Weekend Reads: Supporting the spread of the gospel

Gospel Patrons: People Whose Generosity Changed the World (self-published, 2014) might seem aimed at an audience of wealthy people who are potential donors to good causes. The book’s author, John Rinehart, tells the stories of three influential people who supported major figures in the spread of the gospel:

Yet Rinehart’s story transcends wealth, noting that anyone can become a gospel patron. As he develops this excellent vision for ministry, he tells us we can all find gospel leaders and come alongside them with all kinds of gifts and resources. Money might be in the package, but equally important are gifts in music and writing or listening and prayer and business skills and assets.

In these short biographies, Rinehart shows how Monmouth backed Tyndale’s vision for Bible translation, first giving him a room in his house to work on his great translation project that helped fuel the Reformation in England. Monmouth also used his business connections and merchant ships to smuggle the New Testament back into England from Tyndale’s German printing site. And gospel patronage can be expensive on the suffering side of the ledger: Monmouth spent time in prison for helping Tyndale.

Lady Huntingdon assembled her wealthy and influential friends to hear Whitefield preach. Her friends were not inclined to go to Whitefield’s outdoor preaching for the common people, but they would accept an invitation to the Huntingdon home. She also built chapels for evangelical preachers who were not welcome in Church of England pulpits. The chapels, with evangelical pastors, became the churches for the thousands of people who were converted to Christ under Whitefield’s extraordinarily effective preaching.

“Together they persuaded many of England’s nobility that God was not a dull idea but a living Savior who could be known and felt,” Rinehart writes. “They reached into the unreached places of both England and America where there were no faithful churches and no gospel preachers.”

Thornton was a friend to Newton and would have him join the Thornton family’s vacations while supporting his early hymn publications. Like Lady Huntingdon, Thornton used his home for hospitality for the leadership class of England. He would invite what we might call the “establishment” to dinner, followed by preaching and teaching by Newton. Like Lady Huntingdon, Thornton also had authority to select pastors for certain churches he built, due to his social and financial stature. So he filled many pulpits with evangelical preaching at a time when most Church of England pastors were not preaching the gospel.

Newton later played a key role in the abolition of the British slave trade, advising a young member of Parliament, the recently converted William Wilberforce, to stay in Parliament, where he could do more good for Christ than give in to the pressures and temptations of another worldly calling, using the brother of Wilberforce’s aunt, John Thornton, as an example in how he had been effective in business.

Thornton’s influence as a gospel patron helped lay the groundwork for the Clapham Sect, which included Wilberforce and led to the abolition of slavery and helped extend a gospel influence in England for two generations into the 19th century.

After presenting these three biographies, Rinehart adds a chapter on the life of Christ and the good news of the gospel. He goes on to identify three aspects of gospel patronage: joyful giving, gospel proclamation, and personal involvement. Rinehart is not talking about big philanthropy, but Christian living.

“The titans of philanthropy will be remembered for giving to good causes; Gospel Patrons will be remembered for giving to eternal ones,” he writes. “Where philanthropists aim to nourish people’s bodies and train their minds, Gospel Patrons prioritize people’s souls. Gospel Patrons treat symptoms, but ultimately they go after the disease.”

Gospel patrons usually don’t make big headlines. They don’t worry about who gets the credit for their good works. They work behind the scenes to make other people successful. But Rinehart has done well to draw out attention to a way of life that we can all pursue.

“Let your heart be gripped by the one who died and gave Himself for you,” he concludes. “The world needs the glory of Jesus Christ to be revealed.”