no responses
September 26, 2012

Jesus talking to Zacchaeus in the tree

How quickly can God change a life?

I’m just finishing up a powerful couple of days studying the gospel of Luke with a group of campus missionaries from around the world. And Jesus is going APE all over the place!

I was struck by Jesus the Apostle, who is sent by the Spirit of the Lord to proclaim freedom (Luke 4:18) and who sends his followers out with authority to take the message of his Kingdom to new towns (Luke 10:1).

I was by met by Jesus the Prophet who issues a prophetic proclamation that the Kingdom of God has come near (Luke 10:9) and a prophetic warning of judgment to cities that reject His messengers (Luke 4:24, Luke 10:12-15).

But I was especially challenged by Jesus the Evangelist who proclaims good news (Luke 4:18) and highlights his mission to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).

Zacchaeus

The most challenging moment came last night when we dug into the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Jesus is 23 miles from finishing his journey to the cross, he has just one afternoon to pass through the city of Jericho and in that one afternoon he turns the city upside down. How did he do it?

He invited himself into the life of an influential but corrupt leader, he transformed his life, and he watched his repentance initiate a massive redistribution of financial resources in Jericho!

Here’s where I felt convicted: Jesus spent a few hours with Zacchaeus and he went from being a corrupt, isolated traitor, to sacrificially giving half of his wealth to the poor and probably giving the rest away to everyone he had previously extorted money from.

In a few hours.

How long does it take for God to change a life?

How long do I expect it to take?

I recognized that I often have embarrassingly low expectations for what Jesus can do in the lives of people I’ve just met.

Two Students Come to Christ

When God calls us onward…

5 responses
September 25, 2012

Because the fundamental core of an apostle is “sentness” there will be times in the life of this person that God calls them onward. It is in the very fabric of apostolic leaders to push forward the “sent” nature of the church, and often times that is modeled by them personally.

Apostles are the first to leave, the first to break new territory, the first to go to new ground, the first to say,

“we have to take that land!”

They are obsessed with the “sentness” of God that Jesus models for us in John and charges us with in Acts.

Apostles are the first to leave, the first to break new territory, the first to go to new ground

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Well, this very year as I have been leaning into my apostolic gifting more fully than ever, God called me onward to Los Angeles.

I won’t ever forget last February, when I was preaching at Greek Conference, how God spoke to me in the midst of 640 students,

“I want you to go to LA and make this happen with me.”

I didn’t have full understanding of His voice and calling in that moment, but I did know God was speaking to me at this conference with 43 schools, and 640 students represented. None were from LA.

LA has 17 campuses with Greek Systems, and Greek InterVarsity was doing nothing intentionally to reach them! It was at this Greek Conference, that God stirred in me big time the sent nature of Himself and He essentially said to me,

“I want you to go. Let’s go do this thing together!”

You Know You’re an Apostle When…Dave Ferguson’s Story

5 responses
September 24, 2012

You Know You Are An Apostle When…

“Dave, you are definitely an apostle.” I had planted a church, my friend worked for a Christian magazine and it was over a lunchtime conversation that I heard this for the very first time. Of course I knew about apostles in the Bible, but what did he mean, “Dave, you are definitely an apostle.” He went on to explain, “An apostle is one of the gifts God gave to equip the church.” Then he looked at me like I was an idiot, “Ever read Ephesians 4?” Of course I had, but no one had ever used the term “apostle” to describe me. So I asked, “Why do you think I’m an apostle?” As he finished up lunch he explained,

“An apostle is someone who can see over the horizon to what is next for the church. Wherever an apostle goes they start new things and leave fresh expression of the church in their wake.”