What an Epic Year!

Ahhh!!! I wish I could just sit down and write down every amazing thing that God is doing here at ASU and in my life right now. But there is just too much to talk about. It's been a crazy semester, but it definitely has been a lot of fun. This past Friday was our last official Epic meeting of the semester. It marks the end of one full year of doing Epic! It's been so crazy to see how God has taken us from a group so focused on structure and progromming to a community focused on trying to figure out what it means to be the church, or the body of Christ. Fiday was such a fitting end to one year of doing Epic. Friday was the one year birthday of Josh De la Rosa. One of our original Epic members who received Christ while being a part of our movement last year when we first started. So crazy to see his amazing growth!

This past Friday, we wanted to celebrate what God has been doing in our lives in the past year, and also to recognize the different directions God will be taking us over the summer. We wanted to recognize that while some people were going off to mission trips overseas this summer, many people were staying home, working, or going to school. Our group really had a heart to validate that staying home this summer is just as important as going to do missions over seas. We really stressed the importance of staying in community over the summer. We got together played some games, introduced our selves (there were over 30 people who came tonight: one of the other Asian Christian groups on campus joined us tonight!), worshipped, went through the word, and then did some interactive activities to send one another off. I talked about how the church in Antioch sent off Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13. But before this, they were there for a full year teaching and equipping the church. When they were finally sent off, it was in full confidence that the church was ready to thrive on their own.

What is really exciting about our group is that many of us are going to East Asia this summer. That in itself is amazing. But there will also be a group of students who will be continuing to meet together to pray for us and to pray for one another. The students who will continue to meet are not those involved in our core group, but they will have the chance to grow and be in community with one another during the summer.

So, as the night progressed Kelly and Lydia led the group in writing down their plans for the summer, their fears, and what they were excited about on balloons. We all wrote down our summer plans and fears on the balloons and talked about what we were planning on doing. Then we prayed for one another and we went outside and sent the balloons off representing how we were all being sent off form the campus. Kelly and Lydia also made awesome bracelets made of three strings and three beads representing how a three cord strand cannot be easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12). Everyone was given bracelets to wear in order to remember to pray for one another.

We then challenged the group to keep meeting together over the summer and pray for one another. Afterwords, we had a pizza party. It was so amazing because two of our members Brittani and Kathy used the money on their meal card to buy pizza for the entire group. They bought like 12 pizzas! It was such a beautiful picture of the idea in Acts 2:42 where they had all things in common and they shared all their possessions with one another. Different people brought cookies and drinks and other desserts! Then people hung out and played games until a little past midnight. It's so amazing to see a group that is committed to one another. We have taken the structures and time limits off our meetings and have allowed God to move. We still have a lot of work to do in being on time and getting better at some of the things we do. But for one year, there has been some defnite growth. It's been really really really fun!

In the next few weeks, we plan to do a Daniel fast for those going to East Asia. We will be starting on Thursday April 30 which is the National Day of Prayer insituted by Abraham Lincoln. Also, we will be doing a day of 24 hour prayer on Friday May 1 to intercede for those going off and for the people and places we will be going to.

One more thing that I just thought of that is really exciting is the growth and development of the East Asian students. They are committed to learning and growing from the community. They have a desire to share the gospel when they go back home, and they want to help us while we are there doing ministry. Every time they speak, they are so honest and so thoughtful. It was powerful praying together with them as we prayed for one another's summers. God is soo good!!!!

Thoughts just keep coming to mind, but I just reminded one of the profound statements that one of the guys in our group said last Wed. He said he didn't use to think highly of himself, and he didn't really love himself. But since coming to Epic and being around our community, he has really learned to love himself because of all the love that people have been showing him. So sweet!!!!


Anyhoo, here is some of the stuff for the visions and ideas for the next few weeks that I typed up and talked about at the meeting tonight:


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Passage explanation:

Acts 11: 19-30 talks about the Church in Antioch. The church in Antioch was unique because it consisted of a group of people who began to step out of their comfort zones and begin to serve the Gentiles and not only the Jews. Much like our movement within Epic, the people were embarking in uncharted territories. They were pioneers who were doing amazing works for God. When the church of Jerusalem heard about the great works that were going on there, they sent their experienced church leaders to go check out what was going on. In verse 22, we see how the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch to go see the crazy pioneering work that the people of Antioch were doing. This must have been pretty inspiring to the church of Jerusalem because in just the previous chapter Peter told them about the vision he received from God telling them they should reach the Gentiles. And then right after this, the church in Jerusalem hear about a group of people in Antioch who were actually going about and doing obeying God’s command to preach to the Gentiles. When Barnabas comes, he doesn’t tell them what to do. He comes and is glad to see what they are doing. He “exhort[s] them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose” (v23). I love what verse 24 says. It says, “For he was a good man.” This is so awesome. Barnabas didn’t come to tell them what to do or give them the church planting strategy. He came to learn from them and encourage them to keep pressing into the vision that God had placed on their hearts to reach the Gentiles.

Barnabas is so inspired by what God is doing in Antioch that he goes and gets his buddy Paul. At this point Paul is probably pretty young in his ministry. But it is like Barnabas comes and brings him to Antioch so that he can disciple him in an environment where the people really get the vision of church planting and loving one another. Also, Barnabas wants the people of Antioch to learn from a young and emerging visionary leader in Paul. So they stay there for a year and teach the people the things that God had been teaching them. They encourage and build up the church, and it comes to a point that some prophets from Jerusalem and inform them about an upcoming famine that would severely affect the people. At this point, the group at Antioch had been taught and trained by Paul Barnabas for a year. Together, they worked together to help send relief to their brothers. People did things “according to [their] ability” (v29). People took responsibility and began to respond to people needs in tangible ways.

The next passage that builds off Acts 11 is Acts 13:1-4. Here the passage picks up with Paul and Barnabas still being in Antioch and helping build up the church. One day as they were fasting and praying and seeking the face of God, the Holy Spirit prompts them to “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them” (v.2). Basically, I think that God saw that Antioch was a thriving community, and they didn’t need Paul and Barnabas to train them anymore. They were ready to be sent off and train others the things they had trained the people in Antioch. So in verse 3, the church lays hands on the Paul and Barnabas and sends them off.

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Vision:

That’s a pretty long explanation. I just got really excited as I was typing. It’s so cool because I think the church in Antioch is a picture of what God is doing within Epic Movement and ASU as a whole. Antioch was known as a sending place, and likewise, I believe God is going to use Epic and ASU as a whole as a sending place to the nations. The vision is that God called Paul and Barnabas to go. The church had grown and developed, and they were ready to grow apart from the leadership and Barnabas. The church was able to send off Paul and Barnabas, and at the same time they were able to thrive and survive without them. Acts 14:24-28 shows Paul and Barnabas returning to Antioch and reporting the amazing things God has been doing in their lives. Likewise, the church laid hands on the Paul and Barnabas as they sent them out.

We want to do something like this over the next few weeks starting with this Friday. We want to acknowledge that some people are going to be going to places like East Asia and Santa Monica, but others will be staying. Paul and Barnabas were sent off, but there was an even larger group of people staying at home who would pray for them and support them. The church in Antioch who remained was just as important as Paul and Barnabas. Antioch was like the home base where Paul and Barnabas were prayed for, supported, and refueled. They needed each other. The church still continued without them.

Here is a modern day example of what this looks like. In the 19th century called the Student Volunteer Movement. God placed a vision on the heart of people to call college students to commit to spending time doing mission’s work overseas. They had a vision of sending 100,000 young people to unreached nations. Out of the 100,000 students, 20,000 actually went overseas while the other 80,000 remained at home to support them both financially and through prayer. One of the leaders was named Robert Mott. “Mott led the Student Volunteer Movement, launched in 1886, which helped spur the ‘second wave’ of modern missions: the spread inland from coastal cities by missionaries searching out the lost. Of the 100,000 students who participated in the Student Volunteer Movement, 20,000 reportedly went overseas to spread the gospel.”

It is amazing to think that we are now part of another Student Volunteer Movement that is happening right in front of us. Some of us are going to be called to go overseas, but many more of us will be called to stay at home and do missions within the marketplace. The individuals who stay at home will play a large role in transforming the marketplace. They will also play a significant role in reaching the nations by sending the overseas workers through their finances and steadfast prayers.

And that is who we are. That is a SMALL part of the greater destiny that God has given to us through Epic Movement. I emphasize the SMALL part because there is so much more! But God has definitely called us like Esther for “such a time as this.” We were chosen to be part of this generation to be part of God’s bigger plan. We need both those going overseas and those who stay at home.

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Challenge:

So here’s the challenge. This Friday and the next two times we meet together as Epic we want to take part of the legacy that began in Antioch, spread through the Student Volunteer Movement in the 19th century, and is currently unfolding itself amongst us once again! We want to empower individuals to hold the Epic community together as we go, and we want those staying to lay hands on us and pray for us as we go.

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What’s next:

Then we want to invite everyone into a fast with us that we will be beginning the fast as an East Asia team starting after our dinner with the East Asia team on Wednesday, April 29. We want to invite the Epic Community, the Cru community, and the ASU community as whole to join us just as the church in Antioch prayed and fasted together as they sent off Paul and Barnabas.

We then want to solidify this idea of prayer and fasting by coming together in a day of 24 hour prayer on Friday May 1. Everything stems out of the place of prayer. Many people don’t realize that Campus Crusade for Christ was birthed out of 24 hour prayer. Before Bill Bright ventured off into UCLA to start a movement that now represents the largest mission sending organization in the world, he started in a day of 24 hour prayer. I believe that God is calling us to see the restoration of prayer in Campus Crusade and in our campus as whole. Bill Bright prayed and a movement was birthed. Imagine what would happened if we joined in prayer and fasting together to release a mighty move of God in the harvest field of the nations. What would happen if we became so dependent and desperate for God to show up as we embarked on a journey where we have been sent off? Together, let’s find out!