What Love1614 Actually Sells (And Why It Is Not Really About the Shirts)

If you found Love1614 for the first time today, here is what you would see: shirts, hoodies, mugs, tumblers, candles, ornaments, stockings, books, devotionals, journals, and a coloring book. A Christian lifestyle brand with a growing catalog and a Bible verse in the name.

That is what it looks like on the surface. And the surface is fine. The products are real, they are well made, and I stand behind every one of them.

But that is not what we actually sell.

What Love1614 actually sells is a conversation starter. Every product we make, every piece of apparel, every book, every journal, every mug sitting on someone's desk at work, exists for one purpose: to open a door that most people do not know how to open on their own.

A conversation about faith.

Not a sermon. Not a pitch. Not a tract left on a restaurant table. A real, honest, human conversation between two people about something that matters.

That is what this brand is for. That is why it exists. And if you stick with me for a few minutes, I will tell you how it started and why it works the way it does.

Where the Name Comes From

Love1614 is not a random number. It is a verse.

1 Corinthians 16:14: "Let all that you do be done in love."

That verse is the foundation of everything. Not as a slogan, but as a filter. Before anything gets made, before anything gets published, before anything goes on the website, it has to pass one question: does this reflect love?

Not the soft, vague, greeting-card version of love. The real kind. The kind that tells you the truth when you need to hear it. The kind that shows up when it is inconvenient. The kind that puts someone else's good above your own comfort. The kind that Jesus demonstrated, with His hands and His life, not just His words.

That is the love in 1 Corinthians 16:14. And that is the love behind everything Love1614 makes.

If you want the full origin story, including the ocean baptism in Long Beach that started all of it, read Why Love1614. But the short version is this: God changed my life. Not in a dramatic Hollywood way. In a slow, honest, painful, beautiful way. And when He did, I could not keep it to myself. I tried. It did not work. The story kept leaking out. Eventually I stopped trying to contain it and started building something around it.

That something is Love1614.

Why the Shirts Matter More Than You Think

Let me start with the apparel, because it is usually the first thing people see, and it is the product line that most clearly embodies the mission.

A Love1614 shirt is not decoration. It is a conversation waiting to happen.

Take the Not Perfect, Just Forgiven tee. Six words. No explanation needed. But those six words on your chest do something you cannot do with your mouth: they invite a question without any awkwardness. Someone reads it in the grocery store and nods. Someone at the gym asks, "What does that mean to you?" Someone at a family dinner sees it and finally has an opening to talk about something they have been thinking about for months.

You did not force the conversation. You did not corner anyone. You just wore a shirt. And the shirt did the work.

The Psalm 23 Hoodie does the same thing on a different level. Someone sees the text and asks about it. Maybe they know the psalm. Maybe they do not. Either way, now you are in a conversation about the Shepherd who walks through the valley with you, and you did not have to figure out how to bring it up. The hoodie did.

That is what I mean when I say we sell conversation starters. Every design in the Love1614 apparel line carries a piece of Scripture or a statement of faith that is specific enough to mean something and clear enough to invite a question. Letting your light shine does not always look like a sermon. Sometimes it looks like a hoodie.

Even the shipping tells the story. Every order ships at a flat rate of $3.16, a nod to John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son." It is a small detail. But the small details are where a brand becomes something more than a store.

Why the Books Exist

The books came from a different place than the apparel, but they serve the same mission.

Deep Water: When Strong Runs Out ↗ is the book I wrote when my life fell apart and God put it back together. It is not a theology book. It is not a self-help book. It is a real, honest story about drowning, about reaching the end of your own strength, and about finding out that God was there the whole time, waiting for you to stop pretending you could handle it alone.

I wrote it because I needed someone to say that to me when I was in the middle of it, and nobody did. So I said it to the page, and the page became a book, and the book became a door. People read it and reach out. They say, "I thought I was the only one." They say, "How did you know what I was going through?" They start talking about things they have been carrying alone for years.

That is a conversation. A real one. And it started because someone picked up a book.

The devotionals serve the same purpose in a different rhythm. Do Everything in Love ↗ is 365 daily readings, one for every day of the year, designed to keep you connected to Scripture and to the God behind it. Stand Firm ↗ does the same thing specifically for men, because most devotionals are not built for the way men process faith, and that gap matters.

These are not just products. They are daily touchpoints. Five minutes in the morning with a cup of coffee and a page of Scripture. That rhythm, over time, changes how you see your life, your relationships, your purpose, and your God. And when that change happens, the conversations follow naturally. You do not have to force them. You just start talking about what you are reading, what you are learning, what is shifting in you. And people notice.

Why the Journals Exist

The journals might be the most personal products we make, because a journal is not something you read. It is something you fill.

After Amen ↗ is a prayer and listening journal with two columns on every page. One side for your prayer. One side for what you hear back. It was designed around a simple conviction: prayer is not a monologue. It is a conversation. And if you never leave space to listen, you are doing all the talking.

I have seen what happens when someone opens that journal for the first time and realizes they have never actually listened after they prayed. That realization, that moment of "wait, I can hear from God?", starts a conversation between them and God that changes everything. And then it starts conversations with the people around them, because when God shows up in your prayer life, you cannot help but talk about it.

The gratitude journals, the prayer journals, the legacy journals, they all do the same thing in different ways. They give people a space to be honest with God and with themselves. And honesty is where every meaningful conversation starts.

Why Meaningful Christian Gifts Are Hard to Find

Here is something I noticed before I ever started Love1614. Finding a meaningful Christian gift is surprisingly hard.

Walk into most Christian bookstores or browse most Christian gift websites, and what do you find? Generic products with Bible verses slapped on them. Mass-produced mugs with cursive fonts. Decorative items that look nice on a shelf but do not do anything. Items that say "Christian" but do not feel personal, intentional, or real.

There is nothing wrong with those products. But there is a gap between "this has a Bible verse on it" and "this is something that will actually matter to the person who receives it." That gap is where Love1614 lives.

When you give someone a Love1614 product, you are not giving them a thing. You are giving them an entry point. A hoodie that starts a conversation at work. A book that meets them in the middle of a hard season. A journal that changes how they pray. A devotional that gives them five minutes with God every morning for a year.

Those are meaningful Christian gifts. Not because they are expensive or fancy, but because they do something. They create a moment. They open a door. They give the person who receives them a reason to engage with their faith in a way that a decorative plaque on the wall never will.

If you are shopping for someone right now, the Christian gifts for men guide and the Christian Christmas gift guide break it down by person and budget. But the principle behind every recommendation is the same: give something that starts something.

What "Do Everything in Love" Actually Looks Like as a Business

Running a faith-based brand is not the same as running a ministry, and it is not the same as running a regular business. It lives somewhere in between, and the tension is constant.

We have to make money. That is not optional. Love1614 has to be profitable, because profitability is what allows the mission to continue and grow. If the brand does not sustain itself, it dies. And if it dies, the conversations stop.

But we also have to mean it. Every product, every post, every email, every interaction has to reflect the verse in the name. If we are telling people to "do everything in love" and then cutting corners, manipulating customers, using fake urgency, manufacturing guilt, or doing any of the things that give Christian businesses a bad reputation, then we are not just being bad at business. We are being hypocrites. And the world has enough of those.

So here is what "do everything in love" actually looks like when you are running a brand:

It means honest product descriptions. No fake reviews. No manipulated scarcity. No pressure tactics dressed up in spiritual language.

It means quality products. If a shirt is not something I would wear, it does not go in the store. If a book is not something I would read, it does not get published. If a journal is not something I would use, it does not get made.

It means pricing that respects people. Fair prices, transparent costs, and a shipping rate that makes you smile instead of wince.

It means content that gives before it asks. The blog, the devotionals, the social media posts, they all exist to provide real value, not just drive traffic to a checkout page. If someone reads every blog post on this site and never buys a single product, they should still walk away better than they came.

That is the standard. We do not always hit it perfectly. But it is the standard. And holding ourselves to it is the difference between a brand that lasts and one that burns out.

What We Are Building

Love1614 is in its early days. We are small. We are growing. We are figuring things out as we go, the same way any new brand does.

But the vision is clear: build a Christian lifestyle brand that becomes a platform for real conversations about faith. Not arguments. Not lectures. Not religious performance. Real, honest, one-person-at-a-time conversations that start because someone saw a shirt, read a book, opened a journal, or stumbled onto a blog post that said the thing they needed to hear.

Every shirt is a door. Every book is a bridge. Every journal is a space where someone gets honest with God for the first time. Every piece of content is an invitation to go deeper.

That is what Love1614 actually sells.

And if you are reading this, whether you have been following the brand since day one or you just found us five minutes ago, you are already part of it. Because the conversation has already started.

Welcome.

If you want to talk about your faith but you do not know where to begin, start with whatever feels true. A shirt that says what you believe. A book you give to a friend. A prayer you write in a journal you have never opened before. Start there. The rest will follow.

It always does.

"Let all that you do be done in love." - 1 Corinthians 16:14

Read next: Why Love1614? The Story Behind the Name