Sep 6, 2011
Dear Friends and Supporters,
As co-founder and president of a religious non-profit organization, I am very aware of the challenges of raising financial support to keep a ministry a-float. There are many well-trained professionals who make a living consulting and teaching people how to raise money for various organizations. If you can get them to give you a nugget of advice (without charging you), one of the fundamental tenants of fundraising that they will likely share with you is that people want to give to “bricks and mortar.” This is great advice and has been a proven method of fundraising for many organizations. Yet what happens when your ministry isn’t about building anything grand but is about building people into disciples? What if your ministry is about building the Kingdom of God?
Jesus was all about “bricks and mortar.” He was a carpenter he knew the ins and outs of building – from the drawing plans to the materials needed. Yet, Jesus’ ministry wasn’t about building things in the physical sense but rather was about the spiritual building up of the Kingdom of God. We know this because he talked about it…. Jesus states in Matthew 21 that he is the “cornerstone.” Without a solid and reliable cornerstone placed in a building, the whole structure would be at risk for collapsing. In Matthew, Jesus is not giving a speech to first century architects about how to build a building. He is proclaiming that he is the cornerstone, the firm foundation, of the world and of our lives.
Also in the Gospels, Jesus declares that he will rebuild the temple in three days. The church leaders thought that Jesus was claiming he would rebuild the physical temple in three days. However, Jesus was speaking of his resurrection, where he would claim victory over all things. Thus we would now have total access to the Father through Christ (Ephesians 2:18). His rebuilding terminology came to fruition in an unexpected way. Rather than a physical rebuilding of the temple, Jesus’ aim was to build God’s Kingdom on earth.
Pope Benedict XVI speaks of building of the Kingdom of God in this way,
“The keyword of the proclamation of Jesus is; the Kingdom of God. But the kingdom is not a ‘thing’, a social or political ‘structure’. The Kingdom of God is God. God is alive. God exists. God is present and acts in the world and in our life.”
Through the ministry of Adore, we invite people into the very heart of Jesus’ ministry… into the reality that God is alive, God is real, God is active, God cares, God pursues us, loves, forgives, and heals us, God moves, and God desires to be in a relationship with us. It is a relationship with God through his Son, the cornerstone, which holds our life together. A life without Christ would fall and break down. As Jesus states, “A house built on sand will be completely ruined, yet a house built on rock will withstand any storm.” (Matthew 7:24-27)
So what does our mission look like? It is written in 1 Peter, “For you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” St. Peter gives us such great insight into what we are called to be. Our lives with Jesus as our cornerstone are destined to be built into spiritual houses. This is at the heart and soul of God’s ministry through Adore.
We simply desire through whatever ways we can to help all those we come in contact with become the person God created them to be through Jesus Christ. We model our ministry after the one who taught us how to live, Jesus himself. By the power of his Holy Spirit, we help build people into disciples and build his Kingdom here on earth. Investing money in this less measurable type of building, the building of souls (living stones), into spiritual houses helps to produce a rich and eternal harvest for the Kingdom of God!
With the financial support necessary, it is our hope that we would take the bricks and mortar of our faith and help people become living stones and spiritual houses with Jesus as their “cornerstone” and the Church as their “rock.”
With this in mind, we are launching a two-month campaign called “Bricks and Mortar” to raise a portion of the funds needed for our ministry to continue to thrive and grow. The goal of this two-month campaign is to raise $52,097. While this is far from our overall yearly budget of $300,000, this will aid us in continuing our outreach efforts in Houma, LA and Houston, TX along with allowing us to allocate funds towards many of our new initiatives in establishing an online outreach, developing resources to aid people in living this life of worship, and evangelizing young adults and college students through online means.
Please consider joining us in this campaign. Gifts large and small can provide the resources we need in order to be a people about the Father’s business and building his kingdom in the hearts of those we serve.
We invite you to learn more about the campaign and where we are going by visiting: www.razoo.com/adoreministries, or you can give using the links on our site.
In Christ, Our Cornerstone,
Paul George
