Who are we and why do we exist? Whether you are a company, a ministry, or a human being, we should be asking this very question. In this article, I’m going to break down the answer for WHO we are here at Ask Us Why, WHY we exist, and HOW we plan to change the world.
WHO Are We?
Ask Us Why is a faith based e-commerce and tech startup that is driven to help young adults bring their faith to life through what they wear, what they learn, and who they connect with. We will break each category down below for you. It was founded in 2019 by Jeremy Davenport as an apparel company focused on helping mission organizations fund trips for college students. This model was unsustainable and unfortunately, forced the team to re-evaluate its purpose and mission. Over the next 3 years, the team constantly shifted and the vision continued to evolve. From being just apparel, to trialing content and a podcast to so much more, it is only until recently that we have found revelation for why we still exist and what the Lord wants to do through us.
WHY We Exist.
It’s with confidence today that we boldly proclaim that we exist today solely for the purpose to serve King Jesus. We believe strongly that as we solidify our roots of faith in Jesus, we gradually expand our understanding of life and the purpose of existing within it. Knowing our WHY gives us clarity to make the right decisions and strive to run the race that has been set before us. The closer we get to Jesus, the more we realize that everything we do, whether we eat or drink, work, study, play, love, marry, evangelize, or anything else, is for the King. In a world trying to offer a million roads to true life and fulfillment, we believe that Jesus is our only true WHY. The only one that stands forever. He is our purpose, our savior, our counselor, or King. That is why our logo is a crown. It’s a modern design concept of the King’s Crown. Our logo demonstrates a message greater than any other logo that exists today. It embodies the message and belief that Jesus is our true King, and we exist to glorify him in all that we do. The American flag at first glance may just seem like a symbol of America, but it runs so much deeper. It’s the symbol of freedom and liberty. The fact that it represents America is just a by-product of its message. Yet people wear it with pride, get it tattooed, salute it during sports games, repeat the pledge of allegiance to it, and for millions, have given their lives for it through war. The King’s Crown exists for the same vision. It may represent us as Ask Us Why, but embedded in the design is a message far greater than the size or importance of our company: true commitment to Jesus. Only Jesus is fit to wear the true Crown and sit at the right hand of the Father. We may not go to war, but we can give our lives to Jesus in everything we do. So whether we sell apparel, train believers, or build networks to connect people, all of it is for the King. The question then invites itself in: will you wear the crown like we do?
HOW We Plan To Change The World.
Over the last year, the Lord has brought tremendous clarity to us here at Ask Us Why and how we plan to execute on the vision we have to change the world. We have come to understand the true importance of training up the next generation to carry out God’s sovereign plan. And with such a conviction, the Lord has led us to Young Adults. Primarily the age group between 18-29 (give or take 2 years). For many different reasons, we believe that they are the future of the world and more than anything, need increasing attention to serve, train, love, disciple, and shepherd for the sake of the Gospel. Because of such a compelling conviction, we have divided Ask Us Why into three different categories of primary focus for us.
We believe we can help young adults bring their faith to life through:
1. What they Wear
2. What they Learn
3. Who they Connect With
Wear
As a foundational component to the very existence of Ask Us Why, we plan to continue our efforts to change the world for the Kingdom through apparel. Graphic tees in particular have always served a purpose of communicating messages to those who witness the shirt/garment around them. With additional clarity for our Wear department, we have split the shop apparel into two sub-categories: Brand Apparel, and Mission Apparel.
Brand Apparel is solely focused on our brand as a whole, symbolized through the King’s Crown, for our ultimate vision to live a life fully surrendered to the King. We believe that wearing the crown shouldn’t show a symbol of status (like most brands), but a symbol of surrender. It’s a statement to the world that Jesus is our true King, and to others who recognize it, that you are a brother or sister in Christ.
Mission Apparel is our division focused on creating unique designs and collections focused on different messages we feel compelled, passionate, and convicted about to serve as an opportunity to encourage the believer, share the Gospel, or even start the conversation. This is home to some of our famous and best selling designs like Fishers of Men, WHJD, and our newest dropped Citizens of New Earth collection. Apparel is something that (hopefully) we wear everyday. There is a theory called Enclothed Cognition that in short summary, claims that what we wear shapes how we think, act, and behave. To learn more about this concept, click here. In a nutshell, we believe that even simply just wearing faith based apparel, can change our thought patterns and behaviors in a way that pushes us closer to Jesus. Does your current favorite brand do that? We believe that the little choices we make add up to big impacts, and apparel is one of them. Whether it serves to share the Gospel or fire you up to live boldly for Jesus, we will continue to exist in the world of apparel.
Learn
It’s no surprise that western civilization is only getting worse with its worldviews, opinions, movements, and even education. Public schools have been contemplating (and many already have) removing the phrase “Under God” from the pledge of allegiance. The degradation of public education from its original roots (being founded by Christians in the 17th century here in America) have left any sort of biblical discipleship up to parents and churches. This fractured system makes the journey of understanding our faith and building a strong foundation in our early years challenging and many times, unfulfilled. This has led to the creation of many universities, programs, courses, schools, and so much more to create education to fulfill that gap. While these movements continue to grow in size, there is still a great need to reach young believers and train them up in the faith. Our goal as a society should not be to force our youth to attend service in hopes they one day understand the faith, but to rather train them up to understand and choose for themselves, that Jesus is Lord.
All of this to say, we at Ask Us Why believe there is still so much room for training and teaching young believers to be equipped and well versed in even the basics of our faith. So we have a dedicated division solely for the purpose of training believers. A few different methods we do this through:
We believe that one of the easiest and most effective ways to practice spiritual discipline is without technology but with good ol fashioned paper. We recently launched our first edition of our Never Cease 100 Day Prayer Journal and continue to develop and design new hardgood journals and devotionals for people to use to bring their faith into practice. Our hopes is to build out a collection of constantly evolving products that integrate seamlessly into the believers life to aid them in the spiritual practices that we know are necessary to endure the race.
Soon to relaunch will be our podcast with a whole new vision. Now renamed the Ask YOU Why podcast, each episode will include a guest speaker that through a laid back interview style conversation, will bring light to what they do, and why they do it for the King. Guests will range from massive influencers, pastors, artists, business owners, to even those who don’t have massive followings, but are making real change for the Kingdom. The goal is to help young listeners (and anyone else who desires to listen), to gain exposure to the many paths in life we can take and be inspired by those who are giving their life to Jesus through their vocations and seeing God move.
A collection of different blogs and articles that are written primarily on current news stories, hot topics, or common questions in an effort to help bring clarity to young believers struggling to find answers.
Online Courses (Coming Soon)
We are still in the process of developing this concept but anticipate that the vision will eventually bloom and exist as an alternative to other forms of education. While a LOT of the content we produce will be free to young adults, we will also be making individualized courses specifically focused on certain topics for those interested to learn more about as they strengthen their faith and understanding.
A split between micro-content from the podcast and mini articles in the form of carousels, our main social media channel on instagram (@askuswhyy) focuses on creating quick and convenient yet informative/inspirational/original content for people as a form of disruption to the traditional feed channels that dish entertainment, sin, temptation, or overall content that doesn’t push us closer to Jesus.
While these are the current mediums and channels through which we focus on LEARN, we know that this is only the beginning for us. We dream to one day host conferences, lead mission trips, run summer camps, and so much more not only in America, but across the globe. We hope you stick around long enough to see us through for it.
Connect
Lastly, we recently created this new branch for CONNECT that was born out of our newest creation, the Ask Us Where Network. We have an entire other article written solely to educate you on everything that it is and does, but here’s a brief breakdown.
The Ask Us Where Network is an interactive website that allows students and young adults to search for Young Adult Ministries either near them or near the university they plan to attend in the next season. To keep things short, young adults are dropping out of church like flies. Studies show that anywhere from 64-70% of high school graduates drop out of church their first year into college. To give you perspective, that’s anywhere from 2-3 million students per year. We believe the underlying reason for this unheavenly number has less to do with a singular point of contraction, but rather a multitude of various issues simultaneously at work with one another. Our goal is to start the movement to bring that number down to 0. There should be no good reason for why students are dropping out but unfortunately, there seems to be many. In our first stage of our Young Adults Initiative, we created this network to connect students to existing communities before they even move to college. We believe that if we can bridge the relational gap that most students have when moving out of state or even on campus to a local university by connecting them to ministries designed to walk with them in this next stage of life, we can prevent dropout. Why? Because studies show that over 70% of all dropouts claimed their experience of dropping out was not intentional. There are many forms of influence that we can discuss, but the principle stands, we aren’t working up stream. We are simply building the bridge across it that didn’t exist before. Our goal is to not only partner with as many young adult ministries as we possibly can in the US, but to partner with as many high school ministries as we possibly can across the country to work with pastors to utilize this tool for their ministry when their seniors are graduating. As we build out this network, we can only only dream of the impact we can have on young adults across the country and the future of the Kingdom, and we hope you do too.
Lastly, we exist primarily as a digital platform, company, and network. As digital communities continue to grow in popularity, we have taken to Discord in an effort to build our community as well. The goal is not to replace the physical community that God designed us to have, but to act as an additional support for those who need it and can’t find it. We are a safe place to share our thoughts, seek prayers, share our successes and learn from our mistakes. We hope to build out a community that hosts members from all over the world and builds connections for people from all over. It’s free to join and is welcome to all, even unbelievers!
In Conclusion
So there you have it, a detailed breakdown of why we exist here at Ask Us Why. We exist solely for the purpose to glorify God and build his Kingdom. And we currently live out that vision by focusing on young adults and helping them bring their faith to life through what they wear, what they learn, and who they connect with. To say we are excited for the future of this brand would be a shame to how we truly feel. We know we are going to change the world, and we need your help to do it. We hope that Ask Us Why lives in your closet, your bookshelf, and in your community as a tool and resource to edify you in Christ and change this world for the Kingdom.
Here's How You Can Get Involved
1. Support the brand. Check out our e-commerce store and find products you believe will encourage and help you in your walk with Jesus.
2. Stay connected via social media and email. Sign up to receive our emails (which we don't spam) and follow us on our social platforms to get involved and stay updated.
3. Share the brand. Tell those you love and know who we are and how we can help them in their walk with Jesus. There's nothing someone trusts more than a referral or word of mouth recommendation. Your words have the power to help us grow and exponentially.
God Bless.