Before All Things was first and foremost about Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on the cross. This initiative was a two-year discipleship journey for our church that started in December of 2015. During these two years we asked everyone who called The Church of Eleven22 home to go before the Lord and ask this fundamental question, “Is He truly before all things in my life?”
God has called us to radically generosity, but He went first, and Jesus radically poured out His blood for us on the cross. God is first, God loved first and God went first by sending His best in Jesus, and we respond by bringing our first and best to Him.
Through Before All Things we focused on the Scripture from Colossians 1:15-17:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.“
Highlights From Before All Things
Initiative #1: Cultivate Ministry
We focused on being disciple-making-disciples and the growth was incredible:
- 169 disciple groups
- A growth of 1,148 serve staff
- 340 people went on short-term mission trips
- 2,280 first time givers
Initiative #2: Put Down Roots
We increased our ability to reach more people by purchasing the San Pablo building and putting down roots in the community for generations to come.
Initiative #3: Plant The Gospel
We went multi-site by planting campuses into two communities: Baymeadows and Mandarin. Throughout the Before All Things season 201 people at Baymeadows and 77 people at Mandarin proclaimed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. There was a third on the horizon and we launched the Arlington campus in January of 2018.
Initiative #4: Sow Gospel Seeds
We sowed gospel seeds in Jacksonville and around the world. Locally, we started a jobs initiative through Hope’s Closet where the trajectory of 62 people’s lives were changed. Globally, we partnered with church planting organizations and planted 153 churches primarily in Brazil and East Africa.
