Hold a voter registration drive on a Sunday -or- how about a month of Sunday’s?
I hang out with a number of pastors who are deeply involved in public policy matters and what is conventionally called “politics” and I can tell you that even in our churches we are constantly amazed at how many people are not registered to vote. I have even had staff pastors who somehow navigated around that responsibility. (By the way…we got that corrected.) If that is a reality in a church and with a pastor who is highly engaged, I can only imagine the statistics to be higher in churches that neglect this important aspect of Christian stewardship.
Some pastors completely eject from the idea of even allowing such a thing within the “sacred” walls of their church. Even the most basic aspect of cultural engagement and public policy concerns is somehow too “soiled” for their higher spiritual purposes. Whether these pastors ever really get it or not may remain to be seen, but truthfully there is little risk in simply providing the opportunity for your people to register to vote. It’s not a partisan moment. You are not endorsing candidates. You are not stepping out on a limb. As a pastor, at least at this point, all you are doing is providing a service…an important one.
I recently heard a story of a pastor who approved a voter registration table to be available at the church. The table was put in the most obscure place and nothing was mentioned in the worship service concerning its availability. Three people registered that day in a church of untold thousands. That is not what I am talking about. The pastor needs to give some leadership to this moment. Make a verbal announcement. Draw attention to the table through media presentation. Remember, you are trying to bring your values and concerns to the table of civic debate and legislation. A pastor needs to mention that they themselves are registered and consider this to be an important civic responsibility both as a citizen as well as a Christian. The pastor can even say things like, “No one is telling you HOW to vote, we simply want you TO vote”. If there is blowback from parishioners on that statement, then you simply need to be firm at this point and say (gently), “This is how the Church gets to have its say with regards to public policy. We are citizens too”. I know of churches that have health fairs, blood mobiles, Health and Life Insurance counseling, Wellness seminars, Retirement Clinics, CWP Classes, Tax preparation counseling, and the like, of which all are announced and the church is encouraged to participate. Why are we skittish about getting our people registered to vote? Honestly, this is incredibly safe and risk-free ground.
However, as safe as voter registration may be it also has a strategic aspect to it. The Church is expanding the pool of primary and general election voters who are more likely to carry their Christian values into the voting booth. Now I am well aware of the fact that our current generation of evangelical, Christian voters are generally clueless as to what it means to cast their vote in a Biblically, integral way. The Church (really I should say Pastors) has not done its job by training their members what it means to vote as a Christian citizen. Again, I am not saying we should tell people WHO to vote for, but I am saying that we should train them HOW to vote. (I mention this process in several previous posts) Just as we should be training the people how to parent, how to be a good husband or wife, and how to manage their money; we should not neglect to train them in how to be a Christian citizen. Read and teach about how Paul addressed these very issues in the book of Acts and Romans. Teach them about the place of Christian participation in our processes and what that looks like. It begins with getting them registered.
Let me suggest this…
Find young adults who would be willing to oversee the table. Let them pull out their iPads and iPhones and let them help your people get this taken care of in 2 minutes or less online. What you will find out is that most of the unregistered is in the young adult age area. The reason they are unregistered is because they are skeptical and cynical of the political process (as most of us are too!). If you don’t have young adults who might be willing, then I can assure you that there are middle aged people as well as your seniors who would be more than happy to help. The key is the person must understand the technology of getting registered online. But, our cultural concerns can only be redeemed by the faithful participation of those who want to see biblical values restored to the public arena. It is time to get the people of God involved at the most basic level of participation.
Ask yourself what would happen if 175,000 churches were able to register 10-20 new people? Anywhere from 1.75 to 3.5 million new voters are on the roll who are probably inclined to vote their Christian values. Actually, I suspect the numbers to be even higher because many churches could register 10 times that number. How about it? Use the week of the Fourth of July and make this a feature of your emphasis. Find a spot on the calendar and encourage your people to practice what many others died for to maintain. And should your pastor not want to do this, then offer yourself as a person who can run point on this area. Take the organization of it off his plate and put it on yours. Make sure you do this with excellence and optimism. No negativity or campaigning at the table. Plenty of time to train the troops in HOW to vote, we are just looking to sign them up for the army.
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