Cru 2019 Follow-up

A Message From Our Co-Founders

Dear Cru Family,

Getting to participate in Cru19 and give back to a ministry that has done so much to shape and equip us is an honor.

Talks like the one we gave this week are just part of the work we do equipping the church for faithful mission in a polarized age. If you’re interested in learning more about our work—including the exclusive Cru19 discount on our upcoming training manual on leading public prayer—we’d love to hear from you.

Thank you for letting us encourage you,

Rick and Danny

Contact Rick and Danny

Learn More about Christian Civics

At a conference in Memphis last year, Rick and Danny recorded an extensive oral history of our ministry, covering their spiritual testimonies, their professional political experience, and why two political opponents committed to serving the church together.  It’s not something we typically make publicly available, but we want to share it with our Cru family, and you can listen to it below. And if you’d like to hear more from our ministry, you can learn more about our vision and our work by checking out our blog and our podcast!

Slide Content

Miss the seminar? Just want to refresh yourself on the main points? The main outline from the slideshow is below!

Introduction

The Christian Civics Approach

Multi-Partisan
Discipleship-Oriented
Church-Centered

Why care about political diversity?

In a polarized climate, political diversity is important for every expression of Christ’s body. Our fellowships need political diversity because it…
  • …allows us to welcome our neighbors.
  • …enables us to see Christ more clearly.
  • …proves that the gospel is true.

Prayer is our first resort

The kind of prayer we need to prepare our hearts and our communities for effective witness in a polarized age is…
  • …private.
  • …plural.
  • …corporate.
  • …formative.

The wrong way to pray

If we pray for someone’s political conversion, we are praying for them to be remade in our own image.

A program for prayer

This can be used in your personal life, or it can be integrated into the ways you are leading the groups under your care.
Step One: Copy Paul
  • Romans 1:8–10
  • 1 Corinthians 1:4–9
  • Ephesians 1:15–20
  • Philippians 1:3–6
  • Philippians 1:9–11
  • Colossians 1:3–14

In each of these prayers, Paul repeats five themes. He prays…

  • …for their faith.
  • …for/about the desire to support them in prayer.
  • …for grace and holiness to abound in them.
  • …that they would be filled with Jesus’ presence and power.
  • …for their lives to bring glory to Christ.
Pursue this avenue of prayer alone until it begins to work on your heart/regularly lead your group through these themes in prayer until it begins to become natural for them. Surface-level conversations with “the other” will become easier.
Step Two: Identify Common Principles
Evil is not generative, it’s distortive. When you can do this in good faith, begin praying for wisdom, insight and sympathy to begin seeing the image of God at the root of the distortion that is blinding you. As you grow in wisdom, share sincere praise with “the other.”
 Step Three: Confession and Correction
Move from risking flattery to initiating vulnerability. Being willing to receive correction or challenge from “the other” is indicative of a movement from civility to fellowship.

Next Steps

Links to our blog and podcast, and a subscription button for our newsletter, are at the top of this page.
We also offer three levels of workshops and seminars:
Popular-Level Workshops
  • Focused intervention for Christian communities experiencing intense political division.
  • General introductions to a shared foundation and language for understanding the public square and enthusiasm about multi-partisan fellowship.
PRofessional-Level Workshops
  • Training for ministry teams on effective, gospel-centered ministry in a polarized climate. (Includes theological foundations, practical applications, and professional/pastoral considerations.)
  • Workshops for political professionals and activists on navigating the specific spiritual and relational challenges of working in the public square.
Academic Workshops
  • Seminars and semester-long classes for seminary students diving deeper into the history of Christian political engagement, contemporary challenges, and professional skills required to navigate them well.

If you are interested in learning more about these seminars or bringing one to your campus, ministry team or other venue, fill out the contact form at the top of this page.

 
Additional Resources
Later this summer, we are rolling out a host of new material, including two new Bible study guides and a new edition of our five-chapter small group discussion guide on what the story of creation, fall, incarnation, redemption and restoration means for how we respond to divisive political campaigns.
 
But most importantly, we will also be releasing a new training manual for offering practical, specific prayers for your campus, neighborhood, city, state and country without triggering partisan divides. If you lead prayer for others regularly, we think the frameworks, models and exercises in this resource will help you pray more confidently and help those who follow along with you in prayer connect their faith to the world around them more specifically, no matter where they fall on the political spectrum. We are launching this tool later this year, and Cru19 participants can get it at 50% off. Lock in your discount and then learn more about this tool as the launch draws closer by filling out the form at the top of the page.
 
(Registering for the discount doesn’t obligate you to buy it–it just lets us know who to send discount codes to when it’s finally available!)