27 April 2016
Does your church do politics?
With regional and local elections taking place in May and, of course, the European referendum coming up in June, how can church leaders be encouraging their congregations to think politically? We put together some ideas to get you started...
PRAY
As always, we must start with prayer. Use every opportunity to pray for elections, campaigns, and politicians. Put politics on the agenda for every service, every prayer meeting and small group and in all your church communications, whether on paper, via email, or online.
ENGAGE
Christians have always been very active in politics, so dig out all the information you can about what's already going on. Investigate Christians in Politics, ask someone to come and speak to your congregation and use their resources. Alliance member CARE produce a quarterly prayer guide for all things politics – subscribe for your church and encourage your congregation to sign up too. Theos is a think tank working on religion and society - read their publications and comment to equip yourself to understand how the Church and politics can work together.
HOST
Put on events around election time to bring people together in discussion about how Christians can view and engage with politics. On election day, open your doors and host an all-day prayer event; work with other churches in your area to host a hustings event with local representatives; or invite speakers to come and share with your congregation what they're doing.
RESOURCE
The Alliance has been speaking to politics for 170 years and is always engaged with the issues of the day. info@eauk.org for your church, sign up to Everything Advocacy to get updates straight to your inbox and make sure you've got a copy of our public policy publications – What kind of Europe?, which will be available soon.
SHARE
If possible, make sure you and your church are active online. The Alliance is on Twitter and Facebook and regularly shares information about news and events – make sure you see and share, both from your own accounts and your church accounts. This is a quick and easy way of helping your congregation see for themselves what's going on and how they can be involved.
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