Church And State is a ministry which is essentially a Christian, political education ministry.

It’s very important to define words and what we mean when we say different things, so we’re all on the same page. When I talk about politics generally, I’m talking about the realm of policy, which Jesus was talking about when He prayed:

“Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Your Name, Your kingdom [the domain of the King] come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus was praying for the policies — the will and ways of God — to be manifest here on earth, here and now, as they are in heaven. Christianity is not just “one day, I’ll fly away to glory”.

It’s also that, but it’s also bringing the kingdom of God here and now. Sometimes there’s this false contrast of politics with the gospel, like you have to choose between politics and the gospel. But Jesus was all about the kingdom of God. He was all about the gospel. So was John the Baptist, whom Jesus described as the greatest prophet ever. And yet they all really preached on politics.

If we accept that politics isn’t just Labor versus Liberal, it’s actually “What does the kingdom of God say? What does God say about any debated issue?” If nothing, do what seems best to you. But if God has an authoritative position on it, then that is something the Church — and Christians, who are the Church — should not be silent about. We need to be saying what God says.

That’s Christianity. We say what God says about every issue, especially the debated issues.

For those who’ve never heard of it before, Church And State, as I said, is a teaching ministry for Christians particularly, but also the rest of the world. The Great Commission was to teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you — “them” being all nations. So we’re teaching them what Jesus has to say about things.

But the reason this ministry exists is because I saw a manifest lack of teaching in the political realm, almost an allergy to it. In fact, in 2016, at the federal election, I was at a very large church — my church — and I was part of the state executive for Family First Party, version one. It was so frustrating trying to get interest and attention from pulpits and fellow Christians who said they were looking for righteous government but weren’t interested in righteous candidates.

The frustration was, on Sunday morning, everybody wanted to pray for righteous government, the day after the election — because we still didn’t know whether Bill Shorten or Malcolm Turnbull would be prime minister. Everybody was praying:

“God, give us righteous government.”

And I was thinking, where were you yesterday? God gave you an opportunity to give Australia righteous government and you were mowing your lawn? You actually had an opportunity to more significantly influence the outcome, but too many of us were like the priest and the scribe who, seeing the neighbour beat up and left for dead on the side of the road, crossed to the other side to do their religious thing.

It was the Samaritan who didn’t just pray for him or go to the temple and do religious things — which are all good — but he actually took the opportunity to intervene in the injustice, a behaviour we see advocated all through Scripture. He invested his time, his effort, his resources, his finance, and he took a long-term interest in the outcome.

That’s what Church And State teaches: how do we not bypass this opportunity, not cross to the other side of the road, but practically intervene in the injustice and suffering of our neighbours so that we can love them the way Jesus taught us to.

Church And State is not partisan.

I will never say vote for Family First because they’re awesome, or Liberal, or Labor, or anything else. In fact, I even teach: don’t vote for a Christian. Shocked? Well, Kevin Rudd said he was a Christian, and if the identity means everything, then he would never have turned against the definition of marriage that Jesus created.

So, clearly, wearing a label “Christian” isn’t enough to tell you everything about their policy. That’s why Family First — being a great party — they’re a good place to look for candidates. But I teach: don’t take it for granted. Every single candidate who is asking to represent you must be surveyed, interrogated if you like, to ask:

“Will you fight for what God says? Will you say what God says about marriage, about sanctity of life, about gender, about anything that’s debated and in contest?”

Politics is invading our space more and more and more. Politicians are invading your family, they’re invading your children’s education, they’re invading the Church, and we can’t abdicate that ground just because the government wants it.

We have to not be partisan but, like Joshua when he came to the Lord outside Jericho and said, “Are You on our side or the other side?” God said, “No, I’m not taking human sides.” What actually matters is what He says. That’s how we be non-partisan in politics.

That’s the number one thing Church And State does: we try to teach Christians to approach every debate, every issue, and the whole opportunity of democracy with a biblical worldview, with a Christian, righteous worldview.

I think you should get your political formation where you get your spiritual formation. The best place to find out what God says about debated issues — and how you can practically be salt and light in the public square — is at church.

Find out what the pulpit is saying, what your mature Christian brethren and fellow Christians think in these conversations together, and don’t be afraid of disagreement. Peter and Paul had a barney in Jerusalem and God wasn’t embarrassed by it. Both of them were excellent people, excellent Christians, and one of them was wrong.

These discussions — we should learn how to do these discussions together instead of avoiding them altogether.

Here are some other things that Church And State does. I’m going to ask for your partnership, and it’s important you know what the ministry is that you’re sowing into.

One of the growing areas that I’m excited about is going into schools. There are a lot of adults who I’m trying to educate and, fair enough, everybody is really confused about politics and preferences and it’s hard. So what we should be doing is teaching these things right at school level. Many decades ago we were, but for the last few decades we weren’t taught in school about how government works, how civics works.

So Church And State is going in. One of the first presentations we’re doing in schools is called Great Australians, and it’s teaching them six figures from Australian history — male and female, black and white — but they all loved Jesus and they were zealous public Christians right from the foundation of our nation. Philanthropists, industrialists, statesmen — they were the people who helped build Australia and their faith was an important part of their public life.

The first thing kids are taught is: never be afraid of your Christianity and never let anybody tell you it’s private, it’s secret, and you have no place asserting it or defending it in public.

The second thing we learn is there are great Australians at the foundation of our nation — much to be proud of, the majority of which we can be proud of. It was positive, it was beneficial, it was benevolent. They really cared about the future and about the peace and liberty of their fellow people.

The third thing they learn from this presentation is that to be a great Australian, the only measure that matters is God’s, and He doesn’t measure great Australians by celebrity or bank balance riches but by an attitude of public service. This generation needs to hear that their rights aren’t anywhere near as important as their responsibilities to their fellow man.

That’s what Church And State is doing, and we’re doing many other presentations, but we’re trying to get into schools. Christian schools are the ones who are most welcoming of this, and they are loving the invitation to have somebody come in, especially for their senior students, and get them ready to be good voters — better voters than the average brainwashing program of twelve years would want them to be — able to not be subject to propaganda from media and political parties but actually independent thinkers who can then go out and advocate righteousness in the public square, even while their calling is totally different.

One of my favourite Great Australians is Alfred Deakin — but not him, his mum. His mum taught him to love and follow God with all of his heart, and he had an enormously important impact upon our constitution and Australia to this day. One of the things I tell kids is even though they don’t know Mrs Deakin’s first name, God measures her greatness because she was a full-time mum who devoted her life and occupation to raising her kids in the fear and admonition of the Lord; and because she did, Australia was forever changed.

That’s a really important part of the ambition and of the lesson I’m teaching. It’s not about great exploits that are widely celebrated. Sometimes this side of heaven nobody may know how greatly you benefited and blessed this nation for God.

Church And State has many other expressions. This Thursday coming we’re going to be gathering a dozen or more pastors in the federal parliament in Canberra and encouraging them and equipping them to be bold preachers of righteousness, to be salt and light. We’re helping them equip their congregations to advocate for a positive future for this nation — essentially getting rid of the myths and misunderstanding that there’s a difference between the gospel and the will of God in public life, aka “politics”. That’s just a snapshot.

Of course the most important part of Church And State — which is nearly ten years old now — is this: conferences where we gather Christians together from all denominations, because everything the public is debating is nothing that we’re debating. The divinity of God, the sanctity of marriage, the sanctity of life — whatever denomination you come from, we’re all agreed on these (unless you come from some of those very liberal, low-view-of-Scripture churches which need to repent and become Christian).

If you’re a Bible-believing, God-loving, Jesus-focused Christian who wants more repentance, more righteousness in our nation, more humility as we started, then Church And State exists to equip your pastors and equip you to be better informed and better involved at every level.

If you can be involved in financially supporting CAS, that will help us keep going to other towns, other schools, and better connect with everybody the work we do on the internet as well.