Jon and Reg's Ministry Blog

2011 US Staff Conference Videos

jonathan — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:34:46 +0000

This summer Cru was blessed to have a great lineup of speakers for our 2011 staff conference. There are a few videos from the sessions available for free. Click on the link to hear from speakers such as:

Francis Chan – Revelation 3
David Platt – Isaiah 6
Steve Sellers – Vice President of the Americas – video regarding the name change
Rene Rochester

http://www.ccci.org/csu/index.htm clomid glucophage pcos

Francis Chan was as open and vulnerable as can be during his talk. He charged the organization to be alive with Christ. Enjoy the videos!

US Staff Conference

jonathan — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:35:01 +0000

Every two years Cru holds a staff conference where all of the US staff gather for vision, refreshment, training, and connection. And so after taking our classes for the summer we stayed to participate in the conference.

Francis Chan speaking from Rev 3.

Regina leading a seminar at the conference.

A few highlights from the conference:

Connecting with friends.
Regina emceeing the Epic Days at the conference.
Hearing from great speakers such as Francis Chan and David Platt.
Getting much needed time with the Lord.
Regina giving a seminar on “Cultural intelligence”.
The unveiling of Campus Crusade for Christ’s new name.
Jonathan hiking his 1st and 2nd 14′ner at Rocky Mountain State Park.

Though the mountains and middle America are great, we are excited to be back amongst the concrete and noise of the city. We are grateful to be back. Please pray as are preparing for the fall semester. Thanks!

Name Change … now “Cru”

jonathan — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:55:05 +0000

We are grateful for each one of you who know, love, and support us in this ministry! Because you are the most valuable people in this with us, we want to share a few thoughts and answers regarding Campus Crusade for Christ’s name change. The Epic Movement is under the umbrella of the campus ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.

As you may have already heard some media outlets have spun this as a politically correct move or speculated whether we have changed our message. These stories have caused some alarm within the Body of Christ. We know it is likely that a number of you are hearing this news, and it affects all of us directly.

You have known us and supported us for years, so we want to make sure you have the information you need about us and Campus Crusade for Christ.

It is true that we are changing our name to Cru in the U.S. After two years of exhaustive research, our leadership found that the problematic words in the U.S. are “Campus” and “Crusade.” We didn’t set out to remove the word Christ. Some media outlets have spun this as a politically correct move or speculated whether we have changed our message. Some have focused on our dropping Christ from our name. The truth is we dropped all three names.
Campus. Our athletic ministry, our adult professional ministries, executive, church, Hollywood, Josh McDowell, Christian Embassy, our publishing houses, etc. had little to do with the campus. “Campus” limited their efforts.
Crusade. In 1951, when we first started, crusade had a positive connotation. Today, with our ministries to international students and in the Muslim world, that word conjures up very negative images. Meanings change over time.
Christ. It is because we want to make Christ known that we are making this change. In our “sound bite” world, words often befriend or alienate. Watch the way our political leaders use talking points to position. We in CCC, or Cru, long to be able to share what Christ can do in a person’s life. So it is for that reason that we want the name of our organization to illicit a neutral response, so that we can get to the heart of those we share with.
As an organization we have not wavered in our commitment to Christ or our willingness to stand for Him.
The majority of Christian missions organizations and many local churches do not have the name Jesus or Christ in their name. This doesn’t lessen their devotion to Christ or their effectiveness.
Our mission remains the same: To give every person a chance to say YES to Jesus. It’s the same mission that God gave to Bill and Vonette Bright in 1951.
We are not backing away from Jesus but rather moving toward those who need to hear the gospel, more effectively.

If you have questions or concerns, please take a look at this FAQs page. These are answers that come directly from our leadership. We wish you could be here at our National Staff Conference with us to see and hear the humble hearts behind this decision. We respect each of the many wise people who collaborated for years on this decision.

The Epic Movement‘s name will remain unchanged.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns, we’d be happy to talk with you. We love you and are thankful for your partnership. We are just as committed as ever to giving students in NYC a chance have a personal relationship with God through saying “yes” to Jesus.

Nervous about school

jonathan — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:38:17 +0000

I’m glad to work for an organization that cares about our theological development. Cru offers 11 classes, taught by seminary professors, that Cru staff are required to complete within 10 years of joining Cru. Regina and I have completed 3 courses already (NT survey, Bible study methods, and Doctrine Survey). This summer we’ve taken the 2nd round of classes which include:

Church History (Dr. John Hannah, Dallas Theological Seminary)
God, Bible, and the Holy Spirit (Dr. Gregg Allison, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
Biblical Interpretation (Teaching team led by Dr. Keith Johnson)
Biblical Communication (Teaching team led by Dr. Keith Johnson)

I (Jonathan) haven’t been a in school setting in quite a while but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge to do well. Church history and Biblical Interpretation were a few of my favorite classes. Church history (mostly European church history) allowed me to see the struggles of the church through the years (battling heresies, forming doctrine, major schisms). It’s amazing that the church made it 2000 years! God’s sovereignty and grace and woven throughout it’s history.

I studied 2 Samuel 9 for my Biblical interpretation and communication class. I was richly blessed to study one passage for an entire month. I’ll be glad to share my exegetical paper, small group study, and the outline for my talk. Just email me here! Regina studied Genesis 11 and the tower of Babel. I was convicted and encouraged interacting with her talk. She’s a great teacher.

It was nice to not lead any projects this summer but be developed in our faith and ministry skills. We are so grateful for your prayers and support this summer!

The Power of Words

jonathan — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:39:46 +0000

I saw a powerful video recently on the power of words. Communication is a wonderful and I hope to grow in my capacity for it.

Epic Missional Team

jonathan — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:49:50 +0000

Courtesy of Clarence Chan

Epic Missional Team 2011

Thanks so much for your prayers and support for our team. We cannot serve and represent Christ on the campuses of NYC without you. Pray for Jayson Choe (far left) who will be joining staff full time and for Jess Lui (bottom right) who will be joining staff in the Winter of 2012. Clarence Chan (2nd from the left) and Jess Lui will be serving on the San Francisco Summer Project from June-July. Mei Ling (2nd from the right), Glennis (bottom left), Regina and I will be taking seminary level classes through Campus Crusade for Christ.

Columbia Students for Christ

admin — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 03:34:19 +0000

This photo was taken at the last leaders meeting.

Our purpose at Columbia Students for Christ is to build a movement so that everyone at Columbia would know someone else who is truly following Jesus.

At our last leaders meeting we enjoyed fellowship over a great meal cooked by Jess (2nd year intern with Epic). I love bonding over food! We continued the evening celebrating what God has done and evaluating some of the plans that were made at the beginning of the semster. We prayed through and looked over the strategic plan that the leaders made. Our desire is that we’d be faithful with the resources God entrusts to us.

Im excited for how God is growing our leaders and causing us to pray. Please pray for our initiatives to represent Christ at Columbia.

Work for the peace of the city. This photo was taken on the 7 train platform in Sunnyside.