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When Your Church Has Gotten Political and You Feel Out of Place · Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

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  Speak: All over the country. The same thing keeps happening. A
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  church gets political and people start slipping out the back.
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  Some stop coming and some leave for have watched whole
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  congregations split over who you voted for. Daniel Breed, a
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  pastor in Appleton, Wisconsin, had every reason to expect the
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  same. His church has voters from both parties in the same rows at
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  a time when that combination tends to detonate. The truth was,
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  Daniel had a plan for the political divide in his church.
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  It sounded like the last thing that would work. We'll come back
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  to what Daniel did, but first,
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  welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger.
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  Years ago, a couple of members in our church kept pushing me to
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  promote a political party from the platform. They wanted an
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  agenda preached from up there. I told them, "No. I'm not willing
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  to put politics above the gospel and what Jesus called us to do.
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  Now, don't get me wrong. I don't shy away from what Scripture
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  teaches about our moral and our ethical responsibilities, and
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  I'll preach on the issues our hearts for the world faces when
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  the text calls for it. Holding both at the same time in tension
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  means somebody's usually unsatisfied with me. I made
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  peace with that a long time ago. A lot of Christians are uneasy
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  about what their church has become. The sermons reference
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  political figures more than they used to. The small group
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  conversations assumes everybody in the room votes the same way,
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  and our church has tended to be that way in the past. So, bite
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  your tongue, or find yourself staying home more Sundays than
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  you used to. Before we go further, I want you to hear this.
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  Once you start listening for politics, you'll probably hear
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  it in places where it isn't intended. A pastor preaches a
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  passage about marriage or money. They preach on a subject that
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  happens to be in the news, and now it sounds like a campaign
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  speech, even though it was in the Scripture text all Both
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  things are happening in churches right now and part of the work
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  is telling them apart. Jesus prayed about this situation the
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  night before He died, or at least I believe that it may
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  speak toward this. John 17: 14, "I have given them your word,
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  and the world hates them because they do not belong to the world,
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  just as I do not belong to the world." Think about where He is.
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  This is hours before the cross, and He's praying for the people
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  He's leaving behind in a world He knows is hostile to them.
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  Everything He asks for here, He asks knowing they'll be on their
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  own by morning. Then look at the phrase, "Do not belong to the
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  world." The Greek is about where a person comes from and whose he
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  is. He's describing their citizenship, and He puts Himself
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  in the same category. Now, here's the verse I want you to
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  grab onto, the one right after it. Jesus says, "I'm not asking
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  you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe
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  from the evil He had the option. declined it on purpose. He could
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  have asked the Father to pull them out of a compromised
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  environment, and He declined it on purpose. What He asked for
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  was protection inside the political, social, and economic
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  milieu. So, if your plan has been to drift out the back.
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  Jesus already prayed against that plan. He asked for you to
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  be kept. Then read on to verse 17, where He asked the Father to
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  make them holy by His truth. The thing that keeps a believer
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  clean is the Word of God. And that's paramount, regardless of
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  the political temperature in the building. And stay with the
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  prayer to verse 21, because this is where it gets pointed. that
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  they would all be one, so that the world would believe that the
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  Father sent Him. The unity is the evidence. It's part of the
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  argument for Christ.
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  So, two things to do, and both of them are harder than leaving.
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  Pray for your pastor by name this week, and keep doing it.
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  They're getting pulled by people on both sides, probably. And
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  most of what that costs them you may never see. Then, have a
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  direct conversation with the leader you trust. Keep it
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  between the you. Tell them what you've been noticing, and ask
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  what they think. You may learn something about what they've
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  been handling. And instead of avoiding the subject, Daniel
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  started a class on it. Members share a meal together and then
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  talk openly about faith and politics, and about how people
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  who vote differently can still belong to the same church. He
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  wanted them to hear the gospel more clearly than the voices
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  telling them, "An election is the end of the world". Here's
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  what happened. In a stretch when churches everywhere were losing
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  people over politics, Daniel could say this: "Not one person
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  had his church over these issues, at least at the time when he
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  said this. People who voted opposite ways were still passing
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  the same communion plate. He got there without picking a side. By
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  keeping the Savior they share bigger than the politics they
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  don't." Daniel gave his own explanation for why it worked.
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  He credited the capital his congregation had already meaning
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  the years of ordinary life together that people hold
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  different opinions and stay. The class worked because the ground
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  was already prepared. That's the part most of us skip past. You
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  don't build that in an election year. You build it by being
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  someone's friend for a decade. Here's today's challenge. Pick
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  one person at your church who you're fairly sure votes the
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  other way, and do something ordinary with them this week.
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  Coffee or a phone call to ask about their grandkids. Chiefs of
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  all 10 years later. Then pray this over your church in your
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  own words that they would be one the way Jesus asked for it. And
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  remember where you're from. Your identity is in Christ before
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  it's in any country. And God is a long way bigger than whatever
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  is happening this month. Father, on Jesus' last night, he prayed
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  that we would be kept, and that we would be one. Thank you that
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  you didn't ask to take us out of a difficult world. For everybody
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  listening who's uneasy about where their church has become,
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  give them the courage for one direct conversation and the
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  grace to stay. Keep our love for bigger than our opinions about
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  anything else. In Jesus' name, amen. If you need prayer today,
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  I'd love to hear from you. You can leave me a voicemail at
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  dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail . I listen to every single one,
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  and it would be an honor to bring your name before the Lord.
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  Thanks for joining me on daily devotions for busy lives.
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  Remember, Jesus could have asked to take his people out of the
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  world, and he asked for something else. Pray for your
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  pastor and stay in the room. Come back next for more
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  encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth. Until
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  then, God bless, and have a great day.