Gretchen stayed on task for God until the end. This was her last correspondence to us all: Her News Letter (with the new surge of ideas): Gretchen Passantino & Answers In Action need your financial support to continue providing & growing the best in answers for faith, the Bible, theology, Church history, & challenges to Christian faith. We need friends & brothers & sisters in Christ who will stand with us on a monthly basis of gifting ($25, $50, $100 or more) to move forward for the immediate ministry vision we see. This is the 40th year of fulltime Christian ministry for Gretchen Passantino, & the 29th year for Answers In Action. After the last 10 years of extraordinary testing, 2014-2015 is the year for reaching new heights of ministry & service. Answers In Action (AIA) is one of the oldest & most trusted Christian apologetics organizations in the nation. As AIA is revived, reorganized, & renewed, your financial support is absolutely essential. Many of you have been watching & benefiting from AIA & Gretchen Passantino’s new ministry status in previous months, all the more remarkable because AIA has not had non-profit IRS tax deductible status & Gretchen Passantino has had no salary. The ministry fruit has been enabled by the Lord’s provision through individuals’ Spirit-prompted gifting. Now is the time to take AIA to a new level of administrative & fiscal stability, including forming a new Administrative Board, new independent non-profit IRS tax-deductible status, & a budget & business plan to enable the new AIA vision. Our long-time advisory board, our pastoral supporters, & other long-time AIA encouragers share this vision. As our pastor shared with us bluntly, “On the one hand you have all of these wonderful opportunities for ministry & service. On the other hand, you can’t rub two pennies together. God wants to empower you to work for him, not for your supper.” The new AIA vision includes a completely new interactive website (a complement to AIA’s classic website), multi-media instructional tools, a discipleship & mentoring program, vigorous on-line presence, an apologetics focused academic institute, & much more visible ministry presence for Gretchen Passantino. Whether it is debunking false stories of religious or occult activity, distinguishing between faithful believers & heretics, defending the major orthodox streams of the Christian church, answering atheist arguments & objections, or demonstrating the trustworthiness of God’s revelation as preserved in the Bible, AIA & Gretchen Passantino have proven to be trustworthy sources. Over the last 10 years, Gretchen Passantino has experienced extraordinary tests of faith & truth, including the sudden death of her husband & ministry partner Bob Passantino, attacks of false accusations against herself & AIA, personal health problems from long-standing back injury, caring full-time for her frail aged mother, experiencing her own life-threatening health crisis, & her second husband, Pat Coburn’s, sudden death cardiac arrest & accompanying anoxic brain injury & continuing recovery. Many would have given up. Given up ministry. Given up faith. Given up hope. But God has brought Gretchen Passantino through the suffering & trials to a new season of restored health, ministry commitment, tested faith, & confident hope. This will be the best season of ministry in her life & the life of AIA. Many of you have followed her through this journey in personal friendship & ministry work, especially as she has candidly shared the journey of death, new life, & continuing recovery for her husband Pat Coburn. You know God has added something extraordinary to her already impressive experience & knowledge: a marriage between reason & faith, intellect & spirit, knowledge & involvement. She not only knows the answers, the answers have been worked into her life & ministry. AIA is already a newly vibrant & productive ministry with a wide range of activities & a strong on-line presence. E-publications, speaking, writing, broadcast interviews, teaching, mentoring, advising, & developing discipleship & ministry support programs are only some of what Gretchen Passantino & AIA are doing. Examples: Apologetics in the Book of Acts continuing Bible study; interviews on national audio broadcasts on current religious news issues; promotion of biblically based spiritual renewal for military veterans & other survivors of post-traumatic stress; defense of life on critical issues of life & death, medical ethics, & intrinsic human value; instruction for apologists preparing to debate atheists. It is time for AIA to “grow up” & become solidly grounded strategically, financially, & administratively so that Gretchen Passantino & the other Christian apologists God calls to work with AIA can focus their time & energy on direct ministry activities; not be distracted & limited by the business burden & underfunding. We need you to be a part of that growth. Please don’t let our current lack of non-profit status hold you back: (1) If you know & trust Gretchen Passantino & AIA, you don’t need the infamous IRS to tell you they’re trustworthy; (2) The amount of tax savings you miss is small compared to the substantial benefit of your gift to AIA; (3) AIA needs the funds to build the board, documents, applications, & business plan to achieve new independent non-profit tax deductible status so your future support becomes tax deductible. Please pray for Gretchen Passantino & AIA. Please prayerfully consider offering any specialty services you might have for AIA (one AIA supporter is donating his social media business services, others are giving professional counsel on board building, business planning, & non-profit status, etc.). Please prayerfully consider making a one time or monthly gift (either here through Go Fund Me or directly) to fund the new birth & growth of AIA. Please tell others about the new life of AIA, the enhanced ministry of Gretchen Passantino, & the many ways we can build, encourage, & defend the Body of Christ. Please join us in praying for God’s provision for Gretchen Passantino & AIA. gofundme/epd3wk
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 02:46:11 +0000