Following the election rout in November 2012, I wrote a column titled “Evangelicals Have a Big Decision to Make” that was featured in WND (WorldNetDaily).
CBN White House Correspondent David Brody, whom I didn’t know at the time, emailed and said he was guest-hosting the Glenn Beck Show in a couple of weeks in Dallas and wanted to interview me on the WND opinion piece. Since I’d never been on television before, I prayed about it and felt that the Lord said, “Go do it.”
At the end of the nine-minute interview, David Brody asked “What can evangelicals do?” (about the awful condition of the country). I responded:
“The 2008 Christian Book of the Year was by Dr. Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology. The chapter on the book of Judges is titled ‘The Gift of Warlords.’ We need spiritual men and women as candidates and elected officials, and spiritual men and women as political operatives and mechanics.”
In 2016, we had 200 pastors running for local office, including city council, school board, parks and recreation and more.
Pastors and churchgoers—forming the ekklesia—moving from meetinghouse to public square make up an essential component of America’s spiritual resurrection.
Ed Silvoso explains the reason for this: “Jesus did not state, ‘I will build My temple’ or ‘I will build My synagogue’, the two most prominent Jewish religious institutions at the time. Instead, He chose a secular entity first developed by the Greeks when He said, ‘I will build my ekklesia‘ [Gr. ekklesia—called-out ones] ‘and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against [them. Not the building].’ Matthew 16:18.”
In 2018, we had 300 pastors across the nation running for local office. Two years before, Pastor Rob McCoy of Godspeak Calvary Chapel Thousand Oaks had successfully run for city council. McCoy was sworn in as Mayor of Thousand Oaks on December 11, 2018.
American Renewal Project’s goal for 2020 is 1,000 pastors running for local office.
Our approach is two-pronged: First of all, by organizing Pastors and Pews events, serving as the transmission agent for voter registration, GOTV and voter guides through the leadership of the pastor to his local congregation. And additionally, by arranging the so-called ground game, consisting of knocking on low-propensity evangelical and pro-life Catholic Christian doors in order to get out the vote.
On Friday, March 1, 2019, we potentially add the second component. Jerry Falwell Jr. provides me with the opportunity to speak to 5,000 Liberty University students, trying to convince them to participate in the door-to-door ground games in battleground states in 2019-2020: Florida, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, among others.
For Millennials and Generation Z, this provides on-the-job training and a learning experience that teaches them a number of things:
• Learning to think on their feet.
• Defending biblical conservative values and issues where competition is fiercest, in the public square.
• Demonstrating faithfulness and diligence.
• Preparing them as the coming generations to take responsibility for the stewardship of America. It’s a small step, yet “small steps are often the beginning of great enterprise.”
Although the proof is in the eating of the pudding, Millennial and Generation Z Gideons and Rahabs are beginning to stand.
As we move forward, it will become apparent whether this is His deal and whether we are in His stride. Above all, we will demonstrate the Good Housekeeping seal of approval: the joy of the Spirit and the joy of the battle. Furthermore, we will observe His provision that God’s work done God’s way will never want for money.
Please include me in your prayers, asking Him to confirm that this is His deal.
