The Seabourns

Archives for December 2006

Renewing your passion

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Kay and I flew from Orlando to Dallas to spend a few days with our family before leaving for Pamoja Africa over Christmas. On the flight, I read something that got me to thinking about renewing passion for mission.

People love talking about their passions. Sometimes, those of us in fulltime, vocational Christian work begin to lose our passion. We forget why we wanted to do this stuff fulltime.

When someone asks you what you are passionate about, does it have anything to do with your vocation? You probably chose this vocation out of passion. What happened? How can you recover your passion?

Sometimes, we get chewed up, mangled, feeling ground to dust in the organizational gears. Here are some things I’ve found helpful at renewing and maintaining my passion.

#1: Seek out others who are passionate about our work.

Passion is infectious. It spreads from person to person. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” We become like those we associate with. The greater our association, the more we become like them. Associating with passionate people stokes the fires of our own passion.

#2: Attend conferences.

Campus Crusade for Christ in the U.S. has an all-staff conference every two years in Colorado. I look forward to those times. Yes, it is expensive. Yes, it is stressful. But those times worshiping God with 4,000 people like me who have committed their lives to fulltime service is so encouraging and re-visioning to me.

Attend a Christmas conference. There is nothing like hanging out with college kids whose lives have recently changed by coming face-to-face with Jesus Christ. Enthusiasm is contagious.

#3: MPD [Ministry Partner Development].

Campus Crusade for Christ is a faith mission. That means that the organization does not pay a salary. Kay and I prayerfully develop a team of ministry partners who pray and partner financially in our mission team. Sharing the stories from our ministry, sharing the vision of everyone knowing someone who truly follows Jesus, these times with our faithful partners in mission are times that renew my passion and my vision.

#4: Re-engage in one-on-one, direct ministry.

Sometimes as we develop leadership responsibilities within a fulltime organization, we move away from one-on-one ministry. Re-engage in risky faith steps of personal ministry. Step out in faith and resume sharing your faith with others. Teach a serious Bible study in your church. Seeing lives change in front of our eyes rekindles passion.

Pamoja Africa

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Pamoja Africa
Pamoja Africa (“Together Africa”) is a wake up call to prepare African students for leadership and Christian missions.

The vision for Pamoja Africa Conference is to accelerate the building of a new generation of spiritual leaders for a new Africa and beyond.

Africa is significant in God’s plan for world transformation and that plan invites young leaders to join hands across the continent to learn and share in leading the transformation of Africa. This is a call that every student and professional needs to respond to — it is a call to impact the nations.

Kay and Keith will participate in Pamoja Africa December 24 through January 5. We will celebrate Christmas early with our family in Dallas, then fly to Nairobi Kenya on Christmas eve.

Part of our involvement will be to help train 250 African Campus staff in using the Mobile Office tool our team has developed.

This will be our first time back in the African ministry since leaving Nigeria in 1992. We’re looking forward to the opportunity to minister in Africa again.

Mobile Office Project

Mobile OfficeMost of the international staff of Campus Crusade for Christ do not have their own computer. Of those who own a personal computer, most do not have internet access in their homes. Most use shared computers in internet cafés.
In an effort to improve communications and collaboration between staff, our team developed a Mobile Office. The mobile office allows staff to use internet cafes, without worry about the programs available on the computers, plug in their MOP drive, and work from it as if the computer they are renting is a terminal. [Photo courtesy of Rob.]

Kay and Keith will participate in Pamoja Africa to help train the 250 Campus Staff from around Africa in the use of the Mobile Office. We expect over the next 12 months to see a significant increase in collaboration across the continent as our staff work together to develop movements.

Note: For more information on the Mobile Office Project, visit the website.

Space Shuttle launch

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Shuttle launch

It started with Alan Shepherd, Gus Grissom and John Glenn, in the 4th and 5th grade. It has continued through last night’s shuttle launch. I was afraid I would be in Vancouver, Canada on Thursday night and miss the opportunity to see a night launch. I mean, why else live in Florida if you can’t see the shuttle launch, right? But the launch was delayed and I got back into town.

So Kay, Jennifer and I drove east out of Orlando a little bit and watched the shuttle launch from Bob’s Market parking lot.


See other photos we made of the launch.

And I’m not alone. There are many new photos of last night’s launch on Flickr.

In church today, we sang:

You, Who made the mountains and the sea
Measured out the universe and you made me
Echoes of the voice that called the worlds to be
Reach throughout the ages and now speak to me
You’re my Creator King

You, Who made the valleys and the skies
Displayed Your love on far horizons and before my eyes
You, Who lit the stars and set the dawn in time
Called them all by name and now You whisper mine
You’re my Creator King

Chorus
Who am I that You are mindful of me
Who am I that You sent Your love on me
You’re my Creator King

You, Who made the darkness and the light
Sun and Moon to watch the day and guard the night
The hand that stretched the heavens like a canopy
Reaches down to cover and watch over me
You’re my Creator King

There is something about travel into space that stirs awe and wonder in us. For me, it’s a testimony of the power of God in creating the heavens. I’ve never gotten over it. Since Alan Shepherd in 4th grade, I’ve been awed by our efforts to explore the majesty of the heavens that God created.

I don’t plan on ever getting over it.

Growing fruitfulness in online discipleship

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Kay and I have returned to Florida. On our flight from Dallas to Atlanta, we sat next to a recent college graduate who was so excited that his University of Florida Gators made the BCS bowl. He graduated last May. He likes his new company, likes his salary, but doesn’t like the attitudes of the people he works with. He was deeply concerned about ethics issues, particularly interpersonal relationships. We didn’t make much headway talking about spiritual things. He is Jewish but not spiritual. He is thoughtful, but not open. He is concerned about treating others right, but not able to sort through his own spiritual journey very well. He said other Christians were always leaving him with a pamphlet or tract.

So we just talked with him. And prayed for him.

Today we meet with our global operations team. It’s all day, and all good. We’re praying and planning how to build greater capacity for sustaining the Great Commission around the world.

Tomorrow, I travel to Vancouver, Canada via Seattle. We’re calling the conference iStrategy. It’s a small, highly-select group of the top practitioners of internet ministry in Campus Crusade for Christ (at least the ones that I know about!). God is blessing us abundantly in internet evangelism. Over the past year, we have seen a 100% increase in the number of indicated decisions for Christ and a 30% increase in email conversations with seekers. And we have not really increased the number of visitors to our websites significantly. This is increasing fruitfulness.

But I also feel that we can do better in internet discipleship. The number who continue into basic follow-up and discipleship are too few.
We can do better.

This is the focus of our iStrategy conference. The top practitioners of internet ministry will meet to pray, to share, and to seek ways to do better discipleship in our internet ministries.

Please pray for the iStrategy conference. Pray for a rich time of fellowship at the foot of the throne. Pray for new wisdom and relevation from God about how to increase our effectiveness in discipleship. Pray that we’ll understand how to be more effective in building movements everywhere. We want everyone to know someone who truly follows Jesus.