Citizenship as Ministry

Para-church ministries have served vital and needed functions in many ways, from evangelism training, missions support, providing food, clothing and shelter to those in need and mobilizing Christians to be good citizens as well as many other areas of need.  Arguably, however, all of those ministries described are responsibilities of the church in general and each local church in particular. A nationally known Pastor and parachurch ministry leader said at a luncheon in Houston, Texas, “Any parachurch organization that does not have as its central purpose to empower the local church is a fraud.”  As both a pastor and leader of such an organization he feels strongly that God’s ordained institution to spread the Gospel and disciple the believers is the local church.

How does that overlay into citizenship?  If it is indeed a responsibility of each church equip its members for effective Christian service, it follows that a necessary element of that equipping must be godly citizenship.  As the spiritual head of each congregation, we believe that the Pastor must provide active, visible and consistent leadership in this area to validate it within the church, as well as to provide a prophetic voice of truth, integrity, justice and compassion to the world.  We have Foreign Mission Committees, Youth Ministries, Outreach Ministries, Music Ministries, Discipleship Ministries, etc.; we are suggesting that each church that has not already simply add Citizenship Ministry, Community Impact Ministry or whatever name they are comfortable with as another pastor-approved and church supported facet of church affairs.

Very little happens without effective leadership, and we suggest starting with the leaders whom God has called – the Pastors, Shepherds, or as we refer to them, God’s Generals.  The primary reason for forming a council is that without a team of Senior Pastors committed to working together toward specific and measurable objectives, very little if anything will change in the involvement level of the churches.

There are some essential steps to developing and sustaining an effective area Pastor Council that are very important.  The greatest challenge is simply overcoming the “herding cats” syndrome that keeps pastors in our separate “mini-kingdoms.  This is not a “cookie cutter”, one-size fits all approach, but rather some guidelines that will help avoid snares and maximize your possibility of building a strong team and have measurable impact.

(From "Mobilizing God's Generals" - a manual on bringing pastors together at the city level and creating church citizenship ministy teams)

Download "Mobilizing God's Generals"

Why Pastors Should Oppose Government Health Care

"Red Tape health care" is Unbiblical

By Dave Welch, Executive Director

There is a tendency of most pastors to avoid speaking on anything other than what has been defined as “moral issues” such as sanctity of life, special rights for sexual behavior, pornography, etc.  The fact is that every action of our government should be scrutinized as to its conformity or not-conformity to Biblical standards of justice and righteousness, including the details and intent of HR 3200, what has been dubbed as “Obamacare”.

The fundamental issue here is what the legitimate role of government is, and regardless of where one comes down on providing critical health care for the truly needy and helpless, the legislation goes so far beyond that point, it is incomprehensible.  It is vital that pastors understand the worldview that is driving this issue and why it violates every principle of both Scripture and U.S. Constitution.

The fact is that when government has assumed control over health care – or any service - in any country, quality, access and cost deteriorate irreparbly.  The horror stories of socialized health care in Canada and in Europe are innumerable.  A raw, utilitarian standard to control costs assures a disrespect for the value of every life and places a horde of nameless, faceless bureaucrats directly in between people and our medical decisions.

It is critical that every pastor think through how many times you have ministered to and counseled with parishioners and families making difficult decisions on medical care for loved ones.  Imagine the IRS determining and the U.S. Postal Service implementing those decisions instead of the family and the physicians.  The literal devil in the details of this 1017 page monstrosity reveal an insidious effort to not implement “health care reform” but an entire Marxist takeover of one-seventh of the economy, destroy private-sector physicians and insurance and micromanage every one of our families.

We urge you to take the time to read the following assessments of this plan and make sure your congregants are well informed and communicate to their congressman that this plan should be scrapped in its entirety.  Any “compromise” that contains even most of these elements will only possibly slow down this freight train.

Heritage Foundation assessment of HR 3200

Liberty Counsel assessment of HR 3200

Family Research Council Fellow Ken Blackwell Commentary

Cato Institute Analysis of Massachusetts’ Universal Health Care

Most importantly, the worldview displayed by President Obama and the Democrat leadership on this issue – and many others – reveals their direct rejection of personal responsibility, personal liberty, respect for the value of every life, the belief that government should be involved in every minute aspect of our daily lives and the abuse of the Romans 13 “sword” for tyranny.

As in the same-sex marriage debate, adding sexual perversion to legal protections, etc., we are graphically shown again that God will not be mocked and His word is ALWAYS true.  We are truly being governed by “unruly children” as per Isaiah 3 and it is our own negligence – disobedience – that has brought us to this point.

I urge you to read "When The Wicked Rule" as a reminder that our choices of governing leaders have consequences and it is time more pastors begin taking our duty seriously and leading our congregations in this area of ministry.