For several years now, we have been called to multiply believers and ministries, which reveal to the world that the Father loves us just as he loves the Son (John 17:23). By God’s providential hand, we found ourselves in a small group of people in Prather, California captured by Christ’s love and committed to the desire that others would discover Christ’s beauty and taste God’s goodness.
After much prayer and reflection, we launched 1723 Ministries, a community-embedded mission organization. We believe equipping believers and ministries marked by a love for God requires more than just classroom information transfer or resourcing others with pastoral tools. Content and tools without the context of community are rarely effective or heart-based. Jesus did not leave them with information and tools. He built and sent out a community of believers who first experienced his love and, in response, were called to love one another as they had been loved (John 13:34). And it was this love for each other that the world would see and experience the love of Christ (John 13:35, 17:22-26). It wasn’t that this new community didn’t lack content. The early church devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching in the context of true fellowship marked by Jesus-shaped love. We desire to equip the church and her leaders with a Christian spirituality to counter the prevailing 21st-century values that influence our hearts.
So, we are a community first attempting to live out John 13 and John 17, and second, inviting others near and far to join us in the same ambitions. We desire individuals and ministry to receive biblical instruction and ministry exposure embedded in a community on mission.
Currently, we have partnered with a young adult ministry called Elementum, which exists to restore and launch young adults into their kingdom purposes (www.weareelementum.org). In our partnership, we host and provide biblical training for young adult pastors and lay leaders throughout the country. We expect this partnership to grow in the coming year and our connections to other ministries and believers to expand.