Mission

Why do we exist? To make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded. Jesus is the hope of all the nations. Isaiah 65 proclaims that God will reconcile all things, and His Kingdom will triumph by bringing redemptive blessing to all people. The Reality SF church body strives to align the desires of our hearts to that of God’s heart. Therefore, we long for His people and creation to fully know Him, be in relationship with Him, and worship Him. We long to transform a world of violence and suffering into a place of shalom: of restoration, rejoicing and peace as God originally intended. We hope to bring a glimpse of heaven to earth until He comes again.

VISION

What will the future look like if we fulfill our mission? It is the desire of the Reality SF Mission Board to partner in the church’s vision of being a community following Jesus, seeking renewal in our city. We seek to accomplish this through prayerfully stewarding the resources of our community and by inviting the church to participate more fully in the joy of God’s purposes and promises for all people within our church, city, and world.

Focus

Living in a broken world, we have all experienced various levels of poverty in our own lives—within ourselves, our church family, our city, and the world. In his ministry, Jesus proclaimed the gospel not just in word but in deed by addressing the whole person—the health of the body, mind, spirit, and heart. Likewise, we seek to proclaim the gospel and serve others (and each other) with a holistic definition of poverty that recognizes that 1) we all struggle with a form of poverty and 2) the circumstances and causes associated with it are complex. We’ve identified common areas of poverty that often reinforce each other. We seek to alleviate them through direct care and relationship with Jesus – offering our resources in the form of finances, time, and talents.

SPIRITUAL POVERTY - Lack of a personal relationship with God or knowledge that we are indeed wonderfully made in the image of God. Blockers to relationship with God can include bad experiences or misinformed views of Jesus and “religion.”

RELATIONAL POVERTY - A sense of loneliness and lack of connection to friends, family, and the broader community. “I am alone” is a very common phrase. At worst, this can manifest in unhealthy, abusive relationships.

• Isolation / loneliness
• Family estrangement
• Marital issues
• Domestic violence

POVERTY OF ADDICTION - The struggle with addiction (in whatever form it appears) and lack of family/community understanding, support, and encouragement to get healthy.

• Alcohol / substance abuse
• Eating disorders
• Sex/Pornography abuse
• Gambling

POVERTY OF HEALTH - Struggles related to the health of our bodies and minds where healing and ongoing assistance is needed.

• Mental/Emotional health
• Physical health problems

ECONOMIC POVERTY - Addressing all the potential issues associated with being low-income and living in an expensive area. Ranges from scarcity of material possessions or money to the complete lack of the means necessary to meet basic personal needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

• Underemployment
• Joblessness (inability to secure or keep)
• Homelessness
• Debt (i.e. credit card, medical, student, etc)

POVERTY OF EDUCATION - Limited income potential and growth opportunity due to lack of access and encouragement towards education or skills training.

• Education deficits
• Skills training

POVERTY OF SYSTEMS - Systemic injustice and abuse of power is part of our broken world and this can be the root problem of many of the forms of poverty we see.

• Discrimination (race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation/identity, age)
• Lack of opportunity (education, job, etc)

Focus Brainstorm in the Works

Approach

How do we do this? Missions is done through partnership with individuals and organizations that align with our desire to see the restoration of God’s kingdom on earth.

Where do we get money? We receive a missional income of 8% of unrestricted giving (and additionally any donor restricted giving specified for missions) to give to partner organizations (and individuals associated with those organizations) locally and globally.

Where is it directed? Currently 97% of the budget goes to local missions and 3% goes to global with a breakdown of 61% is given to individuals and 39% to organizations.

Board Members

• Danielle Stowaway
• Nicole Pannuzzo
• Alex Shih