Celebrating 50 Years of God’s Faithfulness

We have hundreds of how God is using the Reformation study Bible. The merger bless and build his church and we are grateful for ministry partners for all the support for helping us to go this resources regularly to the ends of the world celebrating 50 years of God's faithfulness next on Renewing Your Mind will and welcome this special edition of Renewing Your Mind on the web. Some of you listening today. Your tuning into this program, perhaps for the very first time, we welcome you and there may be a handful of you who go all the way back to the very founding of this ministry there in the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania. It was 1971 when RC and Vesta scroll found in the leg inner Valley study center so this year has been an important milestone for us here at your ministries pleased to be joined by Pres. and CEO Chris Larson.

What are your thoughts is as we approach years in as you reflect on the last 50 years we we are praising God for what he has done and is presently doing. We are deeply encouraged by the ministry impact that licking or has continued to have and I would even say has multiplied its impact even in the few years since Dr. Spruill went home to be with the Lord. We planned and prayed for this season. Prior to his death, and I know that the fruit that we have seen over the past several years, particularly in the international expansion is something that would greatly encourage him as we have sought to simply remain true to our founding principles and our founding focus not drifting as so many seem to be doing in these days we give thanks to God for his faithfulness and preserving us and keeping us and blessing the teaching that comes through Renewing Your Mind and all of her other outreaches. Chris how do you account for this growing interest if the blessing of God living.

I believe God's people are seeking truth and they are seeking trusted teaching and as I just mentioned. This is a day of great defection from the truth. And so for ministry likely near we have stayed focused on teaching the word of God and nothing else new opinions of ours are sufficient.

Instead, it is God's opinion that matters in their shifting sands today. Everywhere we look in society and Christians are looking and returning, I believe, to those foundational principles of the word of God and so we bring doctrine, which provides Christians confidence clarity and courage so that they can hold fast the confession of their hope without wavering.

Just as the author of Hebrews writes as I mentioned at the beginning, there may be those listening right now her tuning in for the very first time were relatively new to the ministry if you will take us back to 1971 and the I know this is a question many people ask you what is illegal here. That is a good question play. What is a link near to answer that I want to take us back to when Dr. Spruill was a college professor.

In fact, it was just a few weeks ago that Dr. Steven Nichols sat down here in the studio with Vesta scroll Dr. scroll's wife and he found a syllabus from those early days when he was a college professor listen to this clip, you know, I found something Vesta actually you sent to me.

It was an old syllabus from his contemporary theology course taught fall term, 1967 by Prof. Robert scroll and had something in its final note, classroom procedures, and he says I enjoy a casual and informal atmosphere in the classroom. Freewheeling debate and questioning is welcomed.

He must've just so enjoyed interacting with students about that material to make sure they were really gal exactly so much that he has one more thing here.

He says that. Also I would like to personally invite any student who so wishes to make arrangements to visit me my home and then he gives his home telephone number in the syllabus and then he gives his address so I'm assuming these Gordon students came over for cookies and that college campus and Gordon seminary where on the same campus and because people had cars in silence that we have a lot of interaction with college students sending prayer meetings question and answers cookies all that kind of thing recurring theme CF you know as I'm listening to talk, it sounds like this is actually the beginnings of the leg inner Valley study center. It's funny you say Pat because Iris casts thinking about the people that came to our house at Gordon and at Westminster were students who were series statements and all that and so we thought when we started this study center we not get so much. This would be no problem to have people coming into our homes and wrapped to keep the study center. We hope that our listeners get a sense of Mrs. roles enthusiasm for the ongoing work of looking here and just that simple idea of helping Christians to have a place that they can turn to to find trusted biblical and theological answers and giving them encouragement for how they are to live and walk before the Lord.

Chris, in your role as president. I know that you met with RC and Vesta every weekend. I know you use that opportunity to ask RC questions, but there was always one question that he would ask you what is that that's exactly rightly, he would ask. Usually after we would finish some significant ministry milestone in and week with thanks to God. Things had gone well, and I give them a report on that and we would talk about it for maybe three or four minutes and then he would just kind of stop and say okay what's next.

He was always wanting to move forward. He knew that any ministry any organization that was not focused on growing in its service was really just being idle and stationary and resting on past accomplishments and so while this year we have been giving thanks for 50 years of ministry. It's really thinking about what's happened this year the lives that have been impacted now as we seek to think about how we are going to serve in the next 50 years. So we draw strength from the past, but we don't stay there. There's not some golden age that we look back to. Instead, we are always pressing forward and I loved how RC just turned her eyes towards the horizon and there are so many new vistas of ministry opportunity that are opening to us and I'd I wish we had enough time to talk about all of those I know you you use this expression before. But do you you're quick to say we are not a museum ministry where were always while we cherish the past and what God is done were always looking ahead and you all produced a graph that is truly astonishing that shows just how many people we have reached over the last year and am projections. Looking ahead, that's rightly just looking into the studio is our VP of ministry engagement. I think it be better for Nathan Bingham to give our listeners just a sense of the growth of the ministry as well as the ways that their support has been used over the past year. That's right. It really is encouraging.

If we think back to 2020. I want to set some context for a listeners last year we reached a new high watermark for the ministry reaching just over 25 million people and that's thanks to your generous support of the ministry will already in 2021 leader ministries has reached over 50 million people. So thanks to your gifts. That's more than double the reach of 2020 as we look at these trends, it appears that we will reach more people in the next five years. That, in the pasta 50 years combined know when you say reach what is at work like what is that mean, really, honestly, it's a conservative number but it is the number of people we can confidently say that teaching material from Lincoln and ministries has been put in front of this reminds me Nathan of a conversation I had with Dr. scroll. I think this was in 2012 and I was trying to draw out of him. His vision for the future of looking at ministries and I asked him your 25 years from now where you want to see leader ministries.

Let's play this clip from Dr. Spruill, the vast majority of people over estimate what they can accomplish in one year. Whenever one year plan, and at the same time vastly underestimate what can be accomplished in five years and so the trajectory that legionnaires on of the Lord Terry's 25 years from now if legionnaires faithful to its foundations and I believe it will be that we should have ourselves in the middle of the worldwide renewal of the reformed faith that we can't even begin to anticipate from this perspective today and that growth dear listeners that you just heard from Nathan is happening and really is your prayerful support for looking at ministries and all of our many outreaches that the Lord is using to reach more people. Millions of people each month. Nathan I know there's other ways that our listeners support is being used. That's right, Chris, and it's it's not just in English. When we think about international outreach.

We look at 20, 21, and because of the increase in support from from our listeners, and other ministry friends around the world. I'm pleased to report that our international outreach team this year will have translated more than 7.3 million words of Bible teaching in 26 languages and just so you understand that's 143% increase over 2020 amazing and I many of you joined us back in spring for a national conference and it was a wonderful weekend of a fellowship and teaching together with the live stream about national conference. Thanks to your support was able to reach over 200,000 people around the world. Nobles are particularly encouraged by all ask legionnaires chat service you're supporting a team of agents that standby 24 hours a day six days a week to answer biblical and theological questions from Christians and unbelievers alike around the world and this year, that team will have answered over 75,000 questions and these live chats that the take 10 minutes to complete and you're fueling that through your generosity will launch two new dedicated language websites at one in Hindi and other in Portuguese. Making legionnaires teaching material available to do even more people. I'm sure many of you heard recently, we move the goalposts for our study Bibles for Africa campaign now seeking to distribute hundred thousand Reformation study Bibles to pastors and church leaders throughout Africa by 2028. I want to know you will be so encouraged by is the Lord's work through out always ready youth conference. This year we hosted two of those events. So just imagine this hundreds of teenagers gathered together early on a Saturday morning so that they can hear God's word faithfully taught and be equipped to better defend their faith and they go out from this this one day event back to their middle school and high school campuses. Is there even preparing to go to college. We just a grade of boldness to give an answer for the hope is within them obscene video of the last conference we had.

It's so encouraging to see the young people sitting in that audience.

Taking notes for eight hours on a Saturday that matches Dr. scroll's vision to flood the culture with knowledgeable and articulate Christians and that is so needed today so that Christians can stand with conviction upon the truth of God's word. Thank you Nathan so much for those updates Lee I don't know about you but I hope for our listeners that this just puts wind and all of our sales as we strive to continue to serve the Lord. Yes, we hear from from so many folks who phone and they write to us, we engage with them face-to-face at our conferences. Listen to what Josiah young student from Missouri had to say said God used Dr. scroll in my life to bring me to the foundational truths of Scripture as well as the ocean of reformed theology. By the way Josiah's pursuing pastoral ministry and he goes on to say I listen to Dr. scroll in my earbuds nearly every day.

Another ministry metric that just came across my desk the other day was how many inmates were being able to serve.

We've distributed over 10,000 resources to prisoners. We heard from Ruben who was an inmate and he wrote to thank our ministry supporters for the looking at resources that they enable to be sent to his correctional facility. He said I turned back as a leper prepared to give praise to God for using your ministry and were hearing those types of testimonies in the hundreds every month. And so we are continuing to invest in prison outreach God is doing a work.

We believe in these correctional facilities engineer can help. Then there's our Shama from Iran expressing his gratitude are Sean wrote this.

I'm so blessed. Now I can learn from the best reformed teachers of God's word and share these with my friends and family not keep in mind this is coming from a man in a Ron. He said these resources can prepare the next generation of Farsi speaking ministers we are dubbing Dr. scroll's teaching series, and many of her other teachers into Farsi and so many other languages and then broadcasting that through satellite television, as well as distributing them through the Internet some missiology this estimate that the church in Iran is the fastest growing evangelical church in the world and so there is another example of an awakening that we believe is underway and begin your can help. We can become discouraged and the state of the church.

When we look around the corner overlooking our own city and I do want to help our listeners to just lift up their eyes and recognize that the fields are white under harvest and we can pray that the Lord would raise up laborers to go into these fields and through a beautiful partnership with you, our listeners, we are there to serve God's people, these brothers and sisters in Christ Kurt serving in very difficult areas where they are persecuted and to be able to name the name of Jesus Christ and hold forth the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will sometimes cost them their life and they are willing to pay that cost. We want to be there to encourage them to serve them and help them to go. The next mile and that's where you are, listers, and if you been listening to us and are encouraged by what your hearing would you consider a year-end gift to later ministries so that we can continue this this growing outreach, not just here in the US, but around the world.

You can reach us by phone at 800-435-4343 but you can also find us online to get your gift@renewingyourmind.org lay out, go ahead and say this even more clearly for our listeners. Your gift of support for this ministry enables us to reach millions more people. I've been serving at legionnaire since 2004, and there's a time that I would've hesitated to make such a bold statement of outreach, but we know this outreach is happening this month and Lord willing, will happen next month and so that's why I said earlier were not just focused on the past. We are focused on the future and if the Lord Terry's can you just imagine the impact of getting reformed theological instruction to God's people around the world. Legionnaire is a supply line for Christians who are serving on the front lines and we can be there to help and so I would ask you to give generously and to pray, do not cease and praying for the word as it goes forth from this ministry do not have the privilege of being here at later ministries for the past eight years I have spent my entire professional career.

Prior to that in television journalism, but I can say that the greatest professional and personal reward for me has been to be the host of this radio program. Of the four years I had to sit across this table from Dr. scroll was a kindness of the Lord, that I will never be able to fully understand and so to hear from you. Are our listeners. The impact that this program is had on you as as Chris said earlier really put wind in our sales. Let's listen to a few of our listeners has really helped me with some of the more difficult questions and how to make a better understanding of the mystery of God and planning purposes and ways. Five.

My name is and 86 years old and I listen to our role in about 10 years. I first started listening to Renewing Your Mind. In 1990, and it made a big impact on our lives and we were in a church were being taught in holy best friend and we lose hope a lot, but every time I listen to Renewing Your Mind.

The Lord bring back reminding me that job. Cares for my family looking to renew your mind go shortly after my conversion on the local Christian radio station and per the last 20 years I've been enjoying Dr. scroll and I've been deeply moved and edified by the abundance of outstanding teaching, from Renewing Your Mind. Your and I Renewing Your Mind 12 years and I can't enough for hundred sermon. Listen to me, to Renewing Your Mind with late 2017 was actually the date Dr. scroll with the Lord. One of the things I appreciate about this minute that he gave me a better understanding of the grace I struggle with high functioning autism comprehension. This program has actually been an incredible help me all that God, thank you for standing. Well, that is such an encouragement to ascend recently one of my colleagues here at later ministries a manual, but chances stop by the studio to give us an update on what's going on with our outreach to the Spanish-speaking world go to the apostle Colby from Columbia and he said many 25 years ago a friend of mine recommended the holdings of God to me and I was in seminary and I thought that I didn't meet them now because of the pandemic.

I went back to it and I started it I saw that video so you guys have I started with the study guide and now I repent for impact payment things and my friend 25 years ago. What would welcome them of my ministry if I would've paid attention back then and it also was crying so I share those testimonies all the time.

There's a hunger and I've been regular for God and his word. People need and are desperately looking for sound doctrine resources. That's why I love the work that week by the grace of God and the support of our ministry partners. We get to do here at legionnaire last year.

For example, in September will release the Spanish edition of the Reformation study Bible levy. Most of the reform and so far we have distributed over 40,000 Bibles across Latin America and Europe and we have hundreds of testimonies of how God is using the Reformation study Bible, and Latin America glass and build his church and we are grateful to our ministry partners for all the support for helping us to go this resources regularly to the ends of the world. Again that's Emmanuel Matanzas who is involved in our outreach to the Spanish-speaking world and Chris we are so encouraged by these reports that we just heard in were amazed at what God is doing through legionnaire Chris warily and hearing you say the ministry name again reminds me that I didn't actually answer your question earlier about what to look and hear what the simple answer is if the name of a town in western Pennsylvania near where the legionnaire Valley study center began but obviously it's much more than that. What started there in 1971 did not stay there and so what's a look and hear the answer is profound because you look at why we exist. Why do we exist. We exist to proclaim, teach, and defend the holiness of God and to do that to his many people as possible. That is been an unchanged fixed focus for this ministry for decades and it's given us staying power. When the culture is going crazy and the church in many ways is entertaining liberal notions and eroding its own confidence in the word of God and so we believe that it is essential for anyone you meet to know who God is. Now anyone could be people on the street or people in the church because Dr. scroll believed that that is the most essential thing that we can know as humans is to know who God is and who we are doctoral with teach from Isaiah 6 showing us that the Lord reveals himself to Isaiah and Albert listeners recall SRC would teach it that for the very first time in Isaiah's life. Isaiah knows who, Isaiah is and then there is an amazing turn in that passage, Isaiah is then called to proclaim the great and awesome name of God most high to his generation and we recognize as God's people that we are not redeemed so that we hoard the truth and bury our treasure. Rather, we are saved to spend to spend our lives for the sake of God and his righteous purposes in this world. Once we bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and we repent and we flee to him as our only righteousness. We then are propelled back into the world back to proclaim his holiness to as many people as possible in our greatest encouragement is when we meet people. Our Lord has reach with his truth and hear how it is being put into practice in their lives and that is why the mission of legionnaire indoors because just as the fundamental problem of the sinfulness of humanity remains God's word remains and it is relevant and it is piercing to the root of our deepest need. So our continued prayer is that legionnaire, through its many outreaches would be used by the Holy Spirit to equip you, dear listeners and generations to come to know the God of the Bible and by his grace that they would be used. To change the world. And that's precisely why we call this such a great reciprocity because you are listeners are, or where this is. We seek to proclaim and teach, and defend the holiness of God to as many people as possible so as we approach years and would you consider a generous financial gift later ministries give your phone number.

Once again it's 800-435-4343 if you prefer to give your gift online. You can go to Renewing Your Mind.org again it's 800-435-4343. The web address Renewing Your Mind.org Chris, thank you for being with us today Nathan. We appreciate your being with us as well.

We thank you for joining us today and we hope to see you right back here next time for Renewing Your Mind