By JIM MINNERY / ALASKA FAMILY COUNCIL
On Sept 17, 18, and 20, Alaska Family Council will be hosting dinners for ministry partners in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Soldotna respectively. Please CLICK HERE to get more details and to register.
Since 2006, Alaska Family Council has advocated for life, religious liberty, parental rights and marriage in the public policy, civic arena where faith and politics intersect.
We’ve done so with the help of countless Alaskans who believe that Biblically-aligned policies help communities prosper and that the election of biblically-aligned public officials can advance an agenda for our state to flourish as God intended.
Although we’ve been blessed to partner with numerous churches and their leaders across the Great Land, we’ve known for some time that we’ve really only touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of engaging the broad and diverse Body of Christ in a manner that transforms culture.
Although many churches have worked side by side with us to distribute our Values Voter Guides and equip their congregations to be involved in the civic arena, many pastors, leaders, and members of faith communities often feel conflicted about stepping into this fray. Navigating the cultural pressures, partisan politics, and mixed messaging from spiritual leaders can be confusing. Questions often wrestled with are:
“Isn’t there a separation of church and state?,”
“Is it worth it to engage at all?”
“How can I get involved without compromising my ministry?”
To address those questions, and to expand and enhance the work we’ve been doing for 15 years, Alaska Family Council is seeking to launch what we’re calling the Church Ambassador Network of Alaska to help more faith leaders effectively engage with the government sphere in a post-Christian culture.
This non-partisan effort will encourage a unified Church across the Great Land to engage winsomely in public life, connect the leaders of churches to leaders in state government for their mutual benefit, and foster collaboration between these two God-ordained institutions.
The Church Ambassador Network of Alaska will hold to the teachings of Scripture that government is an institution of God’s with the purpose of punishing evil and rewarding good, and that those who serve in it are God’s ministers. We will model the reality that government is separate from the Church and has its own unique responsibility. However, government needs moral guidance and counsel from the Church to fulfill its purpose to punish evil and reward good. It needs the true north that the Church provides through its head, Christ, and the Word of God.
Fundamentally, the Church Ambassador Network of Alaska will operate with truth that God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of Him. That means people from all political parties and ideologies. 1st Corinthians 9 gives us a model for ministering in such a way: Paul ministered to both Jew and Gentile, so we will seek to tear down partisan walls by ministering to members of any political party.
The world left to its own devices will never fulfill what God instituted government to do. For righteous legislation to pass, for our government to restore its rightful role of justice, we need the Church to bring the Great Commission to the halls of government. We must lay aside partisan politics and engage government with the gospel and the timeless truths of the Scriptures. Alaska Family Council believes we can connect church leaders to do non-policy ministry, pairing shepherds of God’s Church with shepherds of God’s Government while concurrently doing the pro-family, pro-life policy work we have been engaged in since our inception.
Throughout history the shepherds of God’s institution of the Church have served as a moral compass and guide to the nations, whether that be Moses speaking to Pharaoh, John the Baptist to King Herod, Rev. John Newton to William Wilberforce, or Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to President Kennedy and U.S. Congress. It is our goal to have pastors and congregations engage government in a way that honors God and is effective under all forms of government, regardless of when and where.
We’d be honored to have you join us at one of our dinners as we cast this ambitious vision that will bring Alaska closer to a place where families thrive, religious freedom flourishes, life is cherished, and God is honored.
Jim Minnery is the president of Alaska Family Council.
What this Country needs is the strength of the Church. Instead we have churches cowering to the state and federal governments. How is it that Churches close without a fight and fascist riots are allowed to flourish without a word from the Church. You want followers, show strength beyond the walls of the Church. Remind people that man’s laws are not superior to Gods Laws. This country’s founding fathers gave strength to the Church, show it.
Mark 12:17
I’m unfamiliar with this. I am aware In Alaska’s history religious groups competed with each other to provide education for the new Americans right after Russian interests were sold to the US shortly after the Civil War. Alaskan newcomers advanced upon Alaska from the southern part of Alaska first. That’s where the Catholics, Protestants, and Russian Orthodox really went all out to help educate our kids. Some of the nicest buildings were those early schools. One room usually but nice. The kids loved it. The churches helped practically also sending up western modern garments. There was such promise and hope. My mother learned to love poetry. She used to say dramatically “The wreck of the Hesperus”.
The Christian message is sharing the Gospel. It’s not politics. It’s not prosperity. Its not Freedom. Its not equity nor equality. It’s not covid compliance. Its not medical freedom. Its not whose more Woke and who has more patriotism. Because you can feed the hungry and you can provide clothes for those without. You can house the homeless. You can eliminate abortion on demand. You can reverse global warming. You can eliminate nuclear weapons. You can redistribute wealth so the wealth arent so rich and the poor aren’t so poor. AND! everyone will still go to Hell.
So the message is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Acts 4:12 neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. John 14:6 jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. No gentile. No jew. No Buddhist. No Muslim. No Methodist. No Baptist. No Assembly of God. No Mormon. No catholic. No one will come to the Father except through Faith through Jesus Christ. That’s the Gospel. That’s what the Christian leaders should be sharing. .
We will have to disagree Jen. Your line of thinking is why we don’t pray in schools any more. Why we are no longer teaching our children the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. Why there is a war on Christmas. Why praying at political meeting is controversy. Why states have removed the Ten Commandments from courthouses. Why a large sect of our society wants the word God removed from money, government building, police cars, government monuments, etc. why crosses have been removed as monuments. Why the left falsely cries for the separation of Church and State at every possible crossing.
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The word of God and faith should be in everything we do not hidden in the shadows of your Church or home, too embarrassed to speak in public or worried you might offend someone. Closet Christianity is why this Country if falling apart. There’s not one thing that can be discussed today without politics involved. Politics are divisive and evil. If our Country spoke more of God and less of politics we wouldn’t be as divided as we are today.
In the early days of the territory it was not a given that one could write his own name. A kid might have been 12 and only in the third grade. Those were hard won battles. Father might have thought his son’s needed arithmetic and spelling. His daughter might have needed to care for other household responsibilities. Kids didn’t sass in those days. Ironically the Dems are avulsing the kids out of the modern systems by their goose stepping to perdition and a communist future only to be thwarted after all by the Kingdom of God.
Questions like
“Isn’t there a separation of church and state?,”
“Is it worth it to engage at all?”
“How can I get involved without compromising my ministry?”
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reveal weak, lost, maybe perverted Faith. If church industry leaders feel compelled to ask these things, we have a problem.
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Such questions lead one to ask whether Alaska’s church industry, like mainstream news media and the Republican Party is actually obsolete but kept on because it’s profitable, tax-exempt, and employees don’t have to do much, just show up and chatter.
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This is not good when church industry managers are more concerned about “connect(ing) the leaders of churches to leaders in state government” than keeping churches open when the damned government orders them closed.
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Church industry management’s unholy desire to “intersect” with government, to become One with the very government clearly intent on destroying Judeo Christian religion in America, should worry every devout churchgoer.
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What in God’s Name does “government needs moral guidance and counsel from the Church” mean, say, in the context of forcing Americans to subsidize mass infanticide?
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Seems reasonable to ask what proportion of the Church Ambassador Network of Alaska will consist of Muslims, Hindus, Jews? Might the Supreme Leader of the Church Ambassador Network of Alaska be Buddhist?
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What’s this “government needs moral guidance and counsel from the Church to fulfill its purpose to punish evil and reward good.”? Government’s not a person. How do you punish and reward a nonperson, Jim? Sharia law is moral guidance, is that next?
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Hardened cynics might even ask how the church industry “pairing shepherds of God’s Church with shepherds of God’s Government” differs from the lobbyist industry pairing their shepherds with shepherds of their god’s government.
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Jim, how dare you talk about “Great Commission” when your cowardly lions lack courage to open their churches after government orders them closed?
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No, my friend, your ambassador network needs work, salesmanship, lots of it, if devout Deplorables are meant to view it as anything more than a lobbyist for the theocracy.
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What say you, Jim? Ready to channel your inner Billy Graham, read us from the Book?
Families with social problems do find comfort, understanding, and sometimes trusted guidance. It’s called social support structures. The belief in family as a social unit has been eroded by modern theorists leading away from supportive structures of any kind. Villages are somewhat more cohesive. Everyone knows each other (and what they had for dinner and even what they are out of in the pantry). So even churches without professional credentials can function to strengthen faith in what is good. Love of the idea of Alaska as a territory brought people of good will from around the world and the lower states. Why give up now?
You are 100% correct: “government needs moral guidance and counsel from the Church.”
We are a nation built on the premise of God’s involvement in our founding and development. When we distance from that and allow the government to sanction and inculcate homosexuality and transgenderism into our social norms, is this pleasing to God? Can God continue to bless America?
The political leadership needs a backbone. That backbone comes from the moral impetus of faith. And faith needs to be solid and prevalent. Unfortunately, the morality of this nation is in shambles, due to the weak influence of faith. We need to bolster it by the leaders of faith being emboldened.
As your mind naturally directs your body, so too do spiritual leaders naturally influence political leaders. Therefore, may God bless and empower the Ambassador Network you are building to open the path for government leadership to hear moral guidance from leaders of faith. Absolutely needed during these times of upheaval.
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