Wear Love

And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:14

I used to buy them compulsively and wear them often. I think I had six or seven t-shirts, all of them with big, bold letters and bigger, bolder messages.

Instead of Reebok’s Life is short; play hard, my Christian t-shirt said, Life is short; pray hard. Over a cute Play-Do’ logo on a white tee, some clever, Jesus-loving marketers had written Pray-Mo’ instead.

I was taken in by all the wordplay and by the chance to “share my faith” in such an easy manner. I was fourteen. A skinny, unsure freshman with a shirt that shouted, Go Against the Flow!

Around my neck, I wore a delicate Jesus fish on a chain. On my wrist, I was rocking the frayed, black WWJD bracelet.

We were very concerned, in those days, with not being ashamed of our faith. It was, arguably the most...

Friendship

Friendship.

So many words come to mind when I think of that word.  Fun.  Messy.  Life-giving. Trying. Intimate.  Lasting.  Commitment.  Refining.  Giving.  Taking.  Laughter. Understanding.  Support.

The older I get, the more I value my girlfriends. The more I see the need for them. The more I love them!  And as I listen to those around me, I see that so many women and men DON’T have deep relationships in their lives. We NEED friends. Not mere acquaintances. Deep, lasting, committed friends. I’m talking the kind of friend that you can rely on. The kind of friend that will walk with you through ANYTHING.

My friends have seen the deepest, darkest, silliest, most annoying, parts of me. They have also experienced some of my best moments with me.

I have 3 friends that I would refer to as “LIFE-LONG” friends. By life-long, I don’t mean that I’ve known them all of my life. I mean that they will be in my life for the REST of my life. Of the three, I’ve actually had verbal conversations...

Alpha: A New Strategy

What is your team planning for next fall? Starting a movement? Working on a private college? Reaching out to your campus through small groups?

As you think about planning for next fall, consider the new Campus Alpha course. Even though Cru has a couple of investigative Bible studies for seekers, not much has really caught on.

Campus Alpha is an evangelistic 8-week course that covers some foundational elements of Christianity. Each week, students gather for an informal meal, listen to a message and discuss what they’ve listened to.

Matching funds are available for the first 50 courses!

“I am very impressed at how God uses this approach to evangelism.  At Harvard I have never seen God use any form of evangelism as powerfully as I have seen God use Alpha.  I am very bullish on Alpha and have appropriated its format and ministry philosophy in our own weekly meeting now at Harvard.” - Pat McLeod

Watch the first message: HERE

Find out more: HERE

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (or printed)

Do you want to help change the world? Do you want to help Cru put the Gospel within arm’s reach of every person? Well… help me. (please)

I’ve just been asked to be part of team that is trying to discover how to leverage social media to do ministry. The technology of social media is as revolutionary as the printing press or the television. When those tools were invented, someone had to figure out how to use them for ministry. In my experience, most of us Cru staff use social media like a telephone for one to one messages or like a television for one to many communication.  I don’t know of anyone with Cru who is fully leveraging social media for many to many communication.

Here’s how you can help:

1. Watch this video to understand the power of social media: Many to Many Communication by Clay Shirky

2. Tell me how you are using social media for real time, many-to-many ministry strategies.

3. Tell me who you know who is effectively using social media for ministry.

The Finish Line

The train station was quiet and almost empty, and I sat alone on a bench soaking in the stillness while admiring the highly polished floors.  According to the grand, old clock on the wall I had about another hour to wait.  Everything was pristine in this major New Jersey train hub, but all of that changed in an instant.  Suddenly there was a surge of people, but this wasn’t an ordinary surge:  I was mesmerized and couldn’t stop staring.  For urbanites, those people moved slowly and were sweaty, smelly, wearing damp athletic gear and looked like they had just run a marathon. 

Turns out, they had.  It was the New York Marathon of 2010.

That Sunday several years ago I traveled from a church women’s retreat in upstate New York down to a girlfriend’s house in New Jersey.  While waiting for a train to take me to my next destination, a westbound train arrived at the station from New York City filled with marathoners and their supporters.  I can’t imagine what the odor on that...

Making Holy Week Holy

Holy: separate, consecrated, set apart

God has called us to “be holy as I am holy.”  So what makes this week more holy than others?  Should we really set this week apart as special and unique? If so, how?

I come from a church background with little to no liturgy or ritual.  I didn’t ever “give anything up” for Lent and I certainly never experienced the whole “ash on the forehead” thing.  As a zealous evangelical college student, I rejected anything that I viewed as a “tradition of men” or that I judged as being done out of compulsion, legalism, or guilt.  But now, as I’ve grown significantly older and slightly wiser, I’ve come to appreciate the Lenten season, especially this “Holy Week.”  Taking the time to reflect on Christ’s suffering and his sacrificial death makes me appreciate and love my Savior all the more.

Here are a few things I’m doing this week (some individually and some with my family) in order to make Holy Week, well, holy.

1.  Experiential Learning. 

a. ...

Leading with Humility

Recently my wife and I were with some new friends who were helping us think through and refine the calling that we believe God has for us. In leadership it’s always good to invite friends and third parties who don’t know you at all to speak into your life and make some observations about your character, your leadership, and your relationships with others.

After a few days of conversation, lots of coffee, and a battery of questionnaires and interviews with folks the results were in: stay the course, God is in fact leading us to where we thought he was. After talking through our gifts and abilities, strengths as a couple and my strengths as a leader, my friend pulled out another list and said, “Here are where your weaknesses lie.”

Gulp. Weaknesses? “Surely I didn’t have any weaknesses,” I thought to myself, “not after the glowing report you just gave me.”

“You’re arrogant,” he said. Not “a hint of arrogance.” Not even “people think you’re arrogant.” You ARE...

I’ve been THAT single girl

“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3:1-3)

In our walks with God, at times we may find that in the worries and concerns of every day life we have taken our eyes off of the Lord and fixed them on ourselves. In doing so, we are setting ourselves up for trouble.

How I’ve seen this displayed over and over and over again in my life is in the area of singleness. I’ve decided to actually go there and to address an area that I know many women on our staff and even students struggle with during different seasons.

I’ve been the staff girl that on a slice survey from Cru I’ve vented frustrations of our organization not valuing singles and valuing families more. I’ve felt left out, hurt, angry, bitter. I’ve asked the question, why at a staff...

Creating Space for Students to Lead

For over a decade we have met every week with our student leaders. We meet to cast vision, share what God is doing and equip them in ministry skills (how to share their faith, disciple, lead a Bible study, etc).

This spring we decided to just meet every other week (I know many of you gather all your leaders once a month or less so our move may not seem revolutionary. But it was a BIG change for us).

Our fear in changing it: that in losing that weekly touch point student leaders would
1) Feel less connected with each other
2) Lose vision for reaching the campus

One thing we did to bridge the gap and to keep communication/vision going in that space, we created a “Cru Leadership” private Facebook group where students could share stories of what God is doing and communicate with one another.

An amazing thing happened:
Students started filling that “open week” and the Facebook Wall with incredible student-initiated efforts.

A few examples:

• A group of students started meeting...

Inbound Valuing Demands Attention

Have you ever tried to give someone a Christian book or tell someone about your idea or event regarding Jesus and you see that, far from a welcome reception, the person you approach obviously finds you intrusive, annoying and irrelevant?

Yeah. It’s happened to me too.

This can lead to the false conclusion that people are uninterested in Jesus. That’s impossible. Jesus is a lot of things, but boring is not one of them.

The negative reaction to our approach could be the result of the fact that, in this age of the interwebs and global transportation:

• people are overwhelmed with more relationships, opportunities, ideas and entertainment than they could ever give attention to; 
• people have more control over where and when they engage their attention; 
• and most importantly, people have more control than ever over what they will give their attention to. 

The value of attention or “the attention economy” is not a brand new concept....