"How can I help?"
By far, the most critical thing you can do to help the Jesus Does, Inc. nonprofit ministry and team is pray. Jesus was a lightning rod at the point where religion met a hostile secular environment 2,000 years ago, and that’s still the case today. He was, and is, the spiritual, relational, and operational solution for all collections of people, so we’re seeing when we focus narrowly on Him, things really click. There are a lot of distractions in the world, including tradition and “common sense,” that argue from a different perspective. Prayer and worship are two of the keys to staying focused on Him, and your participation in those efforts on our behalf dwarfs the rest of the list.
The second critical thing you can do is share your Jesus stories here, often and about any moment that you attribute to Jesus. We have an obvious bias, we’re coming to see the incredible spiritual power of the testimony of Jesus, so we invite you to really throw your effort into it with us.
The third critical thing you can do to help is send other people to JesusDoes.org. You can tell them about the site, suggest they share a particular experience to the site, or spend time engaging other people’s Jesus stories for the sake of finding greater intimacy with Him themselves.
The fourth critical thing you can do to help is introduce us to partners. Or you can introduce them to us. We have an unlimited license on the software we use to collect your stories and drop those stories into the carousels you see on the site, and part of that license allows us to resell the unlimited solution to other churches and ministries directly. We pay a monthly fee per partner we add, but the fee our partners pay goes to JesusDoes rather than to the very generous software provider directly. Our partners capture a variety of videos for their own websites and social media purposes, and if they choose, they can have the testimonies they capture feed to JesusDoes.org. They can operate the software directly, or we can manage the curation process for them. If you are a prospective partner yourself, email us to start the conversation.
And of course, the fifth critical thing you can do to help is to engage with your dollars. We’ve listed a few options for you to consider on the rest of this page, and the button below will take you to a donation page where you can make your interests known by how you choose to give. The core of what this site exists to do is really only as expensive as the site is popular, as curation time will be our greatest expense (and opportunity as we partner with ministries to do that work). Beyond that, the only direct “recipient” of the whole site and nonprofit’s efforts is Jesus: how much gratitude and testimony of His love can we lay at His feet, in the sight of a doubting world?
We believe there are things He wants to do with the attention He receives as we focus on stories of Jesus in the context of the Cross. John 12:32 reads “As for me, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” If you feel we are a good vehicle and starting point for Him to accomplish His goals, we have invitations for you to consider. We’ll go as hard at those opportunities as your support indicates we should. It’s up to Him, in you.
Startup Funding
We’re looking for our founding partners and long-term allies. Is that you?
We believe Jesus has shown us a plan that will become impactful in several directions, and will be self-sustaining. But we need help along the way. Our first goal is to cover startup costs:
- nonprofit incorporation and legal,
- software,
- website development,
- paying a silly amount for the .com to protect our .org presence,
- graphic and product design,
- preliminary marketing efforts,
- and basic salaries while we develop our initial partnerships and work out kinks in the system).
Please consider helping us meet our goal of $50k to get us through the end of August.
Join the 12:12 Club
As in Luke 12:12 “for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.” Pretty good passage for people who are all about sharing their Jesus stories from their phones according to how they’re prompted, eh?
The club is $12/month, recurring.
Right now it’s just a simple way to help, but we’re working on special perks for people who join.
Sign up is quick and easy. Joining the 12:12 Club is a huge encouragement to us and feels like proof that others see the beauty in all Jesus does.
Take us to Your Church or Ministry
We have a great reseller arrangement with the software provider we use to collect and curate Jesus stories. It’s a direct program, so you partner with us, and we pay a fee to add you to our plan. This allows you to implement testimonies and feedback for your organization (as many campaigns, videos, and users as you like, on your own or with our curation services), share your testimony stories to the Jesus Does site (if you choose), and save money for your organization while helping us pursue our mission. To learn more or arrange a call, email [email protected].
When we’ve talked to pastors about the software, they love the idea but give us this advice: “Don’t try to sell to pastors. Take it to someone in the congregation who will get it done outside of committees. And definitely focus on the curation services option so nobody gets much added to their plate.” If you’re the “someone in the congregation” your pastor has in mind, email us. If there is another ministry you’d like to pay to equip with the same tools, you can go through email to figure the entire amount and sponsor, or you can give to the fund with a request that we approach your friends.
Help Us Produce Testimony-Driven Media Projects
Our focus is bringing as much gratitude and attention to what Jesus does in the world as we can, knowing that this is the surest way for others to encounter His love themselves. We want to produce content that people notice, love, and respond to by offering their own Jesus stories as tribute to Him. Our plan is to create or underwrite podcasts, books, documentaries, events, and experiences that highlight what Jesus does.
We have friends and stories from Hollywood to Karachi ready to roll (and we expect a whole bunch more to show up in the testimonies here), but we need help to bring these amplifying efforts together. These efforts are complementary to our core purpose of collecting “witness testimony” for Jesus, but we are keeping this effort distinct and limited to your enthusiasm because we are a worship effort first, and an outreach effort second.
Sponsor the Curation Team
We intentionally built a solution that requires human curation of every story because our focus on honoring Jesus means we’re doing something very different from social media, and that takes disciplined focus. We can curate 25-40 stories per person per hour, and we’re working hard to create a major backlog. We’re currently looking for ministry programs with whom we can partner to do the curation work, paying individuals to spend hours engaging stories of Jesus. This is a ministry within the ministry, and we’re looking for help to scale.
From the blog
Identity, Principles, & Jesus
There’s a battle raging right now, and it’s hard to know whether it’s more tragic or more beautiful. On one side, we have subjective identity groups. On the other side, we have the camp of the ostensibly principled and objective. Think LGBTQ+ as an example of the identity type. Think evangelicals as the principled. They’re not on a shared continuum. That’s why the shrieking gets louder as they get nearer to one another, and their…
Social Media vs Vertical Media
This is a vertical media site rather than a social media site. The audience is Jesus. Not in the sense that He has a preferred internet browser and device, but in the sense that the purpose is to offer Him thanks for the ways He pursues and engages us. This focus is in contrast to social media, where the audience is other people, and where the goal has more to do with making and winning…
What We Mean by Testimony
Testimony definition: a witness account, typically given in a court of law or a public recounting of a religious conversion or experience. Also, evidence or proof provided by the existence or appearance of something. This article is going to sound like a critique to some people and some traditions. It really isn’t. Any story of a person experiencing Jesus is a great thing and we want to see more of them. What we want to…