Gospel Patrons | Training

gos·pel pa·trons , noun. 1. people who resource and come alongside others to help them proclaim the gospel.

“Our generation's greatest need is for history to be repeated.”

years ago,

God raised up William Tyndale an English preacher, and Humphrey Monmouth a wealthy cloth merchant, to steer their nation back to faith in Jesus Christ. They both had a part to play. Tyndale’s was to challenge a thousand year old tradition, the Latin Vulgate, and give 6 million English speakers their first English translation of the Bible. Monmouth funded Tyndale, strategized with him, and smuggled Bibles back into hostile England. Tyndale was later martyred on account of this work, but the fruit of their partnership birthed nothing short of a reformation that shook England and then the world.

years ago,

God joined a single-minded patroness, Lady Huntingdon, and a passionate preacher George Whitefield to revive a nation asleep to the gospel. Lady Huntingdon burned to use her connections and societal status to bring the rich doctrine of salvation to the aristocracy of England. She saw as Whitfield a strategic ally for this mission. Their partnership gave Whitfield a powerful preaching platform reaching Britain’s elite and allowing 80% of the American colonies to hear the gospel. Together, they fueled The Great Awakening.

years ago,

God brought together an English sailor turned cleric, John Newton, and one of the wealthiest businessmen in all of England, John Thornton, for the advancement of his kingdom. Newton played the part of a patriarch to England’s future church leaders, missionaries, and leading laymen, among them William Wilberforce. Thornton patroned the first 1,000 book print run of Newton’s hymns, causing us to have our most precious anthem “Amazing Grace”. Their partnership helped raise up two generations of preachers and shape the political and spiritual future of their nation.

Throughout history God has used partnerships to change the world. And he’s not done yet. There are stories still to be written and God has a part for you to play.
What’s your next move?

The one thing worth living for must be the proclaiming of the love of God to man in Jesus Christ. I am nothing—Christ is all. To behold the glory of such a Savior ought to make us breathe His praises from pole to pole. to preach Christ and His blessing upon repentance over the earth is the commission. May the Lord give us all such love, to live and die to Him alone. ”

―Lady Huntingdon