I’ve long said that I don’t want to make any income from this website because it’s a ministry, and I didn’t want to make money from ministry. I held to that even as money got tighter and tighter over all of last year. (I had a couple months worth of expenses in my emergency fund at the beginning of last year, but have almost no cushion right now.)
So I’ve been praying about my finances for a while, and a couple verses came to me last week: (It’s mid-January 2025 as I write this.)
Romans 16:1-2
- Now, I commend our sister Phoebe to you, (who’s also a servant of the church in Cenchrea)
- so you might receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and so you might stand by her in that matter if she needs you, for she also became a patroness of many, even of me myself.
That seems to indicate that Phoebe was not only a patron to Paul, but also to other Christians as well.
There’s also this:
Luke 8:1-3
- And it happened in the time just after, that He also was traveling city-by-city and village-by-village, proclaiming and announcing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him;
- also some women who were *cured from evil spirits and infirmities, including Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out;
- and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; and Susanna; and many other women who were providing supplies to them from the things they owned.
If you’ve read my article on patronage, you’ll recognize that these women were being patrons to Jesus by supporting Him. Paul certainly had at least one patron, and likely more. Given that, my objections to having patrons mostly disappeared.
So I talked to my wife and decided that we should pray about it for a few days. Only a few hours later, my wife had something happen that seemed like a clear “green light” from God. Then a teacher I semi-follow dropped a video that also spoke to this and reminded me of a few more verses. Those together seemed like clear direction.
So, I started a Patreon page.
Why?
Because money is tight enough that soon-ish, I’ll have to slow way down — potentially even stop — writing/research and translating to pay the bills.
Not yet, but soon-ish.
(For those who don’t know, I’m also translating the New Testament from Greek to English, and you can read what’s translated so far here.)
I’m hoping that a little extra income from Patreon will enable me to keep writing/researching for articles here, and also keep translating. If it ends up being a lot of extra income, I might be able to do this closer to full time. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to spend more time working on my translation of the Bible. (I’ve done ~75% of the New Testament so far, and I plan to start the Old Testament when I’ve finished the New.)
Anyway, IF you have the money (please don’t if you’re struggling financially), and IF you want to help, then you can find my Patreon page here.
To sweeten the pot and say thank you, I’ve attached a Discord server to the Patreon account, so if you want to chat (or even voice chat) with me and/or others, you can.
(Obviously I’ll still answer emails, but sometimes it takes a while.) I’ll likely also chat there regularly about the research I’m currently doing, or verses that are significant in the research. I work from home, so I’ll just leave a browser tab open for the BP discord in case someone wants to chat.
I’ll also probably release new articles to patrons early to get feedback before publishing them publicly here.
(In fact, I’ll probably publish the next part of my PSA series for patrons tomorrow or the next day, and then publish it here about a week later.)
For those who don’t want to support me (or want to but can’t), I completely understand, and I hope God blesses you richly through this website.
God Bless,
Berean Patriot
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