Ministry

Campus Mission 2007 is over

August 4, 2007 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

Campus Mission 2007 (the event) is over. Campus Mission 2007 (the mission) is beginning. 16,000 students from 129 countries were invited to sign a pledge:

The CM 2007 Pledge

Because…

…the lost can not perceive the majesty of the Lord, and God deserves the glory, honor and praise of all.

…God desires the ends of the earth turn to Him and be saved

…Christ died for all; therefore all deserve the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

…the Lord deserves the rewards of Christ’s suffering, which are the redeemed from every nation.

…the deepest needs of the human race can only be met by Jesus Christ.

…Jesus said “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”.

…Jesus made me a light to the nations, so that His salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

Because of these…

… I choose to invest my time, energy, resources, and abilities in light of eternity, to follow Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, in unity with the Body of Christ.
In full surrender to Him, I will go to the unevangelized university students of the world, and beyond, “that the earth may be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea!”

My name
July 5, 2007, CM 2007, Busan, Korea

See some of the excitement:

Movement leaders

July 7, 2007 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

I read in Steve Addison’s World Changers blog today:

The breakthroughs in the renewal and expansion of the Christian movement always occur on the fringe. Why? Because those with the biggest investment in the past and the present have too much to lose by facing reality.

Plummeting attendances and ordinations are painful, but not terminal if you’re sitting on millions of (dollars, euros, pounds) worth of assets.

Movement leaders raise the sense of urgency. They face the brutal facts. They heighten discontent.

The italics are mine. These are the sentences that connected with me. I am a leader in my missionary organization, Campus Crusade for Christ. I am celebrating 31 years with Campus Crusade this summer. I have a big investment in the past and in the present.

But I also feel a sense of urgency. Reality is my friend. The status-quo is not my friend.

And I know other leaders who feel the same way also.

The discontented feelings that we can do better in accomplishing the Great Commission. The urgency of the needs today. The desire to unleash new momentum among students.

These thoughts led Campus Crusade leaders to call thousands of students to Busan, South Korea. 15,994 students and staff members from 121 countries concluded a conference this week in our first ever global student missions conference. It was a historic event. The theme: Christ Magnified, Connected Movements, and Completing the Mission.

1,000 Languages

June 9, 2007 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

Jesus Film picture In July the JESUS film will be translated into its 1,000th language. It look 20 years to hit 500 and eight years to reach 1,000. The 1,000th language is Ho and is spoken in India.

10 of those languages are ones I gave leadership to producing. It’s a small drop in the 1000-language bucket, but a major source of personal satisfaction. The Jesus Film has been an amazing tool for sharing the gospel. Involvement was very rewarding.

In 1983, I carried the portable recording studio to Nigeria. Portable was an interesting adjective. It was portable if you had a pickup truck! But still, I carted those large cases of equipment to Nigeria, to Sierra Leone, to The Gambia. I’m sure you understand there is a difference in traveling around West Africa and traveling in the U.S.!!! Clearing equipment into a country through customs then back out is always interesting and frequently unique.

Of course, getting the recording equipment into a country and back out again paled in comparison with some of the trails those who showed the film took. At least I could hire a pickup truck or van. Some had to do their transportation on motorcycles or even a bicycle!

But the end result is the same: helping everyone know someone who truly follows Jesus. Giving everyone a chance to hear the goodnews of love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. It’s worth the effort. It’s worth the dangers. It’s worth investing my life.

Closing comments at MinistryNet 2007 :: Bangkok

May 20, 2007 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

Keith’s closing comments at MinistryNet 2007 :: Bangkok.

God’s blessing will fill our current capacity, then his blessing will stop. If we want to see greater blessing, we must grow greater capacity. Growing capacity is an act of faith. Risky faith.

MinistryNet 2007 :: Bangkok is about growing our capacity for internet ministry so that God can bless us with increased fruitfulness.

Higher quality (7 Mb)

Lower quality (1 Mb)

Connecting laborers to best practices

May 19, 2007 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

Personal Disciple-Making by Chris Adsit Our Global ConneXion community-building tool continues to grow in use around the world.

The discussion in the GCX Community from Australia called DiscipleshipThinkTank continues to get even more interesting. Their community description (from the Browse Communities listing) is:

We want to sharpen our ability to disciple people online by applying the principles found in Chris Adsit’s book “Personal Disciple-making” in the environment of ARC. The team leader is Bob Prouty from CCC Australia.

Recently, the community owner invited the author of the book to join the community. So here we have the author of a significant book as a member of the community discussing with online mentors how to apply his principles of disciple-making using the ARC system.

Great combination of CCCI resources: GCX provides the venue for discussion, learning and sharing best practice ideas, ARC provides the venue for implementing and testing the ideas, and a staff member provides the creativity and spark to launch and shepherd a great discussion.

The focus of this discussion is about shaping the initial follow-up letter to new Christians.

Well done, Bob!