CAMPUS LAUNCH PAD

Make Disciples: Virtual 1on1s. Sunday morning I, like most Christians, sat on the couch with my family and watched our church service online. I gotta admit, it was kind of a cool experience! Later that afternoon, I caught a couple more services from churches around town.  I watched as the CHURCH broke Facebook Live!  Never before has the Church been so digital and so available!  On the campus ministry front: our students have gone and our campuses have gone online. Therefore, we go virtual!  Never before has this been an option in the history of the church! But, let’s not buy into the lie.  In the same way that in-person worship services never produced the same quality disciples as the intentional one-on-one investment, the well done, live-stream worship service will fall short just the same.  If nothing else, it will take consumeristic, church-hopping Christianity to the next level!  Before we take our large groups online, what’s our plan for...

Do you spend much time at the doctor’s office? If you haven’t, just wait till you have kids! And, if you are blessed with boys, expect to spend some time at the ER as well. Just saying… I have four kids so I’ve seen a lot of waiting rooms. Waiting rooms are all pretty much the same. They usually have two sections to divide the well from the sick and a variety of things to keep both parties entertained and isolated until their time comes to move onto the next room. Next time you’re there look around the room. There isn’t much emotion. Each person is biding his/her time until his/her time comes to move on. Now compare that with a launch pad for the space shuttle. The cockpit is swarming with activity. Ground zero is alive with clicking and talking. All parties are frantic to make sure every detail is secure. The ground crew is scurrying about making sure everything is filled up, topped off, and packed. There is excitement and anticipation!  Every man and woman is doing...

If you've ever had kids you know about bibs.  They are a lifesaver! Bibs will save you, as a parent, from having to change your kids clothes 4 times a day!  They are a beautiful and useful thing.  And more and more today they are making bibs out of anything - clothe, silicon, plastic.  It's interesting that when you take that same piece of cloth and move it down 2-3 feet is something different. If you've ever been to a restaurant you've experience this.  As you are seated, usually a waiter will approach you, pull something out of his apron and write down you order.  You take that same piece of cloth and change its location and it changes the dynamic of your relationship with someone. A bib communicates that you need someone to do something for you.  An apron asks the question, "What can I do for you?" As followers of Jesus, are calling is to wear the apron.  We serve our neighbors, we serve our ministries and our families.  How ofte...

2 Timothy 2:2 - What you heard from me [Paul] in the presence of others pass on to faithful men who in turn can teach others. I love this verse! If someone was to ask me what is my favorite verse I don't know if this is it, but it is close.  I love the idea of 4 generations of believers!  4G discipleship!  Paul who trained Timothy who was charged with training faithful men who would train others.  Paul >Timothy>Faithful>Others. Can I be honest though? Sometimes I find myself pushing for 2 generation discipleship.  2 Clayton 2:2 goes something like this: "Now that you've heard from me in the presence of others go and invite your friends and family and anyone you can to come back next week to hear more."  2G discipleship.  Come, hear me teach, and be fed.  I tend to make discipleship more and more about attendance to something where I can teach them, rather than radical obedience to Jesus' call to make disciples.  I mean, if I ...

“Jesus had a big enough vision to think small.” Robert Coleman in Master Plan of Evangelism What a crazy statement! Jesus came to earth with the vision of rescuing all of humanity from their mutinous rebellion against the High King of Heaven and what does he do? What is his plan? He takes twelve guys on a three year camping trip!  What a plot twist, right?  In order to go big, he goes small.  His vision is the whole of humanity so he starts with making sure the few have the DNA to carry on the kingdom charge after he is gone.  This is nothing short of brilliant.  You know why it was brilliant? It worked.  How did you hear the gospel?  Chances are, someone told you. And chances are, someone told them and so on and so forth back up through the ages until someone heard it from Peter or John or someone.  You’re living proof his plan worked.  Jesus went small. BIG ISN’T BAD, IT’S JUST INCOMPLETE Does that means that Jesus didn’t do l...

I remember the moment my paradigm shifted. I had turned over the leadership to one of our lunch outreaches to our interns.  I told them, “find a way to make this better.”  They did. I sat and watched how students responded to them and how within a semester more students were coming than ever before.  Then it hit me: I’d been training them to do their role in my ministry and not training them to be effective ministers. The bottle neck wasn’t them and their ability; it was me and my lack of vision. If we are going to reach the world for Christ and have an impact on not just our campus, but every campus, we have to raise up men and women and give them the opportunity to be better than us.  It reminds me of the life of Barnabas in the New Testament. Barnabas was a man who never wrote a single page of the New Testament, but his fingerprints are all over it.  He was a man who humbly knelt at the cross so others could stand on his shoulders to see Jesus better. ...