Our family along with supporting friends, and churches are excited to begin mailing out "A Unique Opportunity" letter to communicate and connect with churches and pastors across the nation! We hope people are interested in supporting to see this work expand in a sound, healthy way as it has been in and beyond the capitol region of Sacramento, CA.
We are at work to train people in truth and love to be inspired to make life, disciples, and churches all about Jesus. From examples in scripture, history, and life experience, we learn the old word telos is a helpful way to explain the end goal of training and living. We use the word telos generally to mean the aligning and living towards an end, and the end becomes life's purpose and starting point. God clearly calls for all of us to trust that he is our beginning and end, and therefore, we want people's telos to be him. He then becomes the epicenter to life as well as history, scripture, and the universe. The clearer and certain people become on Christ, they live for him. They follow him. They love people because of him. They value him more than life and consider others more important.
Examples in history and currently are Christian international 'missionaries' in which they live and work with the end goal of God aligning their life to his ends. They listen, learn, coordinate their budgets, make plans, interact with people, teach truth and wisdom, use their skills or learn new ones to love, sacrifice, and many times suffer. Some how American Christianity changed it's telos and therefore changed it's mission and vision.
We might make our life telos about ourselves in which we align our lifestyle in such a way to serve ourselves and use anything or anyone for that purpose (i.e. use people). We could put anything in replacement of God like money, fame, church, business, family, and so on. People will either be obstacles in our way, likable comfort along our way, or helpful stepping stones to our achievements. Other issues can become our telos like suffering, evil, unresolved issues, lies, broken relationships, and countless other aspects and we live accordingly.
Why is this important? Because God is important, and he has revealed why and how to live in this world. We believe there is a way to live in the midst of a broken world without losing truth and love. We want to see generations exponentially trained and multiply to trust God as their life telos.
Many offer solutions to fix this broken world, "If schools were better. If there was more education. If there was more money invested in these neighborhoods. If more government laws helped. If more social programs were available. If we had more church ministries and programs. If we just rejected the 'idea' of God. If we just had empathy for one another." The list is endless and avoids the end goal of God who is endless. The last several decades of even American Christianity reveals we've been looking at the wrong, lifeless telos which has generationally generated millions of issues practically unsustainable and relationally divisive. So instead of replacing God with life, let's turn to trust him to be our life's telos -- aligning us to live for him in the real world.
Imagine families, students, athletics, apprenticeships, and businesses learning that the knowledge, skill, money, and career are aligned and used not for them but for him and others. Imagine people learning about area churches through relational interaction because Christians have aligned their lifestyle to love people. Imagine the increasing care for neighbors and strangers because the gospel has become central, powerful, and aligning. Imagine the friendships and relationships among one another being humble, genuine, and full of life.
Instead of adding more church programs or making the current one's better, what if people learned that his people are his program, trained in truth and love, to be his people set apart for his purposes in real life. Imagine countless people affected in real, mundane life where people begin to be cared for versus being used and abused, confused and troubled, skeptical and cynical, wronged and pressured, deafened and silenced, lied to and deceived, or even avoided and bullied because God's people were just that -- his people "inspired by truth and love to make life, disciples, and churches all about Jesus."
So, as more financial support accrues, we will be able to see things like the below list build over time where people are trained in several areas of life contexts that replicate in real life with one single aim (telos):
- We will be able to send out more pastors to localize and shepherd people as Telos Church(es).
- We will be able to increase our current financial support to the middle east for the spread of the gospel, church planting at the heart of the 10/40 window, and training of more pastors.
- We will be able to replicate new private Christian schools and Universities that function economically and missionally, networking with area families, teachers, professors, and businesses for further pathways of work and relationship building.
- We will be able to see families trained and some housed to live missionary-like in their neighborhoods as an example to others to replicate.
- We will be able to see people become responsible in finances to wisely decrease debt, increase financial generosity, gift others, invest properly, build a transferrable inheritance for the next trained generation to use to love those around them.
This is the good fight of faith, trusting in Christ to live to his end in which became our life purpose, and we would love for more to join our network of supporting friends and churches!
Fill in the form below if you would like to be added to the mailing list or know of any interested churches or pastors.
