Anonymous

This is an excerpt from an email that I received from a student leader in Nebraska. Man, just hearing their heart and vision being transformed to Jesus' makes me proud to call them a friend, and as I read the words I am compelled to follow their example as they follow Christ.

It was a huge coincidence that put this person in my life, and now I know it was not an accident, but an act of God. I can't help but wonder how many times God has put resources in my life for me to take advantage of and I didn't. I have realized that God has been trying to help me all along, but I didn't realize it until now, because I have never had enough faith to take those steps to seek his resources.

I can't put into words at how overwhelmed I feel about how great my life and my faith has become. For the first time, I feel like a truely happy, faithful, Godly person. I have realized that in life it is not just the end result that counts, but the journey you take to get there, and my journey, although hard and frustrating, and definitely not over, has been very worth while because it has given me a great appreciation for life and the God that has given not only given it to me, but given it back to me over and over again after all of my failures.

You have just caught a glimpse of a person's soul growing.

-Ethan

Situational Leadership

Below you'll find an excerpt of Hersey and Blanchard's (one minute manager) leadership study entitled Situational Leadership. Below that you'll find my thoughts on how this relates to spiritual movments in Nebraska.

According to Situational Leadership, as the readiness levels of individuals increase, the followers' ability and willingness fluctuate. When first beginning a new task, where they have had little, if any, prior knowledge or experience, most individuals are tentative or insecure. Then, when they begin to get into the task, followers respond to the leader's assistance. This builds confidence which increases as skills are acquired.

If they overcome this stage of development and learn to perform the task with help from the leader, most individuals then go through a self-doubt stage where they question whether they can perform the task well on their own. The leader would say that they are competent, but they are not sure of the their competence. These alternating feelings of competence and self-doubt cause the variable commitment; sometimes excitement, other times self-doubt. Once the self-doubt is overcome, the followers move from doubt to peak performer.

One of the acronymns that we use in Nebraska (you'll find it in the Passport) is MAWL. Model, Assist, Watch, Leave. As more mature believers, we model for new believers and underclassmen how to share their faith, lead a Bible study, and basically follow Jesus on a moment by moment basis. Next, we assist them as we do it together. This means that we invite people to lead...they're not left alone to succeed or fail, but rather, we're right there beside them, leading together.

After assisting, we begin to pull back and let the new leader have greater responsibility. At this point Hersey and Blanchard would say the emerging leader is experiencing variable commitment - sometimes experiencing excitement, other times self-doubt. This, in my opinion is the trickiest position for us. As we have our eye on the next step of leaving, we now have the responsibility to remain in the 'Watch' phase to help the new leader in any way possible (prayer, conversation, encouragement, etc.) get to the point where they are able to make the leap to leading on their own. Then we leave and do it again with another emerging leader!

One of the ways this basic model of discipleship breaks down is when the emerging leader does not replecate the tutelage which they received after they have been leading on their own. What can we do to help MAWL perpetuate among new leaders?

Before Hersey and Blanchard performed an academic study on this principle I believe Jesus modeled for us the same type of leadership. For the sake of length let me just pose some questions:

Model: Did Jesus model for his disciples how to 'do ministry'? (sharing their faith, prayer, etc.)
Assist: Did Jesus assist his disciples as they began to take on greater responsibility?
Watch: Did Jesus step back and let them lead ministry while he was there watching?
Leave: Ummm... Did Jesus physically leave :) and let the disciples take on the task of leading?

I'll come back to this.

-Ethan

The Gospel for Real Life I

I hadn't intended to start on this book so soon, but after our discussion in small group this evening I really feel like God is leading me to start now. It's going to be long, a little corny, but worth it. The blue text are direct quotes from the Gospel for Real Life. The red text is me.

"When Lazarus lay dead in the tomb he could not decide to come to life again. In fact, Lazarus could not even respond to Jesus' call, "lazarus, come out!" unless with that call Jesus gave him life (John 11:1-44). Lazarus's condition, as he lay dead in the tomb, is a picture of our spiritual predicament. We can hear the call of the gospel a hundred times, but unless that call is accompanied by the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, we can no more respond to it than Lazarus could respond to a vocal call from Jesus."

What a great point. This great point, however, makes me think you're saying that there was nothing that I did to receive Christ. Is that right?

I know it is difficult for us to accept the fact that we could not just decide to trust Christ in much the same way we might buy more life insurance (intellectually). The truth is, we did decide to trust Christ, but the reason we made that decision is that God had first made us spiritually alive.

O.K., so you're saying that I DID make a free-will decision to trust Christ, but God, through Christ, gave me the ability to make that decision. You've got my attention Mr. Bridges...now can you back it up Biblically?

"We see the necessity of the Spirit's work in giving us faith in Jesus' conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus (John 3:1-21). In verse 3 Jesus says emphatically that 'no one can see the kindom of God unless he is born again.'"

"What is Jesus saying to Nicodemus and to us?

I don't know...you're the spankin' author, why don't you tell me?

Notice that Jesus speaks not of permission to enter the kingdom, but of inability to enter it apart from a new birth. We all recognize the difference between the relationships of may to permission and can to ability. Here Jesus consistently uses the word can. We cannot - in other words, we do not have the ability to - enter the kingdom unless the Spirit of God gives us life through the new birth. We are born again, then, by a sovereign, monergistic (that is, the Spirit working alone) act of the Holy Spirit. Then, as a result of that new birth, we exercise the faith given to us and enter the kingdom of God."

What's that? You're not done yet? Well, by all means then, please proceed...

"'One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.' (Acts 16:14) What does it mean that the Lord opened Lydia's heart? It means that He made her spiritually alive, that she was born again. It means He removed the Satan-induced blindness from her mind so that she understood and embraced the gospel. I means that He delivered her from the kingdom of darkness, where she had been held captive, so that she could respond in faith. Note the sequence of events recorded by Luke. The Lord opened her heart; then she responded to Paul's message. She could not respond until God first opened her heart."

Point well made; I guess there's quite a bit of Biblical evidence pointing toward the verdict. At this point, however, the argument seems rather lopsided; is seems as though God has everything to do with my salvation while I have very little. Not to mention the fact that I've spent countless hours sharing my faith and learning to share my faith clearly in an attempt to win people to Christ. If salvation's all the work of the Holy Spirit, then I guess I wasted a lot of time, huh?

"Obviously the Holy Spirit works through our human channels of evangelism. As we saw in Chapter 9, 'faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ' (Romans 10:17). But our message is impotent apart from the working of the Holy Spirit, who both empowers the messenger and opens the heart of the listener as He did in the case of Lydia.

Prove it.

"Consider Paul's words to the Thessalonian believers: 'Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction' (1 Thess 1:5)." What resulted when Paul's message was accompanied by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit? 'The thessalonians 'turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God' (1:9)."

"The Thessalonians themselves believed. They exercised faith. God does not believe for us, but He does through His Spirit create spiritual life in us so that we can believe."

Gotcha; God gives me the ability to have faith, to accept salvation, and then I have to exercise that faith, like Jesus giving Lazarus the ability to come out of the tomb, but then Lazarus actually exercising his ability to walk out. Here's the deal though, let's say I have a friend who doesn't know Christ; what then? I understand that "God uses our human channels of evangelism", thus I need to be able to clearly articulate the gospel message in words that they can understand. But on the other hand, you've proven your point that salvation is, first and foremost, the working of the Holy Spirit in a person's life. How in the world do I account for their ability to receive Christ in the first place?

"I think of some for whose salvation I pray regularly. One is stridently opposed to the gospel, wanting nothing to do with God. Another is happily indifferent, seeing no need of a Savior because he is a good, moral person. Others, at this point in our relationships, would be highly insulted to be told they need a Savior because, after all, they are both moral and religious. What hope is there for these people? It lies only in the sovereign, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. And I pray regularly that He will work in the hearts of these people through the gospel message to create the faith they must have to believe in Christ."

Alright, the lights are coming on for me, and I'm starting to put the pieces together. What you're saying is that because salvation is the working of God I need to pray to God to open their hearts as he did Lydia's some 2000 years ago - pray that God grants them the ability to exercise faith. Also, the gospel needs to be presented to my friend in a way that they can understand because 'faith comes from hearing the message'.

That makes sense. I once heard John Piper say "God has the ability to drop vertically on each person to present them with a clear gospel message. For some reason, however, He chooses to use us to move into a person's life horizontally...one person at a time."

I guess what I'm getting out of this is that I need to be regularly praying for God to give my friend the ability to receive the gospel, while at the same time I need to be prepared to give an account for the hope that I have in Christ whenever the opportunity arrises. What would you say to that?

We are not to be a terminus point for the gospel, but rather a way station in its progress to the ends of the earth. God intends that everyone who has embraced the gospel become a part of the great enterprise of spreading the gospel.

Well said. Man, you should write a book, or 12.

-Ethan

The Barbarian Way I

My first installment of thoughts from the Barbarian Way by McManus:

"Somehow Christianity has become a non-mystical religion"
One of the things that I appreciate about the whole post-modern culture is an inclination away from the scientific method approach to life and toward spirituality. I believe this is a healthy movement for us as a society and, most importantly, Christianity. Somewhere along the way we became concerned with trying to prove our faith, perhaps now we can move beyond that and embrace the reality of what the Bible is saying.

The whole Bible is filled with crazy stuff (see: circumcision, virgin birth, dead men walking) that flat out can't be explained any other way than by the supernatural power of God Himself. This is the faith to which the writer of Hebrews refers as he (chpt. 11) rattles off crazy story after crazy of people who were completely devoted to a God who moved them to action. The faith that the Bible presents is a whole lot different than the faith you see in Ned Flanders.

"For the early disciples, Jesus was right there for them to watch and hear. For the rest of us, we have to learn how to see the invisible and hear the inaudible."
Bill Bright was once asked if he had the chance to speak to a group of Christians or non-Christians which would he choose. He responded that he'd rather teach the Christian audience to live a spirit-filled life because then they'd have the chance to share Christ with the other group of non-Christians.

When you leave college my prayer for you as a student leader with CCC is that you would be educated. Not with a degree or skill for the workplace, but rather with an understanding of what it means to live a Spirt-filled life; to see the invisible and hear the inaudible. I pray that you will be an ambassador for Christ for the rest of your life because you are listening to the still small voice of Holy Spirit as He directs you.

-Ethan Wiekamp

5 sources of motivation

I recently ran across an academic article (Leonard, Beauvais, Scholl, 1999) that discusses 5 basic sources of motivation. It's interesting. What would you say is your primary motivation for being involved in Campus Crusade for Christ in Nebraska? You don't have to answer, it's just fun to think about.

5 sources of Motivation:

Intrinsic Process: we do it because it’s fun

Instrumental: we do it because we’re going to be rewarded for doing it

Self Concept External: we do it because people will know that we did it, and they’ll think highly of us

Self Concept Internal: we do it because there will be a reinforcement of our own self concept

Goal Internalization: we do it because we truly believe in the cause

Understanding that nobody will end up with 100% of their motivation coming from a single source, where do you think your primary source of motivation is coming from? What about the freshmen in your movement? Let's say most of your freshmen are involved because "it's fun"...is that O.K.?

-Ethan

-Ethan

Doane is going to explode this year!!

I got this email from Wes Jensen. Man, I'm so excited about Doane this year!

-Ethan

Ethan...

How's it going man? I just wanted to fill ya in on some pretty amazing stuff...

A good friend of mine and someone I and many others have been reachin out to since freshmen year, is a Mormon and has never really been in tune with Crusade in the past years. In fact, she'd leave the area if Cru was ever brought up. Last spring she went to our Easter weekly meeting when Kevin Pringle came and spoke. During the altar call, she was crying. No decision made, but definitely a seed was planted. In the last four days of being on campus, we've seen the harvest of that seed from spring time. During lunch one day, Ashlee was informing me that Kevin Pringle was coming to our 1st official weekly meeting to do the talk on sharing the Gospel. My friend immediately said she's going! Also, others have had significant spiritual conversations with her just the past few days!

A junior at Doane, came up to Ashlee A. today at our OL training and immediately said, "I think I want to join Crusade this year." Wow! What's the chance that would happen, especially since she has never attend a Cru event or meeting ever! Basically, its like she said, "I want to know about Jesus!" Of course its not the same thing, especially the eternal impact it'll make in her life, but a huge step. Plus, Ashlee is really building a strong relationship with her just in 2 days!

A senior and a suitemate of mine, and I had a great conversation tonight. How it all happened is just amazing. I can't even remember what it was right now, but he had gotten sick this early night so I was just chillin with him in the suite and all of sudden our conversation turned to spiritual aspects. It was just awesome to see where he was in his walk with Christ and get to know him on a more personal level. Really feel that God is going to make great things come through with this.

We're having Piper Down, Cru's Keynote Band, come Sept. 5th. Its outdoors in our theatre and since its at 7 pm we wanted to get the caf. closed for it. Well it had been lookin like we weren't going to be able to do it since we got a new food service company and one of the connections we had with the old caf. workers had left when the new company came in. However, we went in yesterday to talk to them about it specifically and they said, "No problem."! Will be a great opportunity for us to talk it up and keep students there!

I could go on but the Lord has opened up many doors for me and other leaders on our team to begin relationships with people we never imagined, have been praying about, never met before, and so on. It is evident that the Holy Spirit is moving on our campus and the atmosphere is just indescribable.

Thank so much for your leadership and desire to help equip Christian college students to win their campus for the Lord. The Core was a great start for our team and I really feel this is going to a revolutionary year at Doane! Have a great rest of the week bro and if your not busy tomorrow night you should stop by Memorial Stadium. They're giving tours of the new facilities and such. God Bless!

Your Brother in Christ,

Wes Jensen

Impacting Chile!

Here is a recent email I received from Julie Sorensen. Julie was a student at Wayne State College, and after she graduated from there she went on to Nebraska Med Center for Pharmacy. She is currently taking a year off to do a one year STINT (short term international ministry) with Campus Crusade. It is so exciting for us to read about the impact a student from Nebraska is making in Chile and we wanted to share it with you.

Hey-
I made it to Chile! Thank you so much for all of your prayers- we had a great flight and all our luggage even arrived with us. The Lord has blessed me a lot with a great team of 6 other people- 3 married couples- Jason and Kristi, Clint and Maggie, and Vince and Holly. Things have started off well between us and we really do enjoy being together and definitly have a unified vision to see the Chilean students reached for Christ. I live with 3 other girls that are also on another STINT team here in Santiago- 2 are from Mexico and the other is from the United States. They're a lot of fun and I'm so thankful that I get to live with them. (I think I might get to learn to cook!) The briefing in Colorado was good last week too. It really helped me to get focused on why I am going to Chile, as well as helping me to really connect with the Lord again.

We arrived last Monday and got settled in and figured out how to live in Chile with grocery shopping and other essentials. This week we started language school and will be going everyday- we're all at different levels, but it's definitly a challenge for all of us to try to understand and speak this Chilean spanish. They talk so fast and don't pronounce their words very clearly- but I love the language. We've also been going to the campus we're going to work at - it's actually a street called Republica and there are several campuses together on this street. We've done a prayer walk and are going to 'decode' it tomorrow.

The Lord has been teaching me a lot about what it means to love these Chilean students as he does. 1 Cor. 13 keeps coming to mind, and I try to put myself in it and it seems I am the opposite of all the things that love is. But it is so strengthening to know that He is all these things- he is love- and He can love these people through me. It's so incredible to truly look at people and know that Christ died for them specifically - that they have a story and God is infinitly interested in them, just like He is in you and me. I keep praying that God would break my heart for these students, and I feel He is beginning to do that.

Please keep praying for us that Spanish would come quickly- it's definitly a big barrier right now to talking with people. Also for continued team unity and unity with my roommates- the language barrier makes things a bit more complicated. Also pray for wisdom in talking with students- a lot of them are closed to anything about God, so we need wisdom for the context in which we present the gospel to them. We definitly want to focus on building relationships with the students there.
Thank you so much for all your prayers- it's such a blessing to partner with you all in reaching the Chilean students for Christ.

My Chilean address is
Julie Sorensen
Carlos Antunez 1867, Edif. 18,
Depto.1007, Providencia
Santiago, Chile

In his love and grace,
Julie Sorensen