The purpose of Matthias Media (1 of 5)

My friend Brian, a Pastor in Virginia, gave me one of the kindest compliments I’ve received. “You’ve really given your life to getting other people’s materials into the hands of churches. I have a lot of respect for that.”

‘Life’ in this case, is the last twenty years of my life. This week, twenty years ago, Matthias Media North America started taking orders. I’m not too much of a person given to nostalgia but I can’t help but think so gratefully about that week because it was the culmination of so many things in my, then, 28-years of living. Purpose, ambition, career, ministry, identity - all coming together in ways, like the Lord so often works, that I never would have expected.

Some of my more cynical non-Christian friends say a similar thing differently. “You spend your life just selling books??” My oft-used comeback doesn’t really grab them. “Hey, now! We have studies, tracts and when we first started we sold MP3 CD’s.” If their response was an emoji, it would be: .

Why spend my life getting other people’s materials into the hands of churches? Why ‘sell books’? Why start something when there were then, and even more so now, plenty of resources to go around for all the people in North America?

I’ll be writing a few posts on this in the coming weeks. Not just to celebrate, though it is a great time to be thankful to God for using this tiny little Aussie-inspired ministry to do a whole lot here in North America. Wait- Aussie inspired? Yes- for those who may not know, Matthias Media grew out of the ministry of St Matthias Church in Sydney, Australia. The publishing ministry has been around since the late 1980s but with very little awareness in the United States prior to our US office opening in 2006. 

And so, more importantly than celebrating the past, I’m writing to share a hope for the future. The same motivation and action of why it started back then is the same that keeps us going. It is the reason that comes up all throughout the New Testament. In thinking about how and why I do what I do, I’ve been using 2 Corinthians 4:13 (quoting Psalm 116) “I believed, and so I spoke”. The ministry of Matthias Media existed then and exists now to persuade all Christians of the truth of God’s Word such that they believe so much that they can’t help but speak that powerful word to whomever they are in front of, wherever they are- in the home, in the world and in the fellowship of God’s people. 

This is exactly what happened to me when I first came in contact with the resources of Matthias Media and under the teaching of its founder, Phillip Jensen. I brought some Matthias resources home with me after a trip to England in 2000, and almost immediately ordered more. 

To keep what could be a long, gushing post short, here is how it happened:

• I started to believe that the gospel is much more than me being forgiven of my sins. (Though it is that and thank God for that!) It is a call on my life to abandon my ambitions and to follow the risen Lord Jesus into a new agenda for my entire life. This first came through understanding the gospel in Two Ways to Live and then later on in Tony Payne’s helpful resource The Course of Your Life. 
• I understood for the first time that the Bible is God’s story about Jesus Christ and that the Bible and thus my life is robustly Christocentric. I read that in Graeme Goldsworthy’s book Gospel and Kingdom and then saw it fleshed out in many of the Matthias Interactive Bible Studies (of note, Full of Promise, Beyond Eden, Search for Meaning, and News of the Hour)
• As I listened to faithful expositions of the Bible and the revolutionary call on my life in Phillip’s preaching, I realized that ministry is not something to do as a job but a life lived out in the entire world, no matter what my paid work would be. Later resources developed from that teaching came through The Thing Is and The Trellis and the Vine.

And so, I believed. I believe that these things are true, and so all of life needs to be seen through these ideas. I may have heard them at some point along the way growing up in the church. But, in this case, the way they were explained clearly from Scriptures and said with clarity and force made them undeniable. Compelled by belief I couldn’t help but take action to want others to believe as well.

And so, I wanted to speak. Not on my own, for I had nothing of note to add. But I wanted to speak to all my Christian friends (at that time, in seminary) and all the churches who would listen that having resources that help bring clear teaching on Scripture and the implications for all Christians on their lives was still very much needed. 

I will never say that you need Matthias Media resources to accomplish what I mentioned above. But I am unashamed to enthusiastically say (and even more than I was then!) that these resources are of the better ways to raise up more Christians who “believe and therefore speak” God’s life-changing Word to all in their midst. 

My hope is that you’ll continue to be compelled by the Gospel and enthused to want to speak it to all people in your midst and help all those people to do the same. And I hope you will keep the momentum going by supporting us to that end.

–Marty

Pay It Forward: Keep the momentum going!

As we look ahead to the next 20 years, we want to make it as easy as possible to get these resources into the hands of pastors, leaders, and friends who need them. If God has used our books in your life, you can now pass that blessing on to someone else.

Here is how it works:

1. Fill out the quick form with the name and address of a friend, pastor, or loved one.
2. Donate to cover the cost of a book bundle.
3. We’ll ship the bundle directly to their front door on your behalf.

Thank you for partnering with us in gospel work!