Get Out Of The Church Please

I am back from our Middle School winter retreat weekend. And just a tad tired. We had a great weekend. More on it later.

I saw on the news tonight that Mike Huckabeee spent the morning in a large evangelical church(Jerry Falwell's old church) trying to garner support for his campaign.

I saw Bill Clinton was doing the same thing this morning, joining a local congregation obviously stumping for Hillary.

So let's say you haven't stepped foot in a church in years. You find yourself broken and empty. Your family has fallen apart and you are to the point where you get on your face and say humbly, "I'll do anything to figure my life out." And you sense this gentle nudging to step into the safety of the local church and join others in your community seeking the same thing. And let's say today was they first day you followed through on this nudging. You gathering your pride up and swallowed it. So you show up and join a community of people searching for life in God, assembled to hear a prophetic word from the Spirit of God, and instead heard from Mike Huckabee... and Bill Clinton.

And if either one of those guys were there to humbly join in a communal expression of worship, that would be one thing. But they weren't. Because they used the stage up front to push their own ideas of who Jesus would vote for...

This is wrong on their part.

And it is wrong on the church's part.

This is why I am so proud that LCBC has worked hard at getting the message out that we are aggressively and intentionally non-partisan. We simply will never endorse someone. We will not back any initiative that has party ties.

Because I am not a Republican.
I am Christian.

I am not a Democrat.
I am a Christian.

I am first a foremost a citizen of the kingdom of God.
And any candidate that pushes for those things I believe advance this Kingdom, whether that person is a woman or man, Muslim or Jew, black or white, liberal or evangelical, Republican or Democrat, I will support that cause.

Because the cause of Christ is greater than any party line.

May we see a day come when we reserve the sacred space of the pulpit to hear from God, not presidential candidates.

By the way - This just in. I am watching a report as I type this about a new wave of younger Christians growing up and what they value.

This report said that only 40% of evangelicals under the age of 30 identify themselves as Republican. This is down from 55% a year ago.

My hope is that the Democrats didn't gain that 15%. I hope that 15% didn't just switch to the Democratic party. Rather, my hope is that there will be a report one day that says, 0% of Christians identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats.

Gotta hope for something.