About Us

About Rescued For Love

Rescued For Love is a Christian ministry headquartered in Tecumseh, Michigan. It was founded by Tom Minor and Yvonne Trout in the fall of 2014. It is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) Religious Corporation (Organization) for the purpose of spreading the gospel of the rescue of God through Jesus in a way that demonstrates the love of God.

Our core message is that we do not have the power to please God. He has the power and is pursuing each of us to give up our rebellion and let Him come into our life that our character might flow from His. For that reason, we do not merely moralize, as if we have the power to be good enough for God. We advocate giving up our right to ourselves, embracing our helplessness and turning to Jesus to bring us into a walk with Him. For that reason, we identify with the sinner because, but for the presence of God we also are sinners. We do not judge but attempt to tell how Jesus draws all people. whose lives are bound for destruction, to Himself.

Board of Directors:

Tom Minor: President

Tom retired from a career in manufacturing companies as an information systems manager and then a consultant for a manufacturing software organization. He has always been in a writing and teaching position in the industrial sector and church and has done lay speaking for most of his adult life beginning as a teenager. After retirement, he first earned a certificate in apologetics from Biola University and then a Master’s Degree in apologetics from Luther Rice University and Seminary. Theology and defending the faith was always an avocation which included a lifetime of study.

Yvonne Trout: Secretary/Treasurer

Yvonne retired from Banking as a Retail Operations Manager. She has taught Sunday school for over 25 years along with teaching many Bible Studies and one-on-one mentoring. She has been the Treasurer of her Church for six years. She is a good administrator, and she is a person who gets things done. She also teaches in our discussion groups and is an active part of our witness team.

 

Jerry Coleman: Board Member

Jerry is an elder in the Free Methodist Church and a graduate of Asbury Seminary in Wilmore Kentucky. He is presently the Director of International Ministries and Evangelists for the Francis Asbury Society. He spent 17 years as a Free Methodist missionary before taking this position. Over 20 years ago, he was dropped into Hungary without knowing the language and told to start a church, which he did. Subsequently, the Free Methodist Church promoted him to the position of European Director of Missions. In his present position with the Francis Asbury Society, he travels extensively to several continents in supporting churches through seminars, training, and speaking engagements. He brings us his experience in starting and sustaining a ministry with practical and missional advice, speaks to our discussion group and brings to each of us a sense of the presence of Jesus.

See Francis Asbury Society.

See Jerry and Jan’s story to learn how a missionary can start from nothing do what he has done.
Melinda Minor:

Melinda is a retired pharmacist and wife of Tom. She is an accomplished piano player and has an eye for what looks good and sounds good. She is in a support role and provides practical feedback to our plans. She is also a witness on our team.

 

 

Our Purpose:

Our purpose is to spread the story of the rescue by Jesus from all that destroys to a new life of love.

Our Vision:

Our vision is to tell as many people that we can meet or get to know of the love of God in Jesus to rescue them from all that destroys life, significance, and love.

Our Basic Message:

Most “good” people are not aware of their sins. If presented with a typical list of sins, such as murder, brawling, thievery, and sex outside of marriage, they probably do not do them. If we add our expanded list of drinking, smoking, cussing, and sleeping in on Sunday mornings, they probably do not care. Our position is that external sins are resulting sins. They result from the main sin which is: rebellion against God, practiced as self-serving. We read that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Not that love balances out sin, but that love does not produce the resulting sins. Also, we believe that no person can love unselfishly without the miracle of God’s love in Jesus. If this were not true, we would not need Jesus or the cross.

If we look at sin from the perspective of Jesus we see that putting self first, ignoring or hurting someone rather than helping them, impatience, gossiping, complaining, judging, punishing, controlling, self-power, self-defense, anger, condescension, and unforgiveness are the worse sins. Most people, even Christians, believe that some, if not most of these, are just part of being human. The problem is that these activities destroy ourselves and others and lead to the final destruction in Hell.

We believe that most people are aware that their life is not working. They seek fulfillment but do not find it, and they do not know why. Our beginning point is that in seeking fulfillment through self-effort, we are destructive and separated from God. Only God can rescue us from our rebellion and our destruction. All we can do is offer up ourselves, when Jesus knocks at our door, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our Approach:

We want to meet as many people as we can to listen to, distribute literature, and engage them in conversations about the love of Jesus in rescuing us from broken relationships (especially with Jesus) and the things that destroy so that He can provide each person with fulfillment in this life. We want, then, to engage a few people at a time in extended conversations that may include discussion groups, classes, and personal meetings.

We work toward presenting the good news of Jesus in a way that is appealing to the unchurched person. We do not compromise the gospel or the truth or the Biblical witness, but avoid Christian technical words that the common person does not understand.

Our Method of Discussion:

We, of course, believe that we are right as will each person who has an opposing view. However, we are willing and eager to listen to reasons to believe other views than our own, and it is our hope that others will have the same interest in listening. In the process of the conversations, it will be our prayer that the work of the Holy Spirit will be present and move each person, to some degree, in the direction of fellowship with Jesus.

We, not being God, are not qualified to judge other people’s sin nor do we engage in condemnation. We will not pressure people to change for us. Being good while serving self is like being a functional drunk. The first order of business is to recognize our rebellion and offer it up to God that the person of Jesus might come into the depth of our life. We view everyone as fellow sinners in need of Grace. Having received the Grace of God does not make us superior, it just makes us rescued. We are not ignorant concerning sin nor are we blind to the need of rescue in each unregenerate life. When we see sin in the lives of others, our reaction will be empathy because but for the grace of God, the presence of Jesus, we are also sinners.