I want to live my life with God and help you to do the same. Follow for honest conversations about following Jesus + candid critiques of cultural Christianity
1.4 million people vs. $33,000
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Hey, Last week I shared Friends Following Jesus with you. Thank you for your encouraging responses! I am going to use your feedback to make the website even better for you and your friends. Please keep sending me your feedback. This week I want to share how your support of Uncommon Pursuit made 2025 the year that project became possible. The Big Idea: Friendship As you know, I finished my D.Min. this fall, and the research reshaped how I understand our mission. My exegetical work clarified that discipleship is "imitating Christ together" and my interviews put this into an actionable insight: discipleship happens through friendship, not programs. That raised the question: how do we help friends follow Jesus together? Friends Following Jesus is my first answer. The Daily launches January 1. By providing five short Bible studies a week, we will empower friends to regularly discuss the Bible together. In a secular, lonely culture, we have to build friendships if we want to imitate Jesus. New Content In 2025, I wrote 30 new Bible studies in the Following Jesus in Life's Tensions series for the Academy. I studied these with the Uncommon Pursuit community in our weekly small group meeting, and with my church community. Here's a story Theresa shared about the difference our community made: In our small group this week we discussed how we can follow God’s command to love one another and we talked about how this plays out in the challenges of our everyday lives.
Then God put me in my very own unexpected challenging situation. My partner of 2 years and I had planned to spend Christmas with his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It would be our first Christmas spent together and I was really looking forward to being a part of their family celebrations.
Then came the email from his daughter-in-law saying I was not welcome this year as she felt it was too soon to include me in their precious family time together. We were both stunned. My partner will be spending Christmas with his family but without me.
I’m feeling hurt, rejected, concerned for how this will affect our relationship in future, it feels unfair and unjustified.
I’ve been quite shocked by my far less than Christian thoughts - at times angry, bitter, resentful and even spiteful.
But when those thoughts come, I’ve also been drawn back to the passage we read this week, in particular 1 John 4v21
I’m grateful to God for this opportunity to practise love in this hurtful situation, to respond with kindness not resentment, to make it easy for my partner to enjoy his family time without feeling guilty.
The Following Jesus in Life's Tensions study will be completed by mid-February, and then the plan is to turn this material into printed workbooks for small groups. Expanded Reach We hired a full-time social media manager, and the results have been amazing.
Why It Matters Chiduzie is one of Uncommon Pursuit's most generous supporters. I asked him why he gives. He said I could share this with you: Uncommon Pursuit is a wonderful manifestation of an online Christian community. With Carson's leadership, it is fast becoming a place where people from various backgrounds can come who are interested in learning more about Jesus, whether they are just getting started on their journey or whether they have been following Him for some time. I can personally attest to how Uncommon Pursuit continues to get me to think about Jesus in deeper ways. I truly see God's hand on this community, and I am excited to see other people discover it. Financial Overview We spent about $33,000 against $25,000 in income. We drew from reserves to bridge that gap, because we saw a massive opportunity for growth. And it worked: That investment allowed us to reach over 1.4 million people. That's about two cents per person. While we have healthy reserves, we are operating at a deficit to fuel this growth. I don't want to just survive for the next two years. I want to double our impact in 2026. If you'd like to help us enter the new year strong, you can give at uncommonpursuit.net/donate. Thank you for making this ministry possible. Carson |
Uncommon Pursuit
I want to live my life with God and help you to do the same. Follow for honest conversations about following Jesus + candid critiques of cultural Christianity
What do the strongest, healthiest, and even happiest disciples of Jesus have in common with each other? Go ahead, take your best guess. Seriously, think about it. Write your answer down. If you just keep reading to get the answer, you'll miss out. ... ... Did you write your answer down yet? ... ... Ok, what did you say? They regularly read their Bibles? Or maybe you chose "an active prayer life"? Another good guess would be "goes to church every week." Hopefully you said, "They're an active...
Hi Reader, On Tuesday, I gathered with Uncommon Pursuit's Community Partners to discern how we would respond to God's love this year. To my delight, we felt prompted to focus on how God transforms us into Christlikeness This is particularly gratifying because I decided not to suggest any agenda items. Yet, what the group wanted to do is 100% aligned with the focus of my Major Project that I am working on for my Doctor of Ministry degree! So here's what it looks like... Drumroll, please......
Hey, On Friday, November 12, 2021, I launched Uncommon Pursuit with a mix of hope and hesitation. I was still recovering from the RZIM debacle, and I wondered: Can I invest my heart into loving and serving people again? It felt uncomfortable, but I knew it would be better to risk having my heart broken again than to give up on telling people about Jesus. Three years later, I'm amazed by what God has done through our community: 12,000+ posts on 1,700 different topics 6,000+ free copies of "12...