URGENT: Mere Orthodoxy Needs Your Help
Dear reader,
Pardon me if I dive right into the reason for this appeal without any formalities. As someone who is interested in the ministry of Mere Orthodoxy and benefited from the outstanding and formative thinking and writing that Mere O is known for, I need to let you know that we have an urgent need for your help. This is an SOS of sorts.
Over the past nine months, Mere Orthodoxy received two large gifts from one source, the largest ever given to this ministry (yes we are a non-profit ministry and publication). These gifts amounted to well over 50% of our annual operating costs.
So you can imagine our shock when we learned last week that those two gifts from the same source were not intended for us, but for another ministry and were inadvertently and mistakenly given to us, and we are being told that this money must be returned. You can imagine our dismay. We operate on a very, very small budget - perhaps the smallest of any publication of its kind in the world. So the loss of these funds is devastating.
It puts the livelihood of our editor-in-chief, Jake Meador and his family, in jeopardy and it calls into question whether or not we will be able to continue at all. At a minimum, it significantly delays our expansion plans which included adding to our leadership team and expanding our content, adding interactive elements for our readers, and widening our scope of influence.
We have no quarrel with returning the money since it was not intended for us, but this news came months after receiving the gifts (which were undesignated) and returning them will eliminate nearly all of our cash reserves. So we have a real urgency in replacing this money and expanding our donor base so that we can survive and thrive through this crushing setback. It has created a situation of immeasurable hardship and seemingly insurmountable challenge.
We believe Mere Orthodoxy is unique among all Christian publications and platforms, as it casts a positive, constructive vision for how to be the faithful people of God in a very challenging cultural moment that is likely to continue for a long time. Being faithful to the commands of our Lord and the values of the Kingdom of God in such times requires thoughtful, non-anxious, and biblical thinking on a broad range of subjects and ideas that we come face to face with in our culture. We have sought to be a voice for Christian renewal and resilience over the past almost two decades and we are on the verge of seeing that influence grow exponentially in the coming couple of years. With between 700,000 and a million readers a year, we believe we have the ear of leaders all across the Christian community. This voice, our thoughtful and faithful writing and podcasts, needs to continue and grow.
So I am asking you today, to step in and step up to help in our time of need. We need hundreds of our friends and readers to make a contribution today to secure a bright future for Mere Orthodoxy! I am reminded of It's a Wonderful Life and how George Bailey discovered in the darkest hour of his life that his friends had his back and stepped in to help, in large part because he had given so much to them. If you know yourself to be the beneficiary of the good work that Jake and the dozens of writers at Mere Orthodoxy have done over the past decades, now is the time to let your appreciation be shown and your support made known in a tangible way.
We need to hear from you in the next week. You can make a one-time contribution or pledge to give monthly for the next year. We need dozens of our friends who are able to make a gift of $500 or more. We need a couple of hundred additional friends to give gifts of $100 or whatever they are able to do. We are asking God to not only use our friends to replace this money that must be returned, but that through the generous support of hundreds of readers like you, we might actually be able to advance this work without delay.
Thank you for standing with Jake and Mere Orthodoxy! Thank you for reading our work and for being thoughtful in the ways you follow Christ in your life and work. And thank you for your prayerful and generous support of Mere Orthodoxy. Can I count on hearing from you this week?
And thank you from the bottom of our hearts for standing with us in our time of need!
May the blessings of God almighty be among you and remain with you always. Amen!
— Mark Kremer
For Jake and the Board of Directors