Dare we even suggest - why vote?

So I thought I could make it through this election season without blogging about it. Nearly.
Six days short of my goal.

But why?

Is it because I just discovered that attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund want pastors to endorse a candidate from the pulpit so they can engage in a legal challenge against the IRS rules taking it all the way to the Supreme Court to win the right for pastors to speak freely from the pulpit?
Is it because everyone else is talking about it so why don’t I join in?
Is it because prophetic speech about political stuff is an essential part of the Christian identity?
Is it because I’d prefer one candidate to win over the other?
Is it because some Christian's contributions to the debates are just downright unchristian and I’d like to disassociate my name from that sort of junk?

Maybe. To all of them.

Maybe the whole show has just got too much for me. We’ve gone crazy. Beyond the money, the rallies, the reality TV, the books about each candidate, the pundit’s thoughts, and the yard signs, the late-night comedian’s lines, and the latest polls – it’s begun to feel like a giant American Idol contest…..but the danger is there’s no Simon to tell us the truth.

Or perhaps there’s something else.

Why Vote?

Imagine standing in the pulpit the Sunday before the elections and daring to ask that question?

Some will jump to their feet and declare – we fought hard to win that right ..taking it back to running out the English and declaring constitutional independence.
Some might rise to their feet and declare that the civil rights struggle was about obtaining for everyone the right to vote.
Other will declare that democracy is American and America is Christian therefore you need to vote to be a good American and you need to vote to be a good Christian.

But I’m not even coming from that angle.

Why vote?

Maybe alongside whatever other reason we have for voting, we vote as some form of social action. In this election our voting could save lives – soldiers and unborn; our voting could feed the hungry; our voting could protect the environment; our voting could provide health care for needy people etc, etc.

This is my issue.
For too many Christians voting is the only form of social action they carry out. But it’s the weakest form, if not the most ineffective form. Christian social action is never secret, is never private, is never individual. It is never the action of public opinion. Christian social action is always communal, it is always public, it is always unpopular. More than that, and this is the biggest issue – Christian social action is not through the benevolence of the State or through majority opinion – it is through the sacrifice of the church and its people.

So ….we expect record voter turnout in this 2008 election – millions of them will be Christians.
Somehow, some way, prophetic pastor-leaders need to make sure that these same millions know that voting is not their social action.
Somehow, some way pastors need to delineate between political action and Christian social action. And if the surest way to delineate is to appeal to people not to vote – maybe you’ve done a greater good.

'Better Christians" go into Africa - that's just how it is.

Let’s stay away from guilt.
Let’s stay away from heart tugging photographs of starving AIDS ravaged children.
Let’s stay away from even Jesus’ teaching to go into all the world.
Let’s stay away from James’ exhortation to care for the orphans is pure religion.

Here’s something really interesting…….
As our church has begun to send dollars and people to Africa – our monthly giving has gone up!
As our church has taken big steps in being global and turning our focus to new continents and new countries – more and more people have begun to come to our church searching for faith!
As our church has devoted time and attention to people in need 10,000 miles away – our church has never been busier!
As our church has helped people connect with people beyond our borders – we’ve seen more doors open within our community to extend the Kingdom of God.

I love this about God.
You can’t out give Him; you can’t out work Him; you can’t out do Him.
The more you sow - it seems the more you reap.
The more you give – it seems the more you receive.
The more you go – the more He comes.

It changes how you lead a missional church.
Maybe becoming a missional church is not singularly focusing on reaching more lost people, but maybe it more about focusing on forming ‘better Christians’ than just ‘more Christian’.

If you’re only about making ‘more Christians’, you’ve shrunk the church down to a local organization concerned about the individual often for the sake of the church. But, if you aim to form ‘better Christians’, you’ve expanded the church to be a catalyst for the good of the world – concerned about both the individual and the world in which the individual exists.

‘Better Christians’ (to use a Brian McLaren phrase) are at the heart of church growth. Don’t take McLaren’s word for it; if you’re familiar at all with the Willowcreek REVEAL study – it says much the same thing. The heartbeat of a growing healthy church are not new converts or ‘more Christians’ – but ‘better Christians’. These are Christians that have a bigger view of the church, a bigger view of salvation, and a kingdom theology.
‘Better Christians’ take seriously the great commission.
‘Better Christians’ go beyond individualism to globalism.

So here’s a very practical invitation. Become a missional leader by becoming yourself a ‘better Christian’ – orphans, AIDS, poverty, Africa.
Some GHC churches are already involved in Nairobi, Kenya and can connect you and your church to incredible indigenous leaders doing incredible Kingdom work.
Join a GHC pastor next year in Africa to see the role you could lead your church to play in bringing the Kingdom of God to earth.

To explore this further email Pete Shaw at pete@CrossWalkNapa.org or myself at gilbert@reedleyfbc.com – both church web sites link you to videos and blogs about what’s happening. Worth checking out.

Grow a church through developing ‘better Christians.’