Church Arise
One of my favorite classes while studying as a Political Science major in college was a class called “Religion v. Politics,” in which we discussed the influence and relationship between, obviously, the Church and government. Now, as you can imagine, this is a very lengthy, extensive topic, and I could spend pages talking about the subject in which after the first few pages you would most likely click off of the page, bored out of your mind! Thus, you would never hear the greatness of what I have to say! 😉 So in an effort to keep your attention, let me pull out one pressing thought I gained from this class; “Where is the Church?”.
In his book, A New Kind of Conservative, Joel Hunter writes, “The battle for the future will not be won in narrow ways by party politics and special interests; it will be won by broad and deep ideals coming out of the hearts of vast numbers of people.” I understand the need to pray for godly men and women in government, and I am in no way writing against that need. But what concerns me more than ungodly leadership in the government, is a Church that has become numb to its surroundings, irrelevant, and looking more like the world than Christ.
I recently came back from Oklahoma City where a group of churches from different denominations (who’d a thought?!) came together under what they call “LOVE OKC”. On a cold Saturday morning, thousands of people from the city were loved on, given food, free medical examinations, hair makeovers, etc., a true picture of what Christ intended His body to look like.
We talk of entitlement programs and the inability of government to fix the problems associated with these programs, but did we ever stop to think that maybe the government is trying to fix a problem only the Church can fix? How were hospitals started? Was it the government or the Church? All it takes is one city, one community at a time, and then who knows? Maybe there would be no need for entitlement programs because the Church has already met the needs of the sick, poor, and homeless.
I am in no way condemning the Church or saying, “Don’t pray for godly people in office!” I love the Church and believe having godly leadership is so important! But leaders and governments rise and fall. My hope is not in that but in Christ and His bride. But we as the Church must open our eyes before we can be the Church that Christ intended us to be. The enemy’s greatest weapon against the Church is not an immoral government but an apathetic Church.
I challenge you, whether working at a school, going to church, buying groceries, or answering phone calls in an office, whatever it is, start asking God how you can be the bride of Christ to the people around you. Ask people how they are doing. Pray for the sick. Pay for a stranger’s gas. If we will be the Church (Christ) to the people around us, we will dictate the standard of the society and culture around us. In a government that is by the people and for the people, turn the hearts of the people towards God, and government will fall in line.
“Church arise, arise and shine!
Shake yourself from the dust,
God is calling you to go!”
-Leeland, While We Sing
Matt Birkenfeld 
“The enemy’s greatest weapon against the Church is not an immoral government but an apathetic Church.”— Ouch. Good stuff.
As I read this I couldn’t help but think of a conversation I had this weekend about when did the church stop being the main source of help to those in need. I do pray for our government, but I agree completely with your comment about the government just trying to fix the problem. What is even more crazy is that with seperation of church and state we get further from the solution. All the division in this world is what really ties the hand of God to reach those who need it most. we are all so busy (including myself) with trying to be politically correct and careful not to offend someone, that we become paralyzed. We only need to look to God and the Great Commision. Thanks for sharing this. marissa cisneros
“The battle for the future will not be won in narrow ways by party politics and special interests; it will be won by broad and deep ideals coming out of the hearts of vast numbers of people.” —-that’s so good! The church needs to arise right now, my heart is to figure out what that looks like practically. At Bethel School of Worship Dano Macullum kept on quoting: “laws are written by the lawmakers but rather the songwriters,” so I thought it was cool to find this post on a songwriter’s blog.