(L to R: Richard Dawkins, Josh Timonen: In the Galapagos Islands)
by JOSH TIMONEN
“‘Jack of all trades, master of none.’ That’s what everyone thinks the saying is, but it’s not the full quote.”
I was having afternoon coffee with my friend Steven in Southern California, sometime in the mid-2000s. He was explaining to me the origin of this common phrase.
He continued: “The full quote from Shakespeare is actually ‘A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.’”
I was a twenty-something struggling musician in LA, building websites to pay bills, on the cusp of being swept into a new phase of life through a series of unlikely events, to promote atheism with Richard Dawkins.
Playing in bands meant I was creating music, album art, print materials and websites. I sharpened those skills because I couldn’t afford to pay anyone else to do them. I would always jokingly call myself a jack-of-all-trades, and it was good to hear the original quote wasn’t meant to be demeaning to such a person.
In 2006, I offered to build a website for Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist, and it wasn’t long before I also found myself filming and editing video, creating DVD art, designing t-shirts, logos (some that became popular atheist tattoos), stickers and a lot more. I built on many of those skills that got their start playing in bands, and I promoted atheism with Richard for several years starting with the release of his book The God Delusion, even receiving a book dedication for his 2010 book The Greatest Show on Earth.
But my relationship with Richard and his orbit of atheists went sour in 2010, and I thankfully exited that world. I spent a decade building software, primarily for the iPhone. I had a small company that created games and other apps, and then spent many years at large software corporations.
I had a spiritual wake-up call in 2020. A couple years later I found myself sitting down with Ray Comfort and his Living Waters podcast team to discuss my journey. Since then, my wife and I have been traveling across America, creating short documentaries for churches with Church Coach Ministries.
Over the last year, our small team created something completely new: Kingdom Quest Treasure Hunters. It touches just about every skill I’d built up over that past 2 decades, playing in bands, promoting atheism, building software, and filmmaking.
It’s a video series.
It’s software.
It’s a card game.
It’s church outreach.
God absolutely prepared me over the years, through seemingly unrelated redirects, to help make this outside-the-box creation a reality.
I’m extremely proud of what our very small team has been able to put together, and it speaks to the deep investment in church outreach that each of us feel is so critical in this moment.
Past methods of church outreach simply aren’t bearing much fruit. We need novel ways of reaching the lost and sharing the gospel, and we feel strongly that Kingdom Quest Treasure Hunters is the perfect tool for leveraging The Church’s resources today for more effective ministry.
It uses livestreams that churches have been uploading for years, and dusts them off for outreach. It reaches new people in local communities at businesses, restaurants and coffee shops that they’re already visiting. And it offers a novel conversation topic for Christians to evangelize in their workplaces and beyond. “I’m doing a treasure hunt, are you any good at riddles?”
Kingdom Quest Treasure Hunters provides a fun, fresh adventure video series that HAS A CORGI. Is there any more that needs to be said?
We are super excited to partner with your church to revitalize outreach in your community. We are all-in on Kingdom Quest Treasure Hunters, and we hope you see what we see: An opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission in an exciting new way, leveraging work your church has already done with its past livestreams, and using a fun adventure game in your community to engage and reach people for Christ.
Order today at:
KingdomQuestTreasureHunters.com