Archives For Innovation

Thoughts on evangelism; skepticism and proclamation.

November 15, 2010 — 4 Comments

We want to see the campuses in this city transformed. To do that we share our faith a lot. Along the way a couple issues have surfaced for us that we’re doing our best to deal with.

  1. There is a general sense of skepticism here that was not present in my last location (Montana). It’s not that students won’t talk to you…they’re just skeptical (especially of Christians).  For them, Christians are judgmental and overly political. This means more trust has to be built, more rapidly.  One of the best ways to do that is to value the people we’re engaging with. This is where body language, listening skills and tone matters. They must know that I care about them and value them and their thoughts.
  2. This environment can become deadly suffocating when it comes to actually proclaiming the Gospel. If our team wasn’t careful, we could default to have amazing conversations for hours on end that never bring anyone to a point of understanding about who Christ is.  We could easily let cultural norms overtake bold proclamation of the Gospel.
  3. Teaching a student to share their faith here is tricky. Because of the complexity of many of the conversations, modeling an evangelistic opportunity often ends up with Suzy Freshmen wondering if she could ever be skilled enough to share her faith.

Out of these realities has come some action points for me….

  1. Get Biblical about evangelism. Before I bow to any sort of cultural pressure (or CCC staff pressure) I have to ask myself what the Bible says about it. I’m starting with a look at a few verses on evangelism in context (thanks Keith Davy)…John 1:35-51, Acts 8:26-40, Acts 17:16-35
  2. ’100% Try’. A while ago I heard someone say that every conversation they’d have with someone they would try to share the Gospel and bring someone to a understanding that they need to make a choice about Christ. Of course, sometimes God would close conversational doors, but they would try.  They called this the ‘100% try’. That’s what I want my life to look like.

Any push back? What about your context? What are you learning?

In Innovation, Uncategorized
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Newspaper ad’s for outreach? Ugghh.

November 14, 2010 — Leave a comment

Recently we had an innovative outreach at Portland State…a Poetry Slam. You can read about it on the CruPress Green site here.

One of the biggest mistakes we made in advertising for the event was putting our ad in the school newspaper for two editions. Exactly 0 people indicated they found the event via the newspaper. $430 later I feel a bit snookered.

But what do you do? You have to leave no stone unturned when sponsoring a campus wide event right? Maybe times are changing. What do you think?

In Innovation
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Important Links this week!

November 8, 2010 — Leave a comment

A couple of interesting links you might want to take a look at.

  1. I blogged on the CruPressGreen site about our recent outreach…a Poetry Slam of all things. We’re learning a lot about evangelism in Portland. Check out the recap here.
  2. The ReThink Blogference is hosting a resource drive. The idea is to have local field staff share the best resources they’re using and save us all from having to recreate the wheel. I’m all about sharing the wealth and would love it if some of you would weigh in on the discussion there! Check out Brian’s thoughts below.

In Innovation
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Teams sending teams.

November 7, 2010 — Leave a comment

Last year I left a thriving ministry at Montana State because I caught a vision of launching new movements on the campuses in Portland, Oregon. This year I was reflecting back on how cool it was that our staff team at MSU was thinking beyond the edges of our campus, and was trusting the Lord to send teams of staff/students all over the world.

I look forward to the day when our team in Portland is sending missional teams all over the world. Our vision isn’t just to change the campus, it’s to change the whole world!

Here’s a recent video of Mark Gauthier (National CCC Leader) talking about what’s going on at MSU this year!

In Innovation, Leadership
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The Next Christians – Gabe Lyons

November 1, 2010 — Leave a comment

I feel like I’m living the new book by Gabe Lyons call The Next Christians.  Talk about resonating! Here are a couple of quotes that have caught my attention so far.

Engagement over Condemnation: Provoked Christians resist the urge to condemn everything that isn’t explicitly Christian.

The beauty of the Gospel is found in both proclamation and demonstration. Neither comes first; niether comes second. Like the perfect marriage, it’s the duty of the Christian to take on each, giving 100 percent effort to both.

Cultures aren’t changed by being condemned, critiqued, or copied. The only way to change culture is to create more of it.

This book is challenging me and giving words to things I’ve felt. I recommend it.

In Innovation, Uncategorized
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CCC Blogference

October 11, 2010 — Leave a comment

I highly recommend that you check out the Campus Crusade blogference blog. It’s got some great interaction from Campus staff all over the place. The recent discussion about how large evangelistic events do more harm than good was intriguing.

I may be tooting my own horn but I posted over there today about getting better at listening in evangelism. I’d love for you take a look, but only if you promise to mix it up in the comments. Tell them Matt sent you.

In Innovation, Leadership ,
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Evangelism – what’s working, what’s not?

October 1, 2010 — 11 Comments

We’ve been experimenting with various evangelism tools and methods  since we’ve been in Portland. Here’s what we’ve learned in the context of this beautiful, crazy, individualistic, post-Christian city.

  • If we do a good job listening, almost always people are surprised by our respect and respond with gratitude.
  • We have to be careful not to shy away from proclamation of who Christ is, but communicating with respect and genuine care for the person makes that possible.
  • Even our staff must take time to check our heart motivation. Do we really care about the person we’re sitting across the table from or are we just doing a job? Our team has had great conversations about this already.
  • Our evangelism training needs to include asking relational questions in order to build trust. This training is not in our new staff training material.
  • A laminated Soularium (it rains here) is the go-to tool to initiate conversations. Students love it. Although one of our staff has started using the perspective cards and so far the feedback is good.
  • We still use the 4-laws! We still value it’s clarity, conciseness and transferability. I’m trying the sweet new iPhone app too.
  • We feel the need to expand our evangelism tool-belt beyond the 4-laws to relate to more people from more backgrounds.
  • We need the ability to communicate a concise, clear message of the gospel without a pamphlet.
  • We need a tool to walk someone that has no concept of the Bible, Jesus, etc. through the story of redemption.  We’re about to try out Backstory.

What about you? What are you learning about evangelism in your context? What’s working, what’s not working?

In Innovation , ,
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Bootstrapping examples

September 30, 2010 — 2 Comments

I love harnessing technology, cutting costs and freeing our staff to do what they do best. Watch reality tv. Just kidding…I think we’re pretty good at spending time with people.

Here are two examples we’ve used recently….

1) Recently we had a volunteer vision night for the ministry in Portland. We had no paper invitation. We did everything via email, facebook and an online RSVP form made from Google doc’s (i.e. free!). We had 27 people show up to hear about how they might get involved! Awesomesauce. We spend less than $100 total (mostly on food) and we got the people that we wanted there…people that are comfortable with online technology. And more importantly our staff are connecting relationally with these people instead of making copies.

2)We advertised PDX Cru on facebook for 4 days at the start of the Portland State school year. Our staff didn’t need to run around printing promotional materials and trying to figure out how to gain permission to post things on campus. We may end up adding the paper aspect, but for now this serves us perfectly. Today the majority of students that showed up at Portland State for our first info meeting found us on Facebook. Well worth it.

What about you? Where has being forced to cut costs allowed you to be more effective and strategic?

In Innovation, Technology
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Planning is guessing

August 24, 2010 — Leave a comment

This is what my life feels like right now. My staff team is officially launching the ministry in Portland right now and I’m in Boise waiting for our son to be born. Not the way I planned it.

Writing a plan makes you feel in control of things you can’t actually control. Why don’t we just call plans what they really are: guesses. Start referring to your business plans as business guesses, your financial plans as financial guesses, and your strategic plans as strategic guesses. Now you can stop worrying about them as much. They just aren’t worth the stress.

Rework – Fried and Hansonn

Things just don’t go as planned do they? Don’t get me wrong, there is great value in planning and thinking about the future. But we must build into our plans enough margin to seize opportunities and improvise if needed. And sometime we need to stop having meetings and start working on today.

Do you have tendency to overplan? I do. How do you balance necessary planning with being nimble enough to take advantage of God opportunities?

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A Recruiting Method

August 19, 2010 — Leave a comment

Part of my job as Operations Director of the ministry in Portland, Oregon is building the necessary manpower and team to move us toward our vision of every student having a chance to hear about Christ. Below is simple tool that I just revamped that I like to talk through with graduating students and potential volunteers.

I wanted something that was simple, clear, visionary and yet gave specific enough details that a potential staff member could see themselves working here.

If they don’t live here I also show them this video…dispelling the myth that it’s miserable to live here.

We’re a little different cause we’re starting from scratch, but do you have any go to recruiting methods or tools?

Pictures are courtesy of Portlandground

In Innovation, Leadership, Technology , , ,
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