Are You a Gospel Patron? Part 3
Editors note: The following was excerpted from Gospel Patrons by John Rinehart.
Personal Involvement
The third mark of a Gospel Patron is their deeply personal involvement in the work of the gospel. At its core, Gospel Patronage is about true partnerships. Gospel Patrons not only give money, they also give themselves. For Jesus’ Gospel Patrons, Mary, Joanna, and Susanna, this meant joining Him on His preaching tours. For other patrons I know, this looks like carving out time to visit the missionaries they support.
“It has been a life of joy and adventure,” said one patron. “And one of the investments we’ve made in our kids is to travel and let them see what God is doing.”
For you, personal involvement could mean a monthly meeting with the church planter you partner with to say, “Tell me about your work. How is it going? Where do you need help?” No doubt this kind of conversation happened when biblical patrons like Lydia and Gaius and Priscilla and Aquila came alongside the pastors and missionaries they hosted in their homes.
In the ultimate example of Gospel Patronage, we see that God came among us, walked our dusty streets, ate our food, and got personally involved in our lives. God invested Himself in the spread of the gospel. So should we.
The Real Business of Life
In 1963 a little book called The Master Plan of Evangelism surprised everyone when it went through more than sixty print runs and sold several million copies. In his conclusion, author Robert Coleman wrote, “The world is desperately seeking someone to follow. That they will follow someone is certain, but will that person know the way of Christ?”
The answer for much of our world is, “No, they don’t know the way of Christ.” They can’t follow Jesus because they’ve never heard the truth about Him. This is the case even in the countries most often considered “Christian nations.” Jason Mandryk, in His book Operation World, reports that “America’s massive cultural and social influence makes it the world’s greatest force for good and its greatest purveyor of sin. The American church needs revival.”
Of the United Kingdom, Mandryk writes, “The steep decline of organized Christianity in the UK is almost unparalleled in Europe. In England only 6% of people regularly attend church. The sense that all is not well pervades the country.”
Similar challenges are noted in Australia. “While over two-thirds of Australians identify themselves in some way as Christian, only 10% regularly attend church. Almost all mainline churches face stagnation or decline, and growth even among evangelicals has slowed.” When we zoom out to consider the rest of the world, researchers report the shocking truth that more than 7,000 people-groups have never heard of Jesus and have no one to tell them about Him. Almost three billion people cannot call upon the God who saves because they have never heard of Him. Unless someone goes to them, they will continue to worship and serve created things rather than the Creator God.
The world is waiting. Our God is calling. And the testimony of history’s great men is consistent. King Solomon said, “He who wins souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30). The prophet Daniel said, “Those who turn many to righteousness [will shine] like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). The Lord Jesus said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). The apostle Paul said, “I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). George Whitefield said, “My one design is to bring poor souls to Jesus Christ.” John Newton said, “To be useful to one soul is of more importance than the temporal prosperity of a whole nation.” Charles Spurgeon said, “Our great object of glorifying God is to be mainly achieved by the winning of souls. We must see souls born unto God.” C. S. Lewis said, “The glory of God, and, as our only means to glorifying Him, the salvation of human souls, is the real business of life.”
Faith & Finance Perspective:
Gospel Patrons have often gone unnoticed in the pages of Scripture and history, and perhaps that’s how it should be. They have carried the gospel forward in their generation. Will we continue to carry it in ours?
The good news is that gospel patronage is happening throughout the world. Over the past 137 years, through God’s empowerment, Alliance missionaries and gospel patrons have committed to “the real business of life” in ways that have yielded more than 6.3 million Alliance believers worshiping in 180 languages and dialects throughout the world today!
God is not done writing history. He has prepared a part for each of us to play. What is your role? Maybe He has called you to step into your church’s efforts to extend the hope of Jesus to those in your community who are going through hardship and have yet to experience His loving embrace. Maybe He has given you a burden for the last remaining hard places of the world where there is little or no gospel presence. Maybe He has led you to support a specific Alliance international worker or project.
Take some time to prayerfully seek God regarding your role. He may simply affirm you for your ongoing faithfulness to His purposes, or He may invite you into something new and unexpected amid our world's ever-evolving needs.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
- Isaiah 43:19