This April 2015, a portion of our giving will be set aside to support organizations who specialize in helping persecuted Christians and/or raising awareness about their situation and needs. As we honor the Ultimate Sacrifice of Jesus this month with Easter, let’s honor the ongoing sacrifices being made by Christians under persecution. Thank you for giving generously so that we can help out our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. See more below…
So… You might be seeing this logo or something like it popping up around the web. That’s because history often repeats itself, but with slight nuances. In the middle of the last century, Nazis used a gold star of David to mark Jewish people for mistreatment, seizure, and death in the 1930s & 1940s. Today, ISIS and other Islamic extremists are using the Arabic “N” equivalent to mark local Christians for the same type of persecution, leading to mistreatment, seizure, and death in parts of the Middle East. While persecution of Christians is actually quite common among Muslim-majority nations (even among USA allies like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and even in Turkey), the type of persecution being experienced by believers in ISIS-controlled areas is particularly brutal. The reality is that followers of Jesus have been persecuted from the very beginning and it shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus said in both Matthew (10:22) and in John (15:18) that the world would find reasons to hate on His followers.
But our brothers and sisters in Christ under persecution are not alone, nor are they forgotten. As a church living in the liberty and security of a free nation, the USA, we remember our persecuted family abroad. We do this by sending aid to them through organizations serving them. We pray for them. But also, we wear the same mark their enemies give them to shame and abuse them. Because ISIS and their kind aren’t just marking several thousand minority Christians in terrorist-controlled regions… they are marking as many as 2 BILLION people who claim to follow the same God, Jesus Christ. And our God hears our prayers and especially the prayers of His persecuted children.
Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. (Hebrews 13:3 NLT)
Please stand with Pathmakers as Pathmakers stands with our persecuted church family. Because we all bear the same mark. We are all…
Every year since our first meeting in 2011, Pathmakers Church has taken 10% of our giving each month to give to an organization doing some special work or an individual/family that has a special need. This is in addition to another 20%+ we take off the top to fund missions and meet local needs. Meaning, we’ve learned to get by on less than 70% of our donation income in order to meet more needs here and around the world.
We realize this is pretty peculiar. Churches tend to be known for constantly soliciting more donations to spend on themselves, not looking for ways to give to others. And you know what? That’s sad. It shouldn’t be peculiar. It should be what we’re known in our communities. So, we decided to be different. By God’s grace, we are leading the charge back to the kind of sacrificial generosity Jesus and the Apostles challenged us to make happen from the very beginning of the Church. We hope you’ll respond to that ancient Christian tradition of sacrifice and generosity as you give to God’s Kingdom through Pathmakers. Together, we can do some great good and bring more glory to God.