We desired for every person to embrace the truth that Jesus makes all things new — and prayerfully expected Him to do a new work in our lives and through our church.
A NEW LEVEL OF SURRENDERWhat am I holding back from Jesus and need to relinquish to Him? | A NEW LEVEL OF FAITHWhat steps do I need to take to move away from my comfort zones? | A NEW LEVEL OF GENEROSITYHow can I honor God more through the stewardship of my finances and my financial generosity? |
As we have experienced many times before at Houston’s First, God went beyond even our boldest of expectations! He moved among our church family to surpass our original goal of $93 million by blessing us with nearly $104 million in commitments and expected gifts at the start of our two-year Kainos journey. After year two, God provided in an even bigger way and moved among our church by calling us to new levels of surrender, faith, and generosity.
OUR COMMISSION: | OUR COMMUNITY: | OUR COMPASSION: |
Pastor Gregg delivered many Kainos-focused messages over our two-year period. Find them here.
Below is a PDF of our Kainos book used in our midpoint message series — RE:NEW. You can view it or download it here.
Download: KAINOS RE:NEW Booklet
Inspired by our Kainos initiative and the truth that Jesus makes all things new, our Houston's First Worship team wrote this song to proclaim that powerful, life-changing message. Watch the lyric video below, and find the song on Spotify and Apple Music.
When Kainos launched in Dec 2021, our prayer was for the Houston's First family to experience new levels of surrender, faith, and generosity as we each responded to this two-year vision for our church. Here, Daniel and Toyloria share their amazing — and unexpected — story of how they experienced that even as Kainos was just getting underway.
The Oaks is a new center for many of the services that adopted children and their families need for restoration and healing.
Much more than a building renovation, this project brings new ministry opportunities and turns a limitation into an asset.
Located in one of the most diverse counties in Texas, our Sienna Campus has been experiencing incredible growth over the past few years. To provide space for people to continue to hear the gospel message, a new facility is being constructed with an expected opening of summer 2024.
The reach of Houston's First extends beyond the city of Houston thanks to our online platforms. A family from New England found Houston's First through our Digital Ministry in 2020 and took a step of faith and moved to Houston to become a part of our local church body. Now, their family is actively involved in a variety of ministries at The Loop Campus including our worship team.
The reach of Houston's First extends beyond the city of Houston thanks to our online platforms. A family from New England found Houston's First through our Digital Ministry in 2020 and took a step of faith and moved to Houston to become a part of our local church body. Now, their family is actively involved in a variety of ministries at The Loop Campus including our worship team.
Supporting church planting efforts in strategic cities is a key component of our Kainos endeavors focusing on Our Compassion. In this video, we hear directly from Jonathan Moseley, a church planter in Boston. A mission team from Houston's First partnered with Jonathan's church, King's Hill Church, in March 2023 to reach the city with the Gospel.
The facet of Kainos focusing on Our Compassion includes funds to support church revitalization — partnering with other churches to help build up their ministry so they can increase their impact on God's Kingdom.
Here, Pastor Jaime Garcia of Bethel Baptist Church in Houston shares about the partnership with Houston's First. Through your generosity, our church has not only been able to strengthen their facilities but also — and more importantly — strengthen their ministry and the lives of the people they serve.
The Houston's First family set out on our bold Kainos journey in December 2021. The initiative launched with a goal of $93 million over two years (Dec 2021-Dec 2023). God moved through our church family in a powerful way as commitments and expected gifts came in at nearly $104 million — almost $11 million beyond our goal!
As we approached the midpoint of the Kainos journey in the fall of 2022, Pastor Gregg Matte walked us through the RE:NEW message series (Oct 23-Nov 20). Along the way, we put forth an updated goal of $110 million to provide funding for additional opportunities that had been placed before us and to address significant cost increases due to historic inflation. You can find details about those in our RE:NEW book here.
That RE:NEW series culminated in Commitment Sunday. On that day, the Houston's First family came forward to submit midpoint commitment cards where we indicated if we were:
On Sun, Dec 4, Pastor Gregg revealed how God moved through the Houston's First family once again as he shared how we responded to this commitment moment:
Thank you, Houston's First family, for following as the Lord has led you to give to the Kainos vision. Let us all continue to pursue new levels of surrender, faith, and generosity as we journey through the next year together.
You can find resources from when we launched Kainos on this page, including our original 104-page book, Pastor Gregg's message series, our kick-off video, and more.
Do you have a great idea for sharing the Gospel with others? Thanks to our Kainos initiative, funding might be available to launch your idea through Difference Maker Ventures!
Many Houston's First members have launched ministries over the years, or they have taken on one-time projects with the goal of spreading the Good News. Difference Makers Ventures aspires to engage even more members who have an interest in and vision for starting a ministry that will ultimately share the love of Jesus Christ to those the ministry serves.
We know there are great ideas out there among our church family and we want to be part of making them happen! Watch this video then visit our Difference Maker Ventures page here or text DMVENTURES to 44322 to learn more and to submit an application form. We look forward to hearing about your idea!
Our Kainos initiative provides funding not only for projects Houston's First undertakes throughout our city, nation, and world, but also for the ongoing ministries we provide throughout the year. These are all covered by the "Our Commission" portion of Kainos.
Among those ongoing opportunities are our NextGen Summer Camps for children and students. Your generosity toward Kainos allows us to offer these life-changing experiences every summer. The line-up includes Preteen Camp (grades 3-5), Camp Rush (grades 6-8), and Rush Week (grades 9-12). As kids progress through this line-up of camps, they are given increasing exposure to missions-related projects each time. Beyond those three experiences, Houston's First offers Rushmore (domestic mission trip) and HUB International to provide older students with more missions-focused experiences.
Houston's First also partners with several churches on the west side of Houston to offer Super Place Camp — a VBS experience for friends with special needs (entering Kindergarten to age 22). We collaborate with Tallowood Baptist Church, Chapelwood United Methodist Church, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, and Memorial Drive United Methodist Church to offer this fun-filled and Bible-based week, rotating the role of hosting the camp from church to church each year.
Our Kainos initiative provides funding not only for projects Houston's First undertakes throughout our city, nation, and world, but also for the ongoing ministries we provide at our church every week. These are all covered by the "Our Commission" portion of Kainos.
One of those ministries is our Thru the Roof Special Needs Ministry. Your generosity toward Kainos enables us to provide a welcoming, loving, and safe place for families with special needs loved ones. What a joy it is for our church to serve these friends, reminding them that they are loved by their Creator and made in His image!
Thru the Roof is primarily located at The Loop Campus, including a custom-built suite designed specifically for children and adults with special needs. However, every campus looks forward to meeting new special needs families!
The generosity of the Houston's First family through Kainos is enabling our church to support what God is doing among unreached unengaged people groups (UUPGs) in South Asia. Kainos launched in Dec 2021 and we have already fulfilled our goal of giving $300,000 to the International Mission Board (*) to be used by missionaries on the field as they identify, train, disciple, and partner with high-capacity South Asian church planters. The funds will also support those church planters and their families as they are faithfully work toward finishing the task of engaging the 1,044 UUPGs in South Asia.
Our support for church planters among UUPGs began before Kainos, but this two-year vision will provide a significant expansion of the impact we can have and will result in a great multiplication of new churches. Looking at the past couple of years, the first year of our partnership with just a small group of church planters has:
If you want to be directly involved with what God is doing in South Asia, contact Justin Seale with our Missions team at Justin.Seale@HoustonsFirst.org. He can share with you about future mission trips to the region and other possibly ways you can serve or pray.
We are grateful for your commitment to the Kainos vision, and we're honored to send these funds on behalf of our entire Houston's First family!
(*) This $300,000 given to the IMB was from your Kainos giving and is separate from the funds we gave to the IMB for other purposes through our World Mission Offering received in Apr 2022.
Over the past 10 years, Houston's First has contributed approximately $1,000,000 toward various Bible translation projects carried out by different organizations.
Now, thanks to the generosity of our church family toward Kainos, we distributed $500,000 in March 2022 to three organizations to help with more Bible translations. These projects are designed to provide God's Word for unengaged unreached people groups (UUPGs) who have no access to scriptures in their language:
The need for more Bible translation efforts is significant. Consider these statistics as of September 2021 regarding the availability of God's Word in the thousands of languages spoken around the world:
"The full Bible is now available in 717 different languages, giving 5.75 billion people access to the complete Scriptures in the language they understand best. The New Testament is available in another 1,582 languages, reaching another 830 million people. Selections and stories are available in a further 1,196 other languages, spoken by 457 million people."
"There are currently 3,883 languages with no Scripture. 220 million people, speaking 1,892 languages, still need translation work to begin."
"1 in 5 people, speaking 6,661 languages, do not have a full Bible in their first language."
[Source: Wycliffe.org, Apr 29, 2022]
Giving to these Bible translation projects was one of the Kainos goals under Our COMPASSION. Earlier this year, we shared about another expression of Our COMPASSION when the Houston's First family provided funds for Heshima Children's Center in Kenya — a ministry dedicated to serving children with special needs and their loved ones.
We are grateful for your commitment to the Kainos vision, and we're honored to send these funds on behalf of our entire Houston's First family!
The Kainos vision includes ministries, projects, and partnerships related to Our Commission, Our Community, and Our Compassion. In this video, we learn about Vacation Bible School.
Vacation Bible School each summer is the largest event provided for children at Houston's First outside of our weekly Sunday Life Bible Studies. The generosity of the Houston's First family through Kainos enables us to provide this Gospel-focused, action-packed week every year — and it's free for everyone whether they attend our church or not. Here, we hear from staff members, volunteers, parents, and a VBS participant about the eternal impact VBS can have on children and families alike
Under the Kainos umbrella, Vacation Bible School is part of Our Commission — all of the ongoing ministries that are funded through our Great Commission Fund (or, our operational budget). When you give to Kainos, a portion of your gift goes to the Great Commission Fund to make possible programs like Vacation Bible School and all of our ongoing ministries as we seek to teach the next generation about the Good News of Jesus Christ!
Click a campus to discover plans for VBS taking place June 20-23, 2022: The Loop or Cypress. You can also text VBS to 81411.
The Kainos vision includes ministries, projects, and partnerships related to Our Commission, Our Community, and Our Compassion. In this video, we learn about our Faith Center–Harwin in southwest Houston.
Faith Center–Harwin serves an increasingly diverse population, including many who have come as immigrants or refugees from other parts of the world. The generosity of the Houston's First family through Kainos enables us to meet the unique needs of these men, women, and children as they learn to make Houston their new home. Here, we see how Faith Center–Harwin is partnering with Houston Welcomes Refugees to serve many families who came from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
Under the Kainos umbrella, Faith Center–Harwin is part of Our Commission — all of the ongoing ministries that are funded through our Great Commission Fund (or, our operational budget). When you give to Kainos, a portion of your gift goes to the Great Commission Fund to make Faith Center–Harwin and all of our ongoing ministries possible.
The Kainos vision includes ministries, projects, and partnerships related to Our Commission, Our Community, and Our Compassion. Here, we learn about the Heshima Children's Center in Kenya — a partner within Our Compassion. Heshima's mission is to provide "a holistic environment that includes physical, mental and spiritual support for children with special needs."
Though giving to Kainos began in Dec 2021, in this update given on Feb 6, 2022, we are able to celebrate that the Houston's First family has already given a substantial gift to Heshima. Thanks to the generosity of our church family, Heshima is now closer to building a new residential facility designed specifically for the children and families they serve!
To learn more about Heshima, visit their website at Heshima.org. Also, stop by CornerBooks at The Loop Campus or visit their online store here to purchase hand-crafted items made by Dignity Designs — a Fair Trade business that employees each one of the mothers from Heshima.
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