Moving Forward

Friends, we are at an impasse. Jesus' Outsider Ministries has been called to be an equipping ministry. The mission the Lord has given us is to help the Body of Christ take on the more challenging issues including pornography, mental illness, and more. (A complete list can be found here.) To accomplish this mission, we need to be able to produce media. The plan includes videos from seminars, webisodes, and other video and audio resources. However, we can't do that. We have had a massive and permanent failure of our studio computer system.

We have tried to move forward with the extremely limited capacity that we have. We have been able to produce our weekly podcast but not much more than that. We have video footage from our first conference that we would release but we can't process it. Anything beyond the most rudimentary audio production is beyond the ability of the older model computer that was given to us after the crash first happened. Video work is completely impossible.

We need your help. We are starting a fundraiser to replace our tower and a few key components that are beginning to fail. We will be using a multifaceted approach as our limitations allow. The essentials of the need can be found on an Amazon wishlist created just for that purpose. The tower and monitor on the list are included for specs only as a guideline for anyone who chooses to help.

We do not have the resources to replace the lost equipment. Our ministry and personal budget run razor thin. Up to this point, we have been mostly self funded save for ticket sales to the Sex, Porn, & Freedom Conference and a few timely contributions. In order to fulfill the mission the Lord has given us, we can't operate that way anymore. This initial fundraiser gets us moving in the right direction. A follow up for the next phase is coming down the road.

Please, prayerfully consider how you can help. Give if you are able and if not, please share this as wide as you can on social media and in person. We trust the Lord that He will move on the hearts of enough of his people that we will accomplish that which has been entrusted to us.

The complete list can be found on Amazon following this link. If you would like to give financially, visit the Support page of our website.

Big Announcements!

For the last several days, we have been wrestling with a couple of decisions. One of them is fairly large the other more operational but still significant.

Okay, the small one first. As we prepare for the Sex, Porn, and Freedom Conference, time has become more critical and short. We also have a number of ministry opportunities on the horizon that will require a lot of prep time and travel. To prevent the quality of the podcast from suffering, we have decided to drop to one episode a week. It will be uploaded Monday mornings at 6:30. The advantage for us and yours truly the host is that it can be recorded any night of the week and preloaded. We can then travel and minister as needed and have fresh, new content every week. This change goes into effect April 17th.

The big decision is one that we had to seek a lot of counsel on before coming to a conclusion. Most ministries incorporate as a not-for-profit corporation and file for a 501c3 tax exempt status. We have decided to go another direction.

There were a number of factors leading to this point. Since the last time we filed for a 501 several years ago, a lot of changes have occurred within the IRS and to the tax code and more on the way. More than one person, including an attorney, our banker,  and other ministry leaders warned that the IRS doesn't like parachurch organizations. They don't grasp them and their purpose. More, it is likely that the free speech restrictions placed on not-for-profits are going to become even more draconian. Since we are unwilling to compromise one pen stroke of the Word, we would lose that status before allowing the government to silence us in the name of political correctness.

There are also more practical reasons. The bookkeeping is much simpler. We will practice financial accountability but we don't have to worry about the federal and state filings or restrictions. We will have to charge sales tax on any merchandise we sell at events but that isn't a big deal.

Since we are not a donation based ministry, there isn't a benefit to the status. The majority of the revenue we receive is from ticket sales, speaker fees, and merchandise sales. Sponsorships and table fees are conferences are still tax deductible for businesses as advertising expenses just like for any other trade show or conference. If someone wants to donate, we obviously won't stop them but there will not be a tax benefit for the contribution.

This was a tough decision but the right one. If things change down the road, we will revisit it. For us, it means that Jesus' Outsider and Deep Mystery Studio are essentially one and the same. The studio has always been linked to the show as the site of recording and as the vision shifts, they will be more integrated. Once the equipment we lost is replaced, we will be producing more media aimed at proclaiming freedom in Christ.

God is moving and there's a lot of great stuff happening now and in the near future.

Being The Outsider

Recently, a friend from the last congregation we served as pastors started listening to the podcast. He asked me about the name and where it came from. It occurred to me that if he asked that there are others wondering the same thing.

Jesus' Outsider was born from the life that the Lovely Bride and I have always lived. When it came time to shut down my (mercifully) short-lived political program and go back to the Gospel, we spent a lot of time in prayer about the name and the format. Ultimately, it was our identity in Christ that was the inspiration for the name.

For as long as I can remember, I have been an outcast. As a kid and teen, I was too geeky for the cool kids, not good enough for the A Band, and not athletic in the slightest. Even in the Navy, I wasn't exactly Mr. Popularity. Once I came to Christ, that continued. At first, many well intentioned people tried to shape me to fit the mold of what they thought I should be. Once that didn't work, I was relegated to the work that no one else really wanted. On occasion, I found a few people that I fit with but, for a wide range of reasons, these times were relatively short. The same is true of the lovely bride.

We've been a part of a lot of groups but, with most of them, we were in the but not really part of the group. The best description I can come up with is that we have been the socially acceptable outcasts.

This is the source of the name. We belong to Christ (There's a possessive to Jesus that we are His) but have always been on the edge of His people. After lamenting this for years, we finally accepted the situation as an asset rather than a liability. As outsiders, we can take on the issues that the insiders may not be comfortable addressing. We can reach out to the people that the majority doesn't know how to reach. Since then, the Lord has been close to us. We are outsiders and outcasts that found our home in Him.

Over the years, we have found others that are like us. They want Jesus but feel rejected by His people. Many, like us, have experienced what it's like to be forced into a mold that they just don't fit into no matter how hard they try. The outsiders, the hurting, the mentally ill, the seekers, and the rejects within the Body are the ones we connect with. As fellow outsiders, we understand where they are.

As I said, being outsiders for us has been freeing. There's nothing we can't address. We are privileged to preach freedom from the challenges and sins that the church doesn't want to address. Porn, mental illness, and others avoided by too much of the Body are our bread and butter. Our mission is to reach the unreachable, the teach the church to love the unloveable, and speak what many consider unspeakable.

We are Jesus' Outsiders. We belong to Him in Whom the reject, the outcast, and the nobody can find home.

Moving Forward

As of right now, we are up and running at about 50% capacity. We have the use of an older machine that allows some of the older versions of software to run but videos are still out of the question. Producing new episodes of Jesus' Outsider may be possible but we haven't had time to test it yet. We're putting everything we have into laying the groundwork for the Sex, Porn, and Freedom Conference so we can get that ball rolling.

We have been able to make several key updates to the Jesus' Outsider website reflecting the shift from being a podcast page to a full media, evangelistic, and conference ministry. Preliminary team bios are on the page for the start of our core leadership team with more to be added soon. As soon as time allows, we will also be adding a resource page with an Amazon store and a separate store for apparel. Big things are coming but they take time.

The SP&F conference must go forward. The need is huge. We have dedicated an entire page of the new Jesus' Outsider Ministries site to the conference with more content to come. We've been teasing a little of what we intend but it's time to go farther. Even at our reduced capacity, we know we must do everything we can to make this happen.

That means we need your help. In order to book a venue, musical talent, and cover other starting expenses, we need some resources. There are a number of ways you can get involved in helping us get the initial boost in bringing this much needed conference to Peoria and, as the Lord allows, beyond.

1. Individual Donation: Any amount helps, even as little as $5. There is a special PayPal link on the SP&F page on the Jesus' Outsider site.
2. Business/Ministry Sponsorship: We are looking for ministries and businesses who understand the scourge of sexual sin in our community to sponsor the event. A rate sheet is available for anyone interested.
3. Church Offerings: Allow us to come and share the vision for the conference and overall ministry with your congregation or appropriate committee. We also can bring a straightforward Gospel message for an evangelistic event.
4. Spread The Word: If you are not in a position to make a financial contribution, help us to spread the word about the conference and ministry. Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. Share as many of our posts as possible with as many people as possible. In many ways, this is at least as important as direct financial assistance.

We need your help to make this happen. Please email Pastor Mike with any additional questions.

Update on Getting Us Back on The Air

Thanks to all who have made offers and have given aid so far. We do have a long way to go to get there.

For those of you who may be unaware, the studio computer system is completely inoperable. It is beyond repair. This has taken us completely out of commission including knocking Jesus' Outsider off the air.

Just before the failure, we were in the final stages of preparation to greatly expand our ministry into more than just podcasts. We had been working in planting a church but discovered that the Lord's will was in developing what He had already given us rather than adding new. We are doing conferences, more media work including expanding the reach of our current program and doing more ministry videos on the hard subjects we've been called to tackle. There's more to the vision but that's a tiny little snapshot. Unfortunately, we are dead in the water without a fully functional studio computer.

When I first posted, I estimated the total financial cost at around $2500. I deliberately figured a little high to set a good target. My experience with fundraising has been to set the goal higher than what's actually needed to increase the odds of getting the real need met. I didn't pad much (only a couple hundred dollars) but there is some wiggle room in the amount. The original basis was a built around a projected price of $1300-$1500 for the tower.

In doing some price checking, I found a tower hundreds of dollars less than the least expensive one I speced out originally that is ideal for our purposes. It meets and exceeds the minimum requirements for the most demanding software we use. It's on Newegg and can be found here. Please take a look at it and prayerfully consider how you can help us get this system before the sale expires.

I have been asked how I came up with the amount for the fundraising effort to get us back on the air and expanding. $2500 seems like a lot of money for a computer and it is. However, the need is based upon making the tower fully operational and that requires more than just the hardware.

Because the old system had been pushed well beyond its normal useful life, the programs I used everyday on it were out of date but still worked on the older computer. However, while the age and reduced system requirements allowed us to keep going on the old system, it does mean that they will not work on a new one. Our versions of Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and Quickbooks are so old that the manufacturers no longer support their installation. We will need to replace them and their price is included in what we are asking for in the campaign. For the Adobe Suite, I figured in three months of subscription to their cloud service which gives access to their entire product line. Considering the cost to purchase the entire suite freestanding was close to $3500, a monthly fee of $60 for a business or ministry is very reasonable.

We do have some additional hardware needs in the request but we should be able to get by with what we have until we can afford them. We do need to upgrade our printer to a higher capacity office model for quick print fliers, invitation cards, and other low quantity print jobs. The studio sound board works but, like the tower, has been pushed beyond its capacity and has a couple of dead channels. It does however, meet our requirements for now.

This is a serious attack from the enemy. Just as Jesus' Outsider Ministries and the related Deep Mystery Studio are about to break out and have a massive Kingdom impact, we're knocked out of the fight. I cannot believe that the Lord is opening up all these opportunities to make a monstrous difference and let us drop. The interest in the Sex, Porn, and Freedom Conference alone is even more that we ever could have anticipated. Without meeting this need, we cannot pull off this much needed seminar.

If you are able to help, please use the PayPal link on this page or on the Support tab on the Jesus' Outsider main page. If you prefer to mail us a check, please send us an email (mike@jesusoutsider.com) for the address and who to make the check out to in order for us to get back on the air and fulfill the vision the Lord has for us.

I am going of faith and am going to continue to work in the limited capacity I can under the assumption that the Lord is going to come through for us. There's not a lot I can do other than writing content until we have what we need to put it all together.

As a side note, some of our income was tied to this computer and we have lost that as well until we're back online. Please, share this need with as many people as you can. Pray for us while we see what the Lord has in mind as well as how you can help.

Blessings,
Pastor Mike

HELP! We're Out of Commission!

Yesterday morning (12/29), the studio computer assumed room temperature. The hard drive is corrupted, at least 25% of the RAM is out, and the motherboard is starting to have issues. Granted, I've nursed the old girl long past her useful life and pushed her beyond her limits. When I bought it back in '10, it was the state of the art. Now, not so much. It's bad enough that I'm not certain that I'll be able to recover the data on it. (Prayers really appreciated on that one)

The problem is that it was the only computer in the house. All the rest of our work and other sundry activities are done on tablets and phones. Everything for Jesus' Outsider production, videos, and design is on that machine. We are completely dead in the water without it. Nothing can move forward until the machine is replaced. That includes the Sex, Porn, and Freedom Conference. I can't even finish the updated Jesus' Outsider site reflecting the new direction and expansion.

If you've been following the last several posts and episodes, then you know that we have paused the work on planting Freedom Church and are putting everything into Jesus' Outsider Ministries. That includes expanding the reach of the program, moving into additional areas of media ministry, and conferences. In this modern age, all of that requires a functional, media production capable computer. Unfortunately, this isn't something we can purchase off the shelf at the local Best Buy.

In order to move forward, we need a machine capable of running the current versions of the software we use. We've been limping along on old, outdated versions of Adobe Creative Suite that isn't supported by Adobe anymore. Bare minimum needs for the computer, software updates, and other miscellaneous gear come up to close to $2500. That's way more than I found in the cushions of our couch.

Many of you are very interested in the program continuing and in our conferences, especially the Sex, Porn, and Freedom seminar. As I said, none of that can happen without a fully functional computer. I'm asking you to prayerfully consider supporting us in this hour of immediate need. There's a PayPal button on this page and on the Jesus' Outsider site under the "Support" tab. We tried Patreon but this isn't the kind of need that fits well into a site for supporting artists.

Please, prayerfully consider how you can help. We need everything we can get. As a bonus, everyone who donates $25 will receive a free ticket to the conference and a conference tee shirt (design pending).  Anything received above and beyond the immediate need will go to the conference costs.

Thanks you for supporting our efforts.

Time For A Little Retooling

I've been podcasting for seven and a half years. During that time I've reinvented the program several times. It started out as the Wicket Gate Podcast (Yes, that's a Pilgrim's Progress reference), became Foundational Truth, Foundations when it briefly went into syndication, Madman in Crazytown for politics, and finally Jesus' Outsider.

The current program is by far the best listened to of the entire run. In many ways, it's also the best. However, it's still been primarily a hobby ministry, a way for me to keep my chops up while I've been taking a break from pastoring a local church. That's partly why there have been times when the broadcast has been a little hit or miss. It's also why there hasn't been a set time signature since the Madman days.

I do put a lot into each episode, at least the content. I've done a some episodes that I have really been proud of over the last four years. A few have garnered a lot of attention and a lot of listeners while some of my best had below average hits. When I don't have time to prepare, I just don't do one. I too often let the affairs of daily life get in the way. But, as a hobby, it really didn't matter. I take the content very seriously but didn't sweat it too much if I missed one. Quality over quantity has been the motto.

The truth is, my listeners deserve better. The Lord deserves better. In our media-obsessed culture, the more voices crying out with the truth, the better. I have been convicted by the Holy Spirit that I need to take this platform He gave me more seriously. The content is not going to change much but I'm going to put more into the production and into building an audience.

To date, the only money spent every on the program (apart from the equipment) has been the monthly hosting fees and cost of the site. I haven't put anything into finding people to listen or read any of my assorted blogs. With the Lord making some updates to my calling and occupation, I need to do more with the program and blogs than I have for the past few years and that includes putting some money to promoting both. I have a good start but I need to do more to fulfill what I've been called to do.

I am also going to put more into the production of each episode. That includes better a intro and outro. I'm not changing the music, especially the intro. They're instrumental rock music from a close friend and easily one of the best all-around guitarists I've ever come across. (Check out all of his stuff here.) I am going to recruit someone else for the introduction and tagline at the end. I'm not sure who yet, but I have some thoughts.

In order to make the show more radio friendly, I'm also implementing a set duration time for the program like I did when I broadcast the previous incarnations. I haven't fully figured out what that time needs to be but it will most likely be between twenty-five and twenty-seven minutes.

The website is also going to be upgraded and integrated with the other sites (MikeKerby.com (currently a blog while the main site is being rebuilt), Freedom Church, and Deep Mystery Studio) that are a big part of this change. I am building something I've never had before.

The changes I'm planning will go into effect the first of the year along with several others that will be announced here and other outlets. This is just one part of a much larger picture as the Lord integrates all of the areas of my life for His glory.

Unexpected Delays

You may have noticed the lack of episodes since the start of the year. To put it mildly, life has happened. Everything planned for the first few weeks of this year has been pushed back to later in the month including scheduled episodes of Jesus' Outsider.

We've been hit with a series of health issues in our house with one of them fairly serious. My lovely bride had an eye stroke on New Year's Eve. We've spent a great deal of time with doctors, blood tests, and making significant changes in our lifestyle. All of our focus has been on taking care of her in the midst of planned changes that brought their own set of challenges. We have been fighting to settle into a new rhythm and schedule that has proven to be more difficult than we expected.

The blood tests did show what the cause of the blood clot that ended up in her retina. She had fairly high blood pressure, borderline high cholesterol, and high thyroid. We are taking steps to bring this under control. At the top of the list, we are praying for healing to restore her eyesight that we've been told will not happen. Only the Lord can bring the restoration that medical science says is impossible.

Of course, once we got past that, I caught the respiratory flu that's been going around. It's that one that lingers with you. Just as it appears to clear up, it comes back a few days later to wreak havoc again. Consequently, I have lost a lot of my voice. I sound very raspy. I do not know when I will have enough vocal power to record. I'm drinking a lot of tea with honey to try to heal my throat.

I will be back on the air as soon as my voice returns with sufficient strength to record. There is a lot that needs to be said. The world is changing rapidly and the church is either changing the way it changes or clinging to things that don't work. Both reactions have great hazards and actually feed each other. As I said, there is much to discuss and I hope to be able to do so very soon.