Parchment & Pen Blog

Friends of the Ministry,

I have been teaching theology for over a decade now. I have been focused on The Theology Program and Reclaiming the Mind Ministries for the last eight years. My passion and excitement about making theology accessible has not diminished in the slightest. Two days ago I taught on dispensationalism to 150 people. Last night, I taught on ”What are the Carnal Beliefs of the Christ faith” at the Credo House. Tonight, I will be teaching on Baptism and the Lord’s Supper to online students all over the world. This afternoon I taught a group of pastors on the issue of “God in the
Old Testament” and how to prepare for the coming (present) objections. Thursday I am giving tours at the Credo House, leading them through an illustrated walk of church history. Friday I am teaching a group of children on the teleological argument for the existence of God (oh yes, you heard right!). Oh, and then there is the blog I am planning on starting new series on both Calvinism and Dispensationalism.

Friends, I do believe that this is what I was called to do for the rest of my life. I am so grateful for your encouragement, prayers, and support over the years. Many of you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.

Let me give you another side to my life and ministry that I am progressively finding more difficult to bear in its current condition. Have you ever seen the comic where the preacher is standing outside the church saying, “Donate your money so that you can pay for us to keep asking you to donate your money”? Well, it is not exactly like
that, but over the last year, especially since the end of this summer, this is a description of how I feel. While I have many plans, including book requests from publishers, this situation has made it very difficult for me to concentrate on teaching, preparing, and moving the ministry forward. Every two weeks we have $15,000 worth of bills that have to be raised and I find myself sending out a series of “urgent” messages attempting to make up what is lacking.

I am completely committed to this ministry as long as the Lord allows. There is nothing else in the world I would rather do. In fact, I don’t really know any idea what I would do otherwise. There is nothing I am more qualified for.

However, I don’t feel that functioning in this “alarm” mentality is responsible or the Lord’s will. It is not responsible to those donating and it is not responsible to me or my family. Again, I am beginning to feel that I am getting paid concern myself with how to finance the ministry while the ministry suffers from lack of ministry! I hope you understand. I don’t think that any more than 10% of my time, thought, and energy should be focused on fund-raising and I don’t think we should exist in this “alarm” mentality. I can’t any more.

Therefore, I am making some decisions. As you may know, we are currently on a campaign to raise $250,000 worth of commitments every year. Our budget is $350,000 per year. Our store covers about 25% of that budget. If we are able to raise these commitments, then the ministry can move forward. If not, we will have to explore other options that will seriously change the current state and effectiveness of Reclaiming the Mind Ministries.

We need 250 people to commit to $1000 per year ($80 per month). Or we need just one person to commit to $250,000 per year! Either way, the result is the same! Any amount would be welcome. So far we have had committed $38,000.

Finally, we still have close to $15,000 worth of debt that we are behind on that needs to be covered immediately.

How to respond:

• Prayer. I don’t just say this as a formality. I truly ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord would guide us to his will.
• Monthly commitments. We need you to make you commitments here. Or you can email me with your intentions.
• One time donations. Those can be made here as well.

You can find out ministry here. This site provides access to our financial statements including our 990. We are a 501c3 not-for-profit.

I have to ask you all very directly, if you believe in this ministry or have benefited from it, please help keep it moving forward. I have utmost trust in the Lord’s sovereign guidance at this crucial turning point, but I feel it is important to let you know that this is a very serious message.

I thank all of you for your encouragement and I thank all of you who have already been partnering with us for so long. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to respond.

Michael Patton

michaelp at reclaimingthemind.org

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