In the military, there is a word used for aligning your rifle’s sight aperture to where the bullets are going. It’s called “zeroing” your rifle. If a rifle isn’t zeroed, the shooter can have the sights aimed perfectly on the target yet miss the target with the shot. The sight aperture must be zeroed to hit the target.  

KJM formed in January of 2021 and launched in August of 2021. We’ve done some great things during those two years. We’ve hosted conferences for adults and students. We publish newsletters each week for thousands of pastors. There are several thousand people that receive our daily devotions. Our website has tens of thousands of views each month from our articles and videos. We’ve executed pastor and student pastor cohorts, weekend retreats for parents that have lost children, and taught doctrinal seminars. There has been a lot of fruit from these activities, and we are thankful for the support we have received from everyone. But we sense the Lord zeroing our mission.  

In Jim Collins’ book Great By Choice, he outlines the research on what differentiated organizations and institutions that generated lasting results even in times of chaos and uncertainty. A few interesting insights speak to where KJM is right now. First, Collins emphasizes the point of staying disciplined. Great organizations figure out what things to do and stay fanatically disciplined in executing them. Second, Collins outlines a concept called “Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs.” The premise is that when comparison organizations had ideas, they shot cannonballs at them (significant resources). If they missed, and the initiative wasn’t successful, it crippled the organization because their resources were expended. But great organizations fired a series of “bullets” (smaller efforts) first. They tried certain things to see if they hit the target. As they hit the target, they finally shot the cannonball because they knew they were calibrated. They went big once they knew they were on target. 

Both of these principles speak to KJM’s first two years. We started off with many good intentions and ideas, but not a lot of discipline. We executed many initiatives that were not always related. To be clear, they were good things. But they were not necessarily things connected to a singular mission. We aired sermons on television, held one-day conferences at Christian schools, hosted bereaved families, and led pastor cohort sessions. These are wonderful ministries, but not related. We were not disciplined in our actions. This is hard for a young ministry with limited resources and manpower.  

The second principle (Bullets, Then Cannonballs) also holds true. Something we have noticed in the last two years is our growing influence in the next-gen world. We’ve had great success in shooting bullets in this space. We’ve hit the target repeatedly. Our conclusion: it’s time to shoot cannonballs.  

We believe the Lord is calling KJM to go all-in for the next generation. Our kids and students face a hostile culture that wars against the reign of Christ. Many of our kids and students lack the biblical knowledge, leaving them uncertain and without courage to stand firm. They need to be equipped and shown how to hold the line so they can fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12). Churches and parents struggle to know what to do or where to turn. This is what KJM will give its energy to doing: keeping them in the fight.  

We will do this by creating resources that pastors and parents love. These resources will help next generation walk in the truth in a culture of lies. It will address the real things that confront them each day and provide biblical answers to help them glorify Jesus the King. We believe the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation is the front lines of ministry. Satan would love to take them captive to godless ideologies and blind them to the glory of Christ. The culture seeks to disciple and catechize them at every turn. If churches and families are not actively countering that effort, we will lose them. This is what KJM wants to zero its mission on: equipping churches to reach and keep the next generation.  

What does this mean? It means we are zeroing our rifle. Not every resource we’ve produced in the past will continue. We will drop some things and add some things. Many of our resources will continue to remain, but just recategorized or rolled out in a different format.   

One thing will continue and be even more important as we go forward: your support. We need prayer for God’s favor, for effectiveness, and for endurance against an enemy we know will attack us. We also need your financial support. Without apology, I want you to give sacrificially to fund this work. We believe KJM could be the best ministry in the world at equipping the next generation. There is no ministry geared toward equipping churches to reach the next generation that has the theological richness or boldness to address cultural issues like KJM does. But we need the financial support to scale this ministry to a national level. We must build the staff team to develop curriculum, create platforms for a church network, and design the infrastructure for large scale conferences and camps.  

We have zeroed our mission. It’s time to fire cannonballs on target. Join the fight.  

-Erik Reed