What’s in store for you this summer if you live in the northern hemisphere?
I imagine many of you will enjoy some refreshing time with your family. My family tries to do the same as school rhythms change, freeing up the children’s schedules.
Ligonier is also making plans this summer—plans of a different sort that will help determine the pace of our outreach through the end of 2024 and well into 2025. We’ll make some critical decisions soon as we seek to steward resources wisely and reach as many people as possible with God’s truth.
This makes the next few weeks a vital time for Ligonier. Just as Paul relied on a fellowship of faithful ministry friends committed to furthering the truth of the gospel, Ligonier relies on generous individuals, families, and churches joining this ministry in monthly sustaining support as we seek to serve believers worldwide.
Before June 30, would you prayerfully commit to becoming a Ministry Partner with a monthly donation to Ligonier? As our thanks for your faithful support, you’ll receive numerous exclusive benefits, including streaming access to our extensive teaching series library. Even if you cannot commit to a monthly donation at this time, your single gift by June 30 can be a difference maker.
The next few weeks are so crucial for Ligonier because of one of the core values that our beloved founder, Dr. R.C. Sproul, instilled in our ministry’s DNA. Our founder regularly called us to the importance of effectiveness and efficiency in our work. Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14–30 focuses on the importance of investing in the kingdom of God to gain a return. The servants who invested the master’s money and thereby gained a return were rewarded. The servant who did not invest wisely lost what he had.
The parable, R.C. would say, shows us God’s desire for His people to be as fruitful as possible. By God’s grace, Ligonier’s fruitfulness is a consequence of deploying God’s resources provided through Ministry Partners and other friends as effectively and efficiently as possible. Every day, Ligonier seeks for ways to steward your donations, furthering more sustainable global ministry. It’s a sacred trust to use your gifts to take this trusted teaching around the world, and we want to honor you and glorify God in it.
As part of this commitment to effectiveness and efficiency, the Ligonier Board of Directors, in consultation with the careful research of the management team, has changed our fiscal year’s end from December 31 to June 30. This aligns our financial year with Reformation Bible College’s academic year. It will also help with outreach budget forecasting.
As we look to the end of our current fiscal year and the midpoint of 2024, we also have an opportunity to reflect on how God has been at work through Ligonier’s Ministry Partners and the support of friends to renew minds and transform lives. It gives me great joy to provide you with just a few highlights:
Millions of people worldwide view Ligonier’s teaching series online and in the updated Ligonier app. When you become a Ministry Partner today, you’ll unlock an exclusive new benefit—streaming access to our library of more than 240 teaching series. You will also receive each month’s issue of Tabletalk magazine, a copy of the Reformation Study Bible, a special Message of the Month, and more.
We recently hosted our 2024 National Conference in Orlando. Thousands of people attended in person, with tens of thousands of others from around the world viewing the livestreamed sessions.
We’ve grown Ligonier’s publishing of books and teaching series that take students through Scripture and address critical issues facing the church today. Recent releases include Dr. Sproul’s book on the life of Joseph, our Field Guide on Gender and Sexuality, and Dr. Derek Thomas’ teaching series on the life of Peter. We’re also recording teaching series on Mark’s gospel, several lesser-known characters of the Bible, the book of Jude, and the first chapter of Romans for release in the months ahead.
We’re finishing plans for important Ligonier conferences overseas, including our Belfast Conference at the end of June and our Spanish-language conference in the Dominican Republic in October. Additional planning is underway for conferences in Singapore, the Philippines, and Australia.
Reformation Bible College continues to thrive. We expect a sizable incoming class of students on campus and in the school’s online certificate program. Additionally, many students have enrolled in the Reformed Classical Education minor, and RBC is set to launch a Career Development Program this fall.
Our Always Ready youth apologetics conferences aim to equip young people throughout North America to defend their faith in Christ and respond to the world’s untruth with God’s truth. We’ve already gathered with more than 2,200 teens in the U.S. and Canada this year, with several more conferences to come before year’s end.
We just launched a dedicated-language website in Bengali, making Ligonier resources available in the world’s seventh most-spoken language. Additionally, the Ligonier Statement on Christology is now available in the world’s top 20 languages, plus many others, as part of our endeavors to equip the global church with the truth of Christ.
We’re continuing to record and release new podcasts, including the latest season of Open Book with Drs. Stephen Nichols and Augustus Nicodemus Lopes.
This is only a glimpse of the discipleship resources that the prayerful, financial support of Ligonier’s Ministry Partners and other supporters make available to people worldwide who need the gospel accurately proclaimed. We regularly hear from people about the positive impact of our outreach on their lives. Writing from a correctional facility, Terry recently told us:
“I don’t know of any other ministry that stands on the all-sufficient and infallible Word of God like Ligonier does. I know the Lord will use your resources to help me become more of the man, father, and husband that I desire to become.”
May God confirm Terry’s hopes and strengthen His people around the world. Dr. Sproul was never interested in simply maintaining Ligonier’s outreach but also in growing our service to the church worldwide. In the Lord’s providence, we cannot do this without friends like you stepping forward to partner with us in the gospel.
When you commit to becoming a Ministry Partner before June 30 or provide a one-time gift, you will help set the stage for new strides in outreach over the next twelve months by God’s sustaining grace. Prayerfully consider joining this fellowship of the truth.
Thank you.
Ligonier Ministries