The Influence Course: Your Journey into God's Heart for Good Governance

By Christians in Politics

your journey into God’s heart for good governance
 
Christians know how to make noise. It’s in our DNA. Whether it’s trumpets at Jericho, cymbals in the Psalms, or worship bands with huge PAs. We can mobilise huge numbers of people to march to make poverty history, send emails about climate change, or write letters about abortion. But there’s a difference between just making noise and having real influence. That difference is RELATIONSHIP. Can we make the journey from disconnected armchair commentators to participants who are being salt and light in the midst rather than at the edge of society?
 
We all have influence. The Influence Course will give you a biblical understanding of God’s call for every one of us to be involved in the public square. It’s not all about being a candidate - as the course says, it’s as important to be holding the clipboard as it is to be holding the microphone. 
  Visit www.influencecourse.co.uk for more resources, including videos for your church, small group, or individual study.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David C Cook
• Release date: Sep 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780830782499

Book preview

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What people are saying about …

The Influence Course

Politics made possible, politics made positive, politics made pressing. If you’re daunted by the prospect of getting involved in politics, or jaded by what you’ve seen of party politics, but want to help contribute to a kinder, more just, more Jesus-shaped, flourishing society, here’s an upbeat, practical, biblically rich, creatively written and successfully tested guide to help you and your church get purposefully and productively engaged … whoever you vote for.

Mark Greene, Mission Champion, LICC

Christians aren’t meant to get their ultimate meaning from politics, but the Bible is very clear that we should definitely care and enter into the struggles of the world around us, and to find joy in serving our communities. This course is the perfect entry for putting our Christian faith into practice in the public sphere.

Tim Farron, MP

Doing the course really highlighted that the church trains people to do church-related stuff—preaching, leading, teaching children, leading worship—but doesn’t train people to get involved in the outside world.… We can spread the gospel by working to improve people’s lives and that means getting involved in political decision making.

Lizzie Jewkes, Liberal Democrat Christian Forum

I encourage everyone to step through the Influence Course, which serves as a very digestible, practical and motivational course to help you explore your place in political engagement to serve in the public square, to pray, to partake and to represent.

Rachael Maskell, MP

The gospel is political. Standing for the lost, the last, the least and the lonely is political. Believing in a God who loved the world so much that He gave up His only Son to save it—that is political and it leads to a people that are … ready to be counted at every level of society.… The Influence Course is something that … creates space for a church community to engage with challenging teaching and gives practical advice on where we can action that teaching. I am excited to see what future material comes from Christians in Politics and we will be running the Influence Course again.

Rev Jonathan Phillips, St Peter’s Chester

Engaging with the political world and public life, either as a Christian or Church, is something for which many of us feel unprepared for or uncertain about. The Influence Course gave us the Biblical foundations, the tools and the confidence to begin that engagement.

Kevin Thomas, Christchurch Baptist Church

People in churches did an amazing job in supporting their communities during the pandemic. I recommend this biblical course to those who want to move on to have real influence in the public square, and I hope there will be many.

Stephen Timms, MP

Through my work with Tearfund, I see the justice-seeking passions of the church rising up around issues like the climate crisis, but often Christians feel ill-equipped to channel those passions in constructive ways. The Influence Course is a practical way to help people take those first baby steps to being influencers in the public square.

Ruth Valerio, Global Advocacy and Influencing Director for Tearfund

The direct link between Faith Policy and politics has been popping out all over the place since our gatherings—it really has altered my lens on the world.

David Yardley, Course Participant

THE INFLUENCE COURSE

Published by David C Cook

4050 Lee Vance Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.

Integrity Music Limited, a Division of David C Cook

Brighton, East Sussex BN1 2RE, England

The graphic circle C logo is a registered trademark of David C Cook.

All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of David C Cook, nor do we vouch for their content.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from The Authorised (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorised Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press. The author has added italics to Scripture quotations for emphasis.

ISBN 978-0-8307-8248-2

eISBN 978-0-8307-8249-9

© 2021 Christians in Politics

The Team: Ian Matthews, Paul Owen, Jeff Gerke,

Jo Stockdale, Jennie Pollock, Susan Murdock

Cover Design: Pete Barnsley (CreativeHoot.com)

CONTENTS

Introduction

Session 1 Busy Church

Session 2 What Belongs to God?

Session 3 Transformation

Session 4 Behind the Scenes

Session 5 We Can’t Agree

Session 6 What’s Next?

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Notes

introduction

All over the UK, the church is doing an incredible job serving communities. From foodbanks in Cornwall to debt counselling in the Highlands, the Word is becoming flesh in local neighbourhoods. The transformation in individuals and communities is tangible and exciting.

Is there a danger, however, that the church could become just the paramedic of the nation, giving first aid to the victims of a fallen system, rather than also speaking and installing truth, righteousness, and justice into the systems and structures of our land? Might we be so busy fulfilling our pastoral calling that we ignore our prophetic calling?

This course will take all the members of your church on a journey into God’s heart for good governance—and into the truth that we all have a part to play, no matter how small. We’ll look at the biblical call to public leadership, the huge need for people of integrity to be involved, and the simple baby steps we can take to get there.

It’s important to note that this is a ‘starter course’ for all the small groups of a church to do for a season, not just a course for those who have some pre-existing political interest. The teaching and activities are broad-based and applicable to all believers, not only to those who feel a particular call towards politics.

Many of us in the church have become ‘armchair activists.’ We have political opinions and passions, but they often aren’t connected relationally or having an impact on actual structures, aside from the often toxic world of social media. This course will lead us up out of those armchairs.

How to use this book

The sessions are a toolbox. Not everything may be applicable for your context. The different sections of each session are designed to complement one another, but don’t feel bad if you need to curtail certain sections for the purposes of time. Please just make use of what works for you.

The sessions will obviously work best if the leader has spent a decent amount of time watching and reading the material. That way, you can make connections between sections and answer people’s queries intelligently!

Each session is comprised of a short video introducing the overall theme, followed by feedback, a bit of teaching, an activity, a ‘takeaway’ (a challenge before the next meeting), and prayer.

From our experience, it is the times of discussion that are hugely beneficial in ‘earthing’ this material for