Mission & Vision

Mission

What We Do

Josh McDowell Ministry exists to serve others until the whole world hears about Jesus Christ.

Vision

What We See

True followers of Jesus everywhere who live, support and share their faith.

 

 

Josh McDowell Ministry delivers breakthrough moments and messages that lead to clarity, conviction, confidence and connection for people seeking meaning and purpose. Through a combination of live events, podcasts, print and digital resources, we seek to serve others until the whole world hears about Jesus.

 

Our vision is that true followers of Jesus everywhere live, support and share their faith because they know that the Christian faith is reliable, relational and relevant to their lives. We serve students, parents, leaders, churches and virtual movements through the production of innovative events and resources in the heart languages of people everywhere.

 

Our founder, Josh D. McDowell has been at the forefront of applying truth to cultural trends for more than 50 years. Recently he has been joined by a team of communicators to share the essentials of the Christian faith in everyday language so people of all ages and stages experience breakthrough moments. This includes meeting the needs of people through leveraging resources based on years of experience, new technologies and strategic partnerships. Our ministry team is passionate about helping people know the truth, understand why they believe it and experience it in their relationships by living out their faith.

 

Thank you for your partnership with Josh McDowell Ministry, a Cru ministry.

Ministry Fact Sheet

Josh McDowell Ministry delivers breakthrough moments and messages that lead to clarity, conviction, confidence, and connection for people seeking meaning and purpose. These messages are delivered globally through publications, live events, and digital resources.  

Mission:

Our mission is to serve others until the whole world hears about Jesus. We carry out this mission by delivering breakthrough messages that help people everywhere know what they believe, why they believe it, and how to live it out in relationships.

Vision:

Our vision is that true followers of Jesus everywhere live, support and share their faith because they know that the Christian faith is reliable, relational, and relevant to their lives. We serve students, parents, leaders, churches, and virtual movements through the production of innovative events and resources in the heart languages of people everywhere.

Our Founder:

Our founder, Josh D. McDowell, has been at the forefront of applying truth to cultural trends.  Since 1963, Josh McDowell has spoken to more than 46 million people, giving over 32,000 talks in 139 countries. He has authored 155 books including best sellers, More Than A Carpenter and Evidence That Demands a Verdict.

Officers:

Josh McDowell              Founder

Zack Wilson                  Chief Executive Officer

Laurel Milton                Executive Vice-President  

Duane Zook                  Executive Vice-President

Headquarters:

Josh McDowell Ministry is located in The Hope Center, 2001 Plano Parkway, Suite 2400 Plano, TX 75075 972-907-1000 * www.Josh.org

Employees:

40

Accountability:

Josh McDowell Ministry is a ministry of Cru, a charter member of the ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). All donations and annual audits are processed through Campus Crusade for Christ Inc., a 501c3 company, and stated in their annual report. The 2022 annual report shows 83.6% of funds given went directly to ministry, 7.7% of funds went to general and administrative expenses, and 8.7% of funds went to fundraising.

Josh's Biography

Josh D. McDowell

Founder

A trailblazer for truth and relationships, Josh has been at the forefront of cultural trends and ground-breaking ministry for over six decades. Josh shares the essentials of the Christian faith in everyday language so that youth, families, churches, leaders and individuals of all ages are prepared for a life of faith and the work of the ministry.

Since 1963 Josh has addressed more than 46 million people, giving over 32,000 talks in 139 countries. He has written or co-authored 157 books including More Than a Carpenter. He also authored Evidence that Demands a Verdict, recognized by World Magazine as one of the twentieth century’s top 40 books. Some of Josh’s books have been translated into 128 languages.

Josh and his wife, Dottie, are quick to acknowledge that after their love for the Lord, family is their greatest joy and top priority. They have been married for over 52 years and have four wonderful children and 11 beloved grandchildren.

Ministry Leadership

Leadership Team

Speaker Team

Speakers Team

Boilerplate

Josh McDowell Ministry delivers breakthrough messages that help people know what they believe, why they believe it, and how to live it out in relationships.

 

The messages are delivered globally via publishing, live events, and digital ministry. Josh McDowell Ministry is a ministry of Cru, a 501c3 organization.

Top Ministry Questions

Josh McDowell Ministry delivers breakthrough messages that help people know what they believe, why they believe it, and how to live it out in relationships. The messages are delivered globally IN PRINT (publishing), IN PERSON (live ministry events) and IN PIXEL (digital ministry).

 


 

IN PRINT

 

How Can I Find Wholeness in My Brokenness?

  Available March 2023

Humans were created in the image of God, which means we all have innate feelings, longings, and desires. But what happens when those holy desires get corrupted by sin? And how can we find freedom from that captivity? Free to Thrive by Josh McDowell and Ben Bennett is a book, video series, and live event. Learn biblical, psychological, and neuroscience-based answers to healing and thriving.

 

Is Jesus a copycat savior?

Available April 2023

Evidence for Jesus is the latest book from father and son Josh and Sean McDowell. It will help you journey into the historical evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of the most influential person who has ever lived: Jesus of Nazereth.

 

Is God good?

Available September 2023

This is arguably the most challenged question of Christianity. How can God be good when he gives strict laws, delivers judgment, or sends people to Hell? Josh McDowell and Matthew Tingblad tackles these questions to affirm God’s goodness, not in spite of these difficulties, but because of them.

 


 

IN PERSON

 

How can I know anything? There is so much out there!

Speaker: Matthew Tingblad

We live in a world with an ocean of information. This is mentally exhausting and has corroded our trust in Christianity and truth in general. Matthew addresses this challenge in his talk Information “Oceanload” providing sensible methods for interpreting information and encouragement that God’s truth is able to lead us to shore.

 

Are there real questions for my doubts?

Speaker: Austin Fruits

Doubts and questions can cripple our confidence and shake our identity. Often thought of as intellectual questions, doubts involve our whole being. In his talk Disarming Doubts, Austin draws from his own story to show how God meets us personally in our doubts.

 

Has the Bible Been Changed?

Speaker: Matthew Tingblad

Are God’s scriptures outdated and no longer relevant to our lives? In his talk, Has the Bible Been Changed, Austin Fruits answers these questions with ancient biblical artifacts to help ground our faith and assure us that the Bible has been carefully preserved and its message greatly matters to us today.

 


 

IN PIXEL

 

Can I Trust the Gospels?

Free 10-part video series

Reliability of the Gospels: A Christian Perspective with Matthew Tingblad is a 10-part video series which help us determine if the four gospels are reliable sources of Jesus. Who wrote them? Did they intend to write history? Were they telling the truth? This series offers great training and can be used individually or in a group setting.

 

Is the Bible Relevant for My Life?

Free Bible study with Ben Bennett

This online Bible studies guide teens through overcoming the painful and sometimes debilitating conditions of anxiety, loneliness, hurt, porn, shame, lies about God, negative body image and depression.

 

Help! How do I stop watching porn?

Free 5-steps digital guide

If you’ve asked this question, you are not alone! And we are here to help. This comprehensive digital guide combines biblical truth with brain science to provide five powerful steps to kickstarting your freedom from porn.

2023 New Publications

 

Why did God do that?

by Josh McDowell & Matthew Tingblad

Release Date: September 2023

If God is good, then why did he do that?

Christianity proclaims God’s goodness, yet the Bible is filled with passages that seem to paint a different picture. Discover how a good God has good reasons for his challenging actions in the Bible. Uncover the reality of God’s consistent motives and purposes: holiness, justice, and radical mercy. Whether you have your own questions about God or are ministering to those who do Why did God do that? will guide you through difficult passages and ideas, while pointing to God’s power and redeeming love. Find confidence and joy in discovering that God is good—always good—even in the passages of Scripture that appear to convey otherwise.

 


 

Evidence for Jesus by Josh McDowell & Sean McDowell

Release Date: April 2023

  

Quick answers to tough questions about Jesus’ life, ministry, and divinity.                      

Is there archeological proof that Jesus existed? Did Jesus ever actually claim to be God? Is Jesus really the only way? Most every Christian will be asked tough questions like these. Do you know how to answer?

To help Christ followers answer confidently, Josh and Sean McDowell adapted the wisdom from their apologetics classic Evidence That Demands a Verdict into an accessible resource that provides answers to common questions about Jesus to equip believers with time-tested rebuttals to defend their faith.

 


 

 Free To Thrive Book

Video Study and Workbooks by Josh McDowell & Ben Bennett

Release Date: March 2023

How Your Hurt, Struggles, and Deepest Longings Can Lead to a Fulfilling Life.

Your struggles are not random. They are signals that, when answered, can lead you toward a thriving life. Combining hard-won wisdom and youthful energy, Free to Thrive, presents biblical, time-tested, and research-supported principles for overcoming hurts and hindrances. No matter what you’re struggling with, you can discover a life of spiritual, emotional, and relational wholeness—the kind of life each of us was born to live!

Statement of Faith

What We Believe

The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God’s infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.

 

We accept those areas of doctrinal teaching on which, historically, there has been general agreement among all true Christians. Because of the specialized calling of our movement, we desire to allow for freedom of conviction on other doctrinal matters, provided that any interpretation is based upon the Bible alone, and that no such interpretation shall become an issue which hinders the ministry to which God has called us.

 

  • There is one true God, eternally existing in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – each of whom possesses equally all the attributes of Deity and the characteristics of personality. Jesus Christ is God, the living Word, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. Hence, He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person forever.
  • He lived a sinless life and voluntarily atoned for human sins by dying on the cross as a substitute, thus satisfying divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone.
  • He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died. He ascended bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and humanity, continually makes intercession for His own.
  • Adam and Eve were originally created in the image of God. They sinned by disobeying God; thus, they were alienated from their Creator. That historic fall brought all people under divine condemnation.
  • Human nature is corrupted. As a result, all people are totally unable to please God. Everyone is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
  • Salvation is wholly a work of God’s free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony. God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justified them in His sight.
  • It is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be assured of their salvation from the very moment in which they trust Christ as their Savior. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit, but is produced by the witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the testimony of God in His written word.
  • The Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to individuals. He convicts and draws sinners to Christ, imparts new life to them, continually indwells them from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption. His fullness, power and control are appropriated in the believer’s life by faith.
  • Believers are called to live so in the power of the indwelling Spirit that they will not fulfill the lust of the flesh but will bear fruit to the glory of God.
  • Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, which is composed of all people, living and dead, who have been joined to Him through saving faith. God admonishes His people to assemble together regularly for worship, for participation in ordinances, for edification through the Scriptures and for mutual encouragement.
  • At physical death the believer enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the resurrection of the body to everlasting glory and blessing.
  • At physical death the unbeliever enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of the body to everlasting judgment and condemnation.
  • Jesus Christ will come again to the earth – personally, visibly and bodily – to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
  • The Lord Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to disciple people from every nation. The fulfillment of that Great Commission requires that all worldly and personal ambitions be subordinated to a total commitment to “Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.”

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