I had someone pledge $150 per year for my Substack today, with a personal note to say how much they appreciate what I'm doing. I had someone sign up on Locals this week, pledging $200 per month for the effort. Another person wrote and asked to just donate to my church. Another person committed to ask his church board to start giving regularly.
All this to say I'm really encouraged. There seem to be a lot of folks who see what I'm trying to do and are willing to spend the resources to make future efforts of higher quality. I know it's frustrating on weeks like this one, when I'm not able to produce as much and my tech setup doesn't work as well. These kinks will get ironed out, I will convince people to come alongside me, and we will gain some ground in the conversation about what modern Methodism needs to look like.
Y'all know my heart. I'm not in this to get rich. I make more money than I need. I don't want nice things. I just want to build a muscular ministry to do a lot of amazing things for the glory of Christ my Savior. I plan to give an accounting of every dollar given at the end of the year so that y'all can see that I'm not pocketing any of this. I hope this is something that you can look back on and be really glad that you supported because it bore a lot of fruit and made some things possible that were not otherwise going to happen. I'm hopeful about the future, despite all of the signs that we are headed for a rough time. God is faithful. I'm really glad to have faithful friends to pray for and support me as I pour myself out for this faith tradition that I love.
Debra Baty is the head of Resources 4 Redemption, which is an effort aimed at spreading good information about sexual orientation and gender identity. She recently published an article about “sexual fluidity” and how it impacts our sanctification in Firebrand Magazine. It is a good piece, and Debra does worthy work. All believers in the West have to contend with the artificial ideas of the sexual revolution. There is nowhere we can go that these issues do not impact us. The only way out is through.
Debra has a personal story that is quite compelling. She is a trustworthy, thoughtful, and conscientious resource. All covenant Christian bodies need to know where they stand on these things, lest the evil one sow confusion. Now is the time to reflect upon these things. Days are coming when what we believe will be put to the test. If we have not prepared, then we cannot expect to prevail.
Resources 4 Redemption can be found at https://substack.com/@resources4redemption
If you would like to ...
I didn't realize until I finished this morning's live stream that it got cut off pretty early in the stream. It should have made me suspicious when the viewer count stayed the same and I wasn't getting any more comments. Anyway, I recorded the whole thing and have reposted it here for you. I'll clip up the two main portions and post them on YouTube later today. Sorry for the snafu, y'all. There was a small power surge and something about that threw Rumble off. Tomorrow should be normal. God bless you all!
The issue of identity, while being ubiquitous in our most divisive politics, is also central to the Christian concern. I wanted to speak to these things a bit for the sake of fellow believers who perhaps are not quite so sure how to navigate these things…
https://open.substack.com/pub/jeffreyrickman/p/the-harsh-reality-of-identity?r=17brpc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
No live stream this morning. Was up all night with a sinus infection and need to get in gear for annual conference session. I'll just plan on Monday. God bless you folks!
