When A Friend Entered Politics

A funny thing happened on the way to support a friend entering politics.

A First Foray

If you happen across my Facebook page you would see I posted congrats to a friend who is a candidate in an Alberta riding when I served as a pastor.

Landen grew up in a local church, is a Bible College grad, former pastor, and we team taught an adult Sunday School class. He is a directional driller by trade. This is his first foray into politics. He wants to make a difference in health care, social support, and education in rural ridings like his.

His choice of orange had people seeing red.

I posted on FB to be supportive, prayerful, and to honour the choice of this new father to walk his talk. The life of an elected official at any level of government is complex. Long hours, intense days, emotional issues, days and nights away from home, and family.

Leading Influence

Social media can be unsociable. It’s bad for dialogue.and prone to echo chambers. Comments were posted about the wisdom of Christians aligning with certain political parties. There was some back and forth. Along with the public postings I received some interesting private messaging.

My friend Tim Schindel leaned into the conversation. He founded Leading Influence in 2006, an organization that provides spiritual, emotional, and relational support to elected Canadian officials. Leading Influence supports all parties at all levels of government.

He wrote, “The values of the Kingdom are spread across the political spectrum. No party has a corner on God’s idea for government. There are redemptive, and sadly destructive elements in each party’s ethos because none of us is perfect.”

Broken World

Tim says, “We live in a broken world. The idea that government should hold to a Judeo-Christian ethic, is long past it’s best before date and that’s a good thing.

When the church started expecting government to do its job around shaping society and we retreated into our buildings we gave up the privilege of having broad-based impact.

The difficulty is that we still think we should have privilege and that our voice should be heard. We haven’t dialed into the reality that while we’ve been holed up in the church, the world has marched on without us.

Where there is no salt or light, only bad things happen.

And, this is why it’s important for people like Landen to step up and serve in parties across the political spectrum, because we need salt and light in places of leadership and influence.

So, disagree with his politics if you’d like, but pray for him as your brother asking God to give him grace and wisdom.

He may win or he may lose, but he’s stepping up, unashamed of his faith and values and that needs to be celebrated!”

For The Good

Landen is a good guy. He would do great work representing his community. Landen could use all the prayer and support available to him. Those who follow Jesus, regardless of party affiliation, would benefit knowing their church has their back.

What do you think about Christians, political parties, and prayer? Please join the conversation and leave a comment below. Thank you.

Hope grows here.  We share stories that inspire people, build faith, and offer lasting purpose.

We’d love to have you Subscribe to REVwords. We’ll put helpful content into your inbox Mondays and Fridays.