ABOUT
The Trustees
The Trustees of the John Paton Foundation are:
Rev Martin Ayers (Chair)
Miss Amy Wicks
Dr Andy Gemmill
Dr Nicola Hall
Rev James Lapping
Miss Katie Howard
Mr Martin Brandmeier
The Administrator and Treasurer of the Foundation is Mr Roderick Maciver.
The John Paton Foundation is a Scottish Charity, registered as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation with the Scottish Charity Regulator. Its Charity Number is SC049285.
THE VISION BEHIND THE FOUNDATION
The Conviction of the Founding Trustees of The John Paton Foundation is that God is building His Kingdom in the world today through the faithful, prayerful scattering of the word of God, as taught by Jesus in his parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20). Jesus therefore commanded his followers, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:37-38).
In Glasgow, and across the west of Scotland, there is a great need for a fresh explosion of Biblically faithful, prayerfully dependent, missional, Christ-centred ministry. But the stark reality is that one fo the barriers to meeting that need is a lack of available financial support, to train up and support gospel workers, to resource church workers, and to pump-prime church planting initiatives.
To this extent the aim of the John Paton Foundation, working primarily alongside St Silas church, is to fund and support those training for ministry, working in ministry, and planting churches, for the salvation of many, to the glory of the name of Jesus Christ.
JOHN PATON
John Paton (1824-1907) was born and raised in Dumfriesshire, Scotland to devout, working-class parents. Arriving in Glasgow for ministry training, Paton was initially struck down by ill health, due to his deprivations. A friend with whom he trained never fully recovered from illness on account of the hardships they endured to train for ministry in Glasgow.
John Paton went on to find enormous success in leading Bible classes with the Glasgow City Mission, attended by many hundreds of ordinary people in the city. But at the height of this ministry, Paton stepped away from it to become a missionary to the New Hebrides, what is today called ‘Vanuatu’, in the South Pacific. Paton remained almost his entire life in Vanuatu, and after years of severe hardship and steady progress, the Lord blessed his mission with an abundant harvest. Paton saw the entire island of Aniwa turn to Christ. Years later he wrote, “I claimed Aniwa for Jesus, and by the grace of God Aniwa now worships at the Saviours feet”.
Through all of this Paton set out clearly that the motivation for his sufferings, and ministry, was the joy of glory, found in the love of his saviour, Jesus: “At the moment when I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannabilism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemers love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well-nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself.”