Typically, when one considers learning about who Jesus Christ was and is, one may decide to go to a church or talk with a preacher, pastor, priest or professor of theology. There is one man, however, who is none of the above. His name is Vip Patel. And he is the founder of The Jesus Institute.

Patel is an entrepreneur, who previously founded and ran a venture-backed e-health care business. The father of two children who lives in Menlo Park, California says three months ago he was called to invest 100% of his professional time on building The Jesus Institute.

Patel's goal, together with his esteemed Board of Directors and supporters, is to introduce more people in America and around the world to the man from Nazareth who lived 2000 years ago.

Vip is a Christian. He believes God sent Jesus Christ to earth to be his Savior. It has been years since Vip accepted God's free gift.

Now, he is ready to take a new leap of faith by making a difference in others lives through this new learning resource called The Jesus Institute.

Patel wants to introduce the person of Jesus of Nazareth to people of all cultural and spiritual backgrounds.

To begin, Patel has created a web site as the Institute's #1 learning tool.

Jesus-Institute.org

The address is: Jesus-Institute.org

The site is broken up into five sections:

Words Directly From Jesus

Key Messages of Jesus
Other Teachings and Parables
Claims about Himself
Personal Character
Statement of Purpose
Commands to Followers
Promises to Followers
Interactions with Specific People

Historical Sources Which Describe Jesus

Primary Sources: Eye Witnesses

Biographers:

John
Matthew
Luke
Mark
Recorded Miracles

Other Ancient Sources:

Jewish Prophets
Historian Josephus
Historian Tacitus

The History & Timeline of Jesus

History:

Brief Life Summary

First Century History: Political, Economic, Cultural, Religious, Educational

Timeline:

Before Jesus
During Jesus' Life
After Jesus
Drama of Final Week
Execution on The Cross & Last Words

Modern Interpretation & Application

Modern Descriptions of Jesus
Practical Helps From Jesus
Links to Personal/Spiritual Websites

Study Guides

Recommended Course Study Guides:

2 minutes
10 minutes
30 minutes
60 minutes

Knowledge Assessment
Common Questions
Unique Terms

In 2004, close to a half million people (unique visitors), from over 50 different countries, learned more about Jesus through:

The site was even referenced this year in The New York Times.

In addition to building its mainstream identity as the best educational website about Jesus, one of the organization's goals in 2005 is promote their site in China without it being blocked by the government.

For example, when a person in China goes to Google.com and types the word Jesus in Mandarin, they now see both their sponsored link (paid ad) and the site listed as #11.

In November, Patel and one of the Institute's board members, Larry Langdon traveled with the President of Fuller Seminary, Dr. Richard Mouw, to meet with top leaders of China's Religious Affairs Bureau.

Landgon is also the former Chair of Fuller Seminary, and recent IRS Commissioner.

During that trip Patel felt the call to turn The Jesus Institute into his full-time profession and ministry.

Vip said, "It's unusual for me, but my eyes teared up at church the morning of my return, as I thought about Lisa, our 26 year-old Beijing tour guide, who is well educated, has computers and Internet access at home, but had never heard of Jesus."

That same week, Patel learned about Chinese Ph.D. scholars at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who also had never heard of Christ.

Patel said, "40% of the world is in the same situation. The need is huge and in a newly connected (Internet) world, the time is right."

So what is the right solution for the unchurched person or someone who has never heard of Jesus?...

A place to learn about Jesus that is clear, simple, objective, and non-religious.

In a book called, "What's Gone Wrong With The Harvest," Dr. James Engel, Director of the Billy Graham graduate program in communications at Wheaton College emphasizes the importance of "proclamation" before "persuasion."

Illustrating this, the mission's pastor at Patel's church in Menlo Park recently connected him to a Hindu engineering Ph.D. who did not want to attend any church because he felt pressure to convert into a Christian.

Yet, upon discovering Jesus Institute's material, he commented, "this kind of study is exactly what I was looking for."

To accomplish The Jesus Institute's goals, the organizations needs to raise an annual operating budget of $250,000 per year.

Their hope is to build on recurring donors who give monthly or quarterly.

So far, they are only 10% of the way there. "Every monthly donor whether $25 per month or $1000 per month is an essential pillar," Patel said.

The Jesus Institute's Board of Directors include: Larry Langdon, Ken Perez, Allen Phipps, Stuart Sweet, Bryce Williams, Alex Brubaker, Scott Dudley and MJ Turner. Each are taking a proactive role in helping to meet their 2005 operating budget.

On December 1st, Bob Buford, Chairman of the Leadership Network and author of Finishing Well: What People Who Really Live Do Differently!, Halftime and Game Plan said, "I am happy to see that Vip Patel's considerable experience in the e-commerce world has been productively re-deployed for God's purposes in the Jesus Institute." Buford went on to say, "It appears to be a great tool to reach the wired and now-reachable people groups of this world."

Buford often talks about going from success to significance.

Patel is taking this message to heart.

If you are a Christian who has been looking for a way to introduce Jesus Christ to a network of friends or colleagues at your place of work, consider giving each of them a card that states you have made a donation in their name to The Jesus Insitute with hopes they will spend ten-to-fifteen minutes at the web site.

To give a holiday donation in honor of the true meaning of Christmas:

* Mail checks to Jesus Institute, P.O Box 774 Menlo Park, CA 94026-0774,

* Credit card online at: Jesus-Institute.org/Support

* Stock donations: Agent: Charles Schwab and Co. ; DTC #: 0164 Account Name: Jesus Institute; Account Number: 9152-8146

All gifts are tax deductible.

To experience The Jesus Institute web site for yourself, go to:

If you are in the United States this Christmas eve and are looking for a church to celebrate the birth of Jesus, go to Jesus-Institute.org, type in your state or zip code and you will be presented with a plethora of options.

I typed in my zip code here in San Francisco and found that City Church, the church I go to most often was not listed. However, I was offered more than twenty other suggestions - in my zip code alone.

Incidentally, I went to Amazon to find some appropriate contextual commerce product links for this sotry.

Upon doing a search on "The Bible" -- which seemed most relevant -- I got the following three top results before The Old and/or New Testament were suggested:

1) The Wine Bible

2) The Bush Survival Bible

3) The New Herb Bible

The fourth result offered, which was closer to what I had in mind, is an NIV (New International Version) Bible for kids between the ages of 8-12 called The Adventure Bible.

Looks like Vip has quite an opportunity on his hands.

Congratulations Vip. Thank you for this tool. And best of luck to you.

Inspire and Be Inspired (R).

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "following your calling" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King