Explore / Origins and formation
Our History
Our Faith Ministries began more than twenty-one years ago from a growing conviction that the Church faced a problem that could not be solved simply by more religious activity. Christianity was increasingly surrounded by preaching, teaching, churches, conferences, books, broadcasts, and other forms of religious expression, yet access to more Christian information did not necessarily produce mature Believers.
Its concern is not simply what Believers know, but what they are becoming.
The Concern That Gave Rise to the Ministry
Scripture makes a distinction between hearing the Word and being formed by it. It warns of those who are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7), and speaks directly to Believers who, after sufficient time, should have matured beyond the elementary things of the faith but remained in need of spiritual development (Hebrews 5:12–14). Spiritual maturity, therefore, cannot be measured merely by years in church, familiarity with Scripture, religious participation, or profession of belief.
Our Faith Ministries emerged from this concern. From its beginning, the ministry has sought to address the distance that can exist between religious belief and a life actually being formed under the authority and government of God. Its concern is not simply what Believers know, but what they are becoming.
A Calling to Spiritual Formation
Over more than two decades, that calling has developed into a multifaceted ministry centered upon spiritual formation. Its objective is to reach serious-minded Believers who desire to move beyond religion and belief alone into an intimate knowledge and experience with the living God, and to provide an environment in which that journey can continue throughout life.
The ministry recognizes that such formation rarely occurs in isolation. Believers need sound biblical education, but they also need fellowship, accountability, encouragement, disciplined reflection, opportunities for service, and relationships with others who are committed to the same journey. Spiritual maturity is not an event or a course to be completed. It is the continuing formation of the whole life.
From this understanding came the continuing development of the ministries that now serve this calling.
Ministries Serving One Calling
Three related ministries now carry distinct responsibilities within this continuing work.
Our Faith Ministries
Provides the spiritual mission and sponsoring ministry.
International Table Ministries
Provides the fellowship and membership community in which Believers gather at the table for accountability, education, encouragement, partnership, and spiritual formation. The Table represents something more enduring than attendance at an event. It is a place of relationship, conversation, learning, examination, fellowship, and shared responsibility as Believers mature together.
D. Mass Christian Publishers, Inc.
Serves as the publishing arm of this work, developing and making available books, studies, teaching materials, and other formation resources. Through publishing, the ministry is able to extend its educational work beyond individual Tables and make these materials available worldwide to members and non-members alike.
The Continuing Purpose
What began more than twenty-one years ago therefore continues with a deliberately focused purpose: to help prepare mature Believers whose knowledge of God is demonstrated not merely by what they profess, but by lives increasingly formed by His Word, governed by His Kingdom, and faithful to His calling.
We live in an age of extraordinary access to religion. Sermons can be heard at any hour. Scripture is available in countless translations and formats. Christian books, conferences, broadcasts, podcasts, schools, churches, ministries, and digital resources place more religious information within reach of the average Believer than at almost any previous period in history.
Yet access to spiritual information should not be confused with spiritual maturity.
Scripture repeatedly confronts this distinction. Paul warned of those who were “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). The writer of Hebrews addressed people who had been exposed to truth long enough that they “ought to be teachers,” yet still required elementary instruction. Mature Believers, by contrast, were described as those who, “by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12–14).
Beyond Religious Participation
Religion can teach a person its language, customs, doctrines, institutions, and practices. A person may learn how to participate successfully in Christian culture without every area of life having been brought under the government of God.
This is why years of religious participation alone cannot be accepted as evidence of maturity.
Spiritual maturity becomes visible in discernment, obedience, stewardship, relationships, judgment, discipline, humility, faithfulness, and the ordering of everyday life according to the Word of God. Scripture is not merely information to be accumulated; it is truth by which the Believer is to live.
Jesus therefore connected discipleship with continuing in His Word: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31–32).
Formation Is a Lifelong Journey
Spiritual formation is not a program from which a Believer graduates. There is no point in Christian life at which the knowledge of God has been exhausted or the work of formation completed.
Paul, after years of ministry and extraordinary spiritual experience, could still express the desire, “That I may know him” (Philippians 3:10). His language reveals something essential about mature Christian life: greater knowledge of God produces a deeper desire to know Him, not the assumption that one has already arrived.
For this reason, Our Faith Ministries understands spiritual formation as a lifelong journey.
Education has an important place in that journey, but education alone is insufficient. Believers also require opportunities for fellowship, examination, accountability, encouragement, service, reflection, and the practical application of truth. What is learned must eventually confront how we live.
Why the Table Matters
The Christian journey was never intended to be entirely solitary.
Scripture describes Believers as members of one body and teaches that the individual members need one another (1 Corinthians 12:12–27). Proverbs declares, “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17). Hebrews instructs Believers to consider one another, provoke one another unto love and good works, and not abandon their assembling together (Hebrews 10:24–25).
International Table Ministries grows from this understanding.
The Table provides a continuing place where serious-minded Believers can gather around the Word of God and engage one another in the work of spiritual formation. It provides an environment for education, but also for questions, accountability, encouragement, fellowship, shared experience, and partnership.
At the Table, knowledge is not intended to remain theoretical. Scripture must eventually encounter marriage and family, money and possessions, work and business, leadership and authority, relationships and conflict, suffering and adversity, personal conduct, service, stewardship, and the decisions through which everyday life is constructed.
From Belief to Maturity
Our Faith Ministries does not regard belief as unimportant. Belief is indispensable. But Scripture does not present initial belief as the conclusion of Christian life.
Believers are called to grow.
They are called to move from spiritual infancy toward maturity, from hearing toward doing, from knowledge toward discernment, and from profession toward a life increasingly governed by the truth they profess.
This is the work of spiritual formation.
Our Faith Ministries exists to serve Believers who recognize that there is more to knowing God than participation in religion and who desire to continue that journey seriously. International Table Ministries provides a community in which that journey can be shared. D. Mass Christian Publishers, Inc. provides biblical materials intended to educate, challenge, and support that continuing formation.
The objective is not simply to produce better-informed Christians.