You'll Never Walk Alone: Gospel Partnerships for Sustainable Ministry

Originally written for the musical Carousel, the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" has become the defining theme song of the Liverpool Football Club. With it's fame and popularity coming from a mixture of football legend and a resilient hope found in the midst of tragedy, "You'll Never Walk Alone" is sung before every game at Anfield, LFC's stadium. It's simple but powerful lyrics are enshrined in the iron gates at its entrance and written on the hearts of faithful Liverpool supporters.

These are the beloved lyrics:

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When you walk through a storm

Hold your head up high

And don't be afraid of the dark

At the end of a storm

There's a golden sky

And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind

Walk on through the rain

For your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on, walk on

With hope in your heart

And you'll never walk alone

You'll never walk alone

Walk on, walk on

With hope in your heart

And you'll never walk alone

You'll never walk alone

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In God's good design and in reflection of his own nature, we have been created for community. We're not meant to walk alone. God himself promises to never leave us or forsake us. In Psalm 139, David sings back to the Lord of his everlasting presence with us. He lists places and situations that seem distant and difficult where God's presence is unquestionably felt. And in John 14 Jesus even promises to send us his Spirit that dwells with us and in us.

Not only does the Lord promise to always be with us, but he has created us for relationships with one another. He has formed the church to be missional communities for mutual encouragement, growth, and blessing. With the common ground of reliance and faith in the Gospel of Christ, churches should be places of partnership, fellowship, and participation. In the church there is true belonging, vulnerability, and sharing of both joys and sorrows alike.

God has given us the gift of the church so that as we pursue Christ, we never walk alone. We are unified by our hope found not in a football club, a culture, a birthplace, a race, or a language, but only in Jesus our savior.

As we get closer to our life and ministry beginning in Liverpool, we are leaning on these truths.

The song highlights the need for friendship, other people who spur us on and remind us of the truth. We need the kind of gospel partnerships that Paul describes in Philippians 4, with love and longing, joy and bearing of each other's burdens, mutual giving and receiving, and genuine care and concern.

In the process of support raising, we have become acutely aware of our natural tendency to be self-reliant. We don't want to need anyone's help. We are more comfortable if we don't have to ask for assistance and can just do things on our own.

But the Lord has used this season in our lives to work on breaking us of our self-reliance and to now rely on a larger community. God is using his people to do his work in our lives for his glory. Not only are we blessed, encouraged, and sustained in our mission and ministry through these gospel partnerships, but we also seek to be a blessing, to be encouragers, and to help sustain those partnered with us.

We are so excited to build these partnerships with many of you and we look forward to sharing what the Lord accomplishes in Liverpool: news of your prayers for us being answered, the gospel being received, and lives being changed. We're excited to be caring for you as well, to regularly stay in touch with you and be praying for your needs.

We are thankful for a God who knows everything we need and has told us to simply ask him as our Father, and then receive in his timing. We are thankful for a God who promises to never leave us or forsake us, but rather fill us with his Spirit and surround us with community to sustain us for his purpose. We are thankful that because of Christ, we'll never walk alone.

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Philippians 1:3–6

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.