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Support The Gospel Fund, A New Platform for Global Missions Ventures

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The Gospel Fund is a brand-new platform that enables Christian missionaries, church planters, non-profits, churches, and individuals to raise money for global mission ventures.

I am incredibly excited about it. My friend Brannon McAllister is one of the co-founders, and he’s kept me in the loop as they’ve been developing the platform. Brannon also co-founded Noise Trade and was a key part of its growth. He understands the web, and is one of the best I’ve worked with.

Gospel-Centered Innovation, Better than Kickstarter

The Gospel Fund is the type of thing I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. It’s like Kickstarter, but for gospel-centered projects — and without the typical poor implementation and graphic design that we often see in ventures like this that are designed for the Christian world.

The Gospel Fund is on the same par in terms of professionally, functionality, design, and execution as Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and similar major sites that don’t have thegospel-centered focus.

I believe this can and will change the future of missions fundraising, and therefore missions itself. It is that important.

Get to Know the Site!

I highly suggest getting to know the site and using it! Read the about page, browse some of the projects, and if you have a project you are needing to raise funds for, consider doing it on The Gospel Fund.

Consider Giving Financially to Help Finish the Build

Beyond that, the main action right now is to consider giving to help finish the building of the site. The front end is done and the site is working. But there is back-end work that needs to be finished so that they can launch well. They are raising $70,000 so they can finish the work.

It is well, well worth giving to. I highly suggest checking it out, and if you can, giving a donation. I don’t say that lightly. This is a fantastic project that is worthy of whatever you can do to help it come to completion and launch well.

The Vision of the Gospel Coalition

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I received the December issue of The Gospel Coalition newsletter in my inbox the other day, and I thought they did such a good job stating their vision for the organization that I wanted to share it here.

Here’s how they (Don Carson and Tim Keller) put it:

We helped to found The Gospel Coalition in 2005 with three goals in mind: first, to articulate the gospel in a theologically rich way to demonstrate its relevance to all biblical revelation and to all peoples; second, to deepen thinking and living to “act in line with the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:14); and third, to spread this vision of ministry to churches around the globe.

Most of you are familiar with TGC and its vision. Yet, in another sense, I think there is a lot here that is always worth a good refresher.

For example, note the first goal. Their point is that the gospel is at the heart of the Bible. In one sense that seems obvious, but that’s only because people like Carson and Keller have been making that point so well!

Many people still think of the Scriptures as a book of moral principles or disconnected stories. While it does teach us moral principles, and does have stories, the heart of everything — the center and that which connects everything together — is Christ himself, who died and rose again for us. All Scripture points to him ultimately, and is to be understood in that way.

If Christ and the gospel are at the heart of the Scriptures, then that means that mercy is at the heart of the Scriptures. For the gospel is at root a revelation of God’s mercy. And this leads to the second point: the gospel is to affect how we live every area of our lives.

It is, first of all, significant to realize that, just as the gospel is relevant to every facet of biblical revelation, so also the gospel is relevant to every area of our life. We are to think of every area of life in relation to the gospel. But what does this mean? Since the gospel is about God’s mercy, it means that we are to have a merciful angle in how we do and think about everything.

For example, with your business practices letting the gospel be the center doesn’t mean you don’t care about profit. But it does mean that you pursue profit in a people-affirming way — in a way that doesn’t use your employees or treat customers simply as a means to making money. Instead, you see your customers (and employees) as people who are valuable in themselves and whom you exist to bring real benefit to.

It also means that you don’t justify being inhuman or overly strict to people in the name of saying “this is just business.” Letting mercy govern how you do things means you act like a real human being, with emotion and compassion, in every area of life, including business.

Business is just a small example here. To act in line with the truth of the gospel in every area of life means to see yourself as a servant of others in every area, seeking to do what is right for them rather than first seeking to do what is right for yourself.

Third, this vision of the primacy of the gospel is so significant and crucial that it is not enough simply to live it; we must also spread it. And, of course, this is God’s call to his people. We are to believe the gospel, live in accord with the truth of the gospel, and spread the gospel and the vision for life that is in line with it to the world. The chief way that TGC does this is by spreading a gospel-centered vision to churches and ministries globally.

These three principles are incredibly profound, exciting, and life transforming. They are solid principles not just for a Christian ministry, but for a Christian life.

You can learn more about TGC’s vision in their vision for ministry document, and learn more about the ministry they are doing right now by checking out the full newsletter at their website.

Thanks to Mere Agency for the Faster Web Hosting

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Many thanks to my friend, Matt Heerema, for setting the blog up on a new and much faster, more reliable server. Thank you Matt!

Matt is the founder and owner of Mere Agency, a web agency that offers services in the area of organizational strategy consulting, website information architecture, design, website construction, and website hosting services. (Full disclosure: I do some contract work for Matt.)

Matt and his company do fantastic work , and if you or your organization are looking for help in any of those areas, it would be worth checking them out.

Trek to Mount Everest and Help the Elisha Foundation Grow

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As some of you may know, I am on the board of The Elisha Foundation (TEF), a superb organization founded by Justin and Tamara Reimer in 2005, being spurred on by their eldest child Elisha, who has Down Syndrome.

TEF ministers to families of people with special needs, pursuing Christ-centered transformation in their lives. One of their key programs is providing retreats where the families of those with disabilities can come, have a break from their ongoing responsibilities, and find refreshment and encouragement in workshops and activities through the weekend in a fun and beautiful environment. They have several other programs as well, and TEF provides all of their services at no cost to those whom they serve.

I can’t say enough good about the ministry of TEF and am very excited about what they are doing. Justin leads TEF as executive director and is a fantastic guy with a great heart, a great head, and great plans for the future of TEF.

Today TEF has just announced that it is putting together a team to trek to the Mount Everest base camp next spring (arriving there exactly one year from today) to help generate awareness and funding to support and grow the ministry. All proceedes from the Trek go to TEF to help fund and expand their programs for families of those affected by disability.

Here’s a summary of the purpose of the trek from the Trek4TEF website:

Trekking to Everest Base Camp, promotes the work of The Elisha Foundation and the opportunity to display the glory and the sovereignty of God in the lives of the disabled. We believe that those with disabilities have been created in the image of God, just as those without. We desire to show God’s glory as our disabled participants climb these mountain trails, just as they navigate the sometimes treacherous paths of their disability. What a testament of the infinite value of those with disabilities to the cultures of the world who find little to no worth in the disabled!

There are three ways you can participate in the trek and helping to fund the ministry of TEF:

  1. Join the trekking team (the trek looks incredible!)
  2. Financially support a trekker
  3. Pray for the ways the trek can bless TEF and its beneficiaries

You can learn all about the trek on the website they’ve just launched and in the video at the beginning of this post.


Register for Together for Adoption's Fall Conference on Missional Orphan Care

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This is a guest post by Dan Cruver, director of Together for Adoption.

Want to learn more about missional living and our call as Christians to care for orphans in their distress?

Last year over 1,000 gathered together in Austin, TX to consider The Gospel, the Church, and the Global Orphan Crisis. Join us this October 21-22 at Redemption Church (Gilbert Campus) in Phoenix for Together for Adoption (T4A) Conference 2011 as we explore the theme Missional Living, the Gospel and Orphan Care.

As written in Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father, “To live missionally means to live each waking moment in light of the gospel so that it increasingly affects every part of our lives for the glory of God’s grace in our fallen world” (p 17). James 1:27 tells us that the practice of true religion necessarily involves caring for orphans in their distress. Therefore, to live missionally means that the Gospel is increasingly moving and empowering us to care for those who live on the razor-sharp edge of our world’s brokenness. Whether we are conscious of it or not, the Gospel is at the center of missional living and the evangelical orphan care movement.

General session speakers include: Darrin Patrick, Tullian Tchividjian, Tim Chester, Bryan Loritts, Juan Sanchez, and Jeff Vanderstelt

Worship Leaders: Shaun Groves, Aaron Ivey, and Jimmy McNeal

General Session Hosts: Shaun Groves and Johnny Carr (National Director of Church Partnerships at Bethany Christian Services)

Save $30 by registering this week for Together for Adoption’s October 21-22 orphan care/adoption conference (read full-details here). You may now register for just $75 today, July 26th, through Saturday, July 30th. This limited-time discount is over $30 less than our current early bird special. Take advantage of this super early bird price and help us spread the word about it this week. This sale ends on Saturday, July 30th at 11:59pm. Register here for this super early bird rate.

Note: If you are coming with a group from your church, this would be the perfect opportunity for your group’s members to register.