I really appreciate Josh Howerton for posting a second video(in as many weeks) about the need to quit ignoring politics from the pulpit. After witnessing the systemic and almost daily persecution of a local educator, I have changed my mind on politics in the pulpit. Until about a year ago, I preferred messages that were only Bible based with no outside examples.
The problem? Immediately when parishioners walk out the doors of their churches, they are facing a world which didn’t exist in that peaceful sanctuary just minutes ago. The world immediately confronts them and attempts to water down, misrepresent, and silence those who preach or live out the Gospel.
To be even more specific, the Christian people sitting in the pews of church are dealing with progressive policies in their workplaces which are anti-life and anti-Christ. The “middle” in American politics has moved significantly to the Left. The Gospel itself runs very counter to many laws and policies which are found in blue cities and blue states. Maybe there is a reason that blue states and blue cities have fewer active churches?
To ignore this in our Bible studies, churches, and professional conversations is leaving people undiscipled and unprepared for the world they face every….single…day. Jesus didn’t ignore what his disciples would face. He prepared them. He warned them. He gave them courage. He prayed for them. He walked with them. Then, he sent them into ministry and into places where things could get messy quickly.
I have listed a couple of quotes from the end of this podcast discussion with Josh Howerton, Josh McPherson, and Ryan Visconti. Please listen to the entire podcast.
I am looking out (and) trying to pastor to a people who are unable to flourish due to the weight of the bureaucracy and government on their backs….The state passed a law that said it it’s illegal for a teachers to share with parents that a child in a state school is expressing gender confusion or interest in their gender…What happens when half the men in your church leave and take their business and resources with them(due to an expected doubling of revenue taxes)?…They want to go somewhere where the state is not waging war on them. ~ Josh McPherson (State of Washington pastor)
If your church would be disrupted by clear, Biblical thinking that is a problem. You have to first ask, “What caused that problem and who caused that problem?” The thing that caused that lack of unity was unclear teaching. A lack of clarity allowed division to grow. ~Ryan Visconti (Phoenix pastor)
What modern progressivism does is it installs a plausibility structure that teaches people and emotionally calibrates them to view many good things as actually evil and many evil things as actually good which over time makes them view the church, Jesus, the Gospel and Christianity as bad guys and bad things . If you allow that to progress wherever you are, listen I love you, you are actively aiding the advance of things that will make the advance of the Gospel harder wherever you are. ~Josh Howerton (Texas pastor)
The three men in that video are preaching truth, and I don’t think it is any accident that they are baptizing people at rapid rates. I think this is because they are not afraid to preach and speak the truth of a strong Gospel message. They are sending their people out into the world prepared to reap a harvest for the Lord.
These men remind me in some ways of John the Baptist who rebuked Herod and his wife. They are preaching against egregious doctrine. Luke 3: 19-20 reads….
But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, 20Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.
Discover more from Rob's Innovation in Education Blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
