Churches And Pastors Need To Stay Engaged – With Chad Connerly  – It is critical that churches get out and vote in this election. Text MYVOICE to 76076! This interview is an encouragement to pastors and churches to stay involved, Tune in!

Air Date: 10/12/2020

Guest: Chad Connerly

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

 

Rick:

This is the intersection of faith and the culture, WallBuilders Live where we talk about today’s hottest topics on policy and faith and the culture, always looking at things from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. I’m here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders; Tim Barton is with us, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders; and my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach.

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Only a couple of weeks left before the election, it is so close right now. The election is going to be here before you know it. And I mean, it is close all over the country. People are paying attention for the first time in their lives. I mean, this has been a year that has awakened the nation, it has awakened people to realize government will affect my life. I cannot ignore politics and government, it’s going to have an impact on me; churches that have been shut down all over the nation, prevented from worshiping, prevented from coming together, it is time for the church to speak up. And one of the best ways to do that is going to be in this election. People of faith, have got to vote in this election and let their voice be heard, and their values counted.

November 3rd, 2020, I’ll be glad when 2020 itself is over, but election coming up in just a few weeks. A lot of pastors and folks are asking what can churches do in these last few weeks that’s both legal and biblical?

David:

Yeah, there’s been a lot of discussion over that, and a lot of pushback back and forth. And quite frankly, churches can do a whole lot more than they ever thought they could, and particularly this year. One of the things that President Trump had promised in the campaign four years ago was he wants to get rid of the Johnson Amendment. Well, couldn’t get Congress to do that, but by executive order, he did tell the IRS, you can enforce the Johnson Amendment, and that’s the amendment that is often used by secularist on the left to say the church, you can’t talk about political issues or political people or political things. And so that’s not even an issue in this election is off the board. There is no legal mechanism by which the IRS can punish churches for what they say in the pulpit, and there never should have been by the way.

And we have never considered that Johnson Amendment to be constitutional. That’s why we tried for years to get in the court to get a struck down and the IRS won’t take the bait because they know that. So there really should not be any questions about what can and can’t be done. Because if you’re an American citizen, you have the right to petition, the right to free speech, the right to assemble and petition government for redress of grievances, you have the right to say just about anything you want to that your congregation will let you get away with saying. I mean, you’re accountable to God and the people, but you’re not accountable to the government for what happens in that pulpit. And that’s something that really, we need to see a lot more courage, and by the way, I think we are right now.

I think we’re seeing pastors recognize that this is not a time I can remain silent. We’re sitting on the verge of really what could be catastrophic or even cataclysmic type of behavior with the turmoil and unrest we’re seeing spread around the nation. So I think you’ll see a lot more get engaged and get involved in this time, which is going to be a healthy thing, not only for America, but also for the church.

Tim:

Yeah, and guys, one of the things that we have seen over the last couple months is a schedule, almost like none we’ve ever had before with how many video conferences and Zoom conferences and Skypes and how many even traveling on the road speaking events and engagements. This has been one of the busiest years even with COVID and the lockdown. Now granted, part of what made it busy in some regards is that all of a sudden, people wanted to have all these digital conferences and meetings, but we’ve done so many media events and requests and we have been all over the nation. In fact, Chad is going to be on with us here in just a little bit.

Chad and I recently, we’re in Virginia doing a pastors conference and really kind of challenging and encouraging pastors and what they’re doing and we actually have done a lot of work with Chad, all three of us over the last several years. But even this year, especially getting things geared up for elections and helping pastors recognize the role they can play in helping restore righteousness to the nation, of recognizing that what we are in, certainly, there is a lot of flesh, humans that we see around us, but It’s a spiritual battle.

And as Christians, we have to recognize that there’s a role that we play in the midst of a spiritual battle where there’s ultimate, kind of the soul of America is at stake of good and evil, of light and dark, of right and wrong. And if pastors sit this one out, no nation is guaranteed to exist or last forever.

Now, you might make an argue Israel on some level, but they were even conquered and defeated multiple times, America is not guaranteed to last and exist beyond any certainty of present generations. But if we’re going to have something to leave to our kids, or our grandkids, if America is going to be a beacon of any kind of hope, or goodness or godliness, what we would want, righteousness to prevail, Christians have to get involved in the process, and by the way, Chad is going to be with us in a couple minutes, has worked to do some really neat things with other organizations where they have some really cool apps, some different things they’re doing digitally, all the different videos they’re doing.

So there’s a lot of resources out there for pastors that may be more than any other time in American history with so many resources to make it easy and simple for pastors, that if they don’t want to have to do the research and get into the details, they can say, hey, check out this video, or click on this link, whatever the case is, so many great resources. But Chad is one of those warriors in the frontlines, really trying to help engage pastors in the process.

Rick:

Chad Connelly, he served as state chairman for South Carolina for years, he worked with the RNC on national outreach to evangelicals. He’s worked with thousands of pastors across the country over the last few years, getting them engaged and involved. His organization called Faith Wins has been very active this year. And he’s going to share with us a little bit of what’s happened in these last few weeks and frankly, what to do going forward after the election, because we want to make sure that churches and Christians stay engaged after the election as well. Chad Connelly with Faith Wins will be with us when we return from the break on WallBuilders Live.

BREAK

Hey friends, if you’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live for very long at all, you know how much we respect our veterans and how appreciative we are of the sacrifices they make to make our freedoms possible. One of the ways that we love to honor those veterans is to tell their stories. Here on WallBuilders Live, once in a while, we get an opportunity to interview veterans that have served on those front lines that have made incredible sacrifices, have amazing stories that we want to share with the American people.

One of the very special things we get to do is interview World War Two veterans. You’ve heard those interviews here on WallBuilders Live from folks that were in the Band of Brothers to folks like Edgar Harrell that survived being Indianapolis to so many other great stories you’ve heard on WallBuilders Live. You have friends and family that also served.

If you have World War Two veterans in your family that you would like to have their story shared here on WallBuilders Live, please email us at [email protected], [email protected]. Give us a brief summary of the story and we’ll set up an interview. Thanks so much for sharing here on WallBuilders Live.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. Glad to have Chad Connelly back with us. Faith Wins, and it’s going to win this year I really believe it, Chad. I’m feeling good about a lot. I’m wondering what you’re feeling out there. You’re all over the country, working with pastors and churches across the nation. What do you think, man? What’s the church going to do in this election?

Chad:

Man, Rick, thanks for having me on. I love you guys, and what you do you know that. Yeah, I’ve been in 14 states now, in the last 10 weeks, I’ve been with exactly 1610 pastors from 14 different denominations. Now, here’s what I do know. I don’t know exactly how they’ll vote, but I know they want to vote, they are fired up. I would say this is not anecdotal. I’ve been doing a little bit of an unscientific survey.

Less than 5% of the pastors I’ve interacted with in the last 9-10 weeks has ever done voter registration, and I dare say that 98% plus of them are going to. In fact, we’ve now, my team has verified a little over 3200 churches that have already done voter registration, and we’re gathering numbers every day.

Rick:

Now, but wait, you’re saying, this isn’t just some random poll of pastors did you do ever done voter registration and only 5% bid it? You’re saying only 5% of them had done it in the past, but that 98% might do at this time, are very likely to do at this time?

Chad:

Well, we’re monitoring that, that’s exactly right. That was the whole purpose. You know, David, and I had this conversation, maybe God let me be in politics at the highest level to understand that we need to measure this. This needs to be a metric that we have. Our team is working to actually record, you know, First Baptist Church in Denton, Texas, did voter registration and First Baptist Church in Newberry, South Carolina, and we know we can’t collect them all. But we’ve been pushing that little number, we’ve been given out that 76076 that has voter registration links for all 50 States, so we’re able to record which pastors are actually doing it. So we’re following up with an email or cell phone call and text saying, hey, did you do voter registration, how many do register?

And now of course, there’s some States they can still register, but we’re just pushing go out and vote as Tim said the other night we spoke, not just values but biblical values. And man, I’ve been in places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado, Arizona, California, you name the State and our people are ready to go vote, Rick.

Rick:

Chad, there’s a lot of pastors who listen to this program, a lot of people in the church that are active, in other words, they want to do something, not just listen. And one of the things they’re going to want to do after they hear you today is go to their pastor and say, what are we doing in our church, and what can we do? You’ve got some great videos on the website. You’ve got other tools. Is it too late now that we’re in the final weeks? Or would you recommend pastors to at least encourage people to get out to vote? What do you tell people to do in these last few weeks?

Chad:

Well, they can absolutely still do stuff. The first thing they can do is make sure only a handful of States shut down voter registration. There are a lot of States that are still doing voter registration. If somebody doesn’t know, they can text this number 76076, one word, “myvoice”, you got to put the my and the voice together, that’ll give you a link for all 50 States, you can find out where your State is.

So if you haven’t done voter registration, absolutely, yes, pastors, deacons, elders, leaders in the church, hey, pastor, let’s do voter registration drive, because you and I know, the political scientists will tell you if somebody registers this year, 82% chance they vote. So that’s the first thing.

Second thing is, hey, Pastor, Deacon, Sunday school teacher, if you’ve already passed the registration deadline, then talk about the importance. Man, Rick, I was in California a couple of weeks ago with some pastors, they said, hey, Chad, by the time we vote, the election is determined. I’m like, no, no, pastor, it’s not just about top of the ticket. It’s the mayors. It’s the school board. Look at these oppressive, arbitrary rules that some of these “leaders” are putting on churches in different States and counties across the country. Man, we got to get these ungodly, anti-biblical, anti-American people out of office. They’re putting rules on our churches that are oppressive and they’re selective too in what they’re doing.

Rick:

And what I hear you saying in that, Chad, is look even, you know, regardless of what you’re going to do on President, there is a ton at stake down ballot for religious liberty specifically, because it’s typically the mayors, county commissioners, governors in some cases that are putting these restrictions out there. So make sure you go out and vote. And pastors absolutely have the right to get up in the pulpit and say people you got to vote. This is part of our civic duty.

Chad:

Amen. It’s our biblical responsibility. It’s our Matthew 5 obligation to be salt and light, we can’t be good stewards of America. I mean, when you look around and you see these unelected health department bureaucrats setting arbitrary rules, I was in Maryland, they made a rule that no Christian school can meet until the end of the year. What? What kind of science are you basing that off? And of course, a lot of the people who are creating all these new science things don’t believe in the science of a baby being born at conception and being a life yet, so I don’t have a lot of credibility with them anyway. But let’s face it.

There are cities and counties, municipalities that have created new rules that are arbitrary out of whole cloth, thin air. So yes, pastors need to be telling their people, if you care about religious liberty, if you care about our nation, then you better go vote biblical values. I love what George Barna said recently. “This is an election not about personalities or political parties. We are going to determine the dominant worldview that our nation is here’s to what this election. It is clear than ever, Rick.

Rick:

Chad, you’ve got a great set of videos on the website that really break down a lot of the objections sometimes that people have in a church as far as getting involved at all, either having a voter registration drive or playing a video to encourage people to do their biblical civic duty. Are those videos that you recommend for people to get in front of their pastor, to encourage the pastor to play at church, what would be the best way to use those tools because they’re really well done?

Chad:

Well, thank you very much. And like I said, maybe God let me do some of this at the highest levels to see what we needed to do. I tried to do the videos, and we did 16 total podcasts, and we did separate videos on just about every issue that I had run into. I wanted to make it so that a Sunday school teacher could show it, a pastor could show it at church. As you know, they’re short 1.0, 2.0, 2.5 minute clips on everything. And we just took everything I was getting, objections, questions, real questions I was getting from pastors and faith leaders around the country, and we were trying to address those in a quick short period of time that a pastor could use in any venue they felt it.

Rick:

I love it. I love it. Well, they’re all available and for free, right? I mean, people can just go to the website, take those and air them on Sunday morning.

Chad:

That’s right. Absolutely. At faithwins.us, we, of course, pick faithwin.us for United States. We want to remind people, man, this isn’t about a person or personality, or certainly not a political party, only Jesus saves, we know that. But we as Christians have a biblical obligation to be good stewards of that which God’s given us.

And let’s face it, brother. Man, He blessed us by letting us be in America. And for all the warts and all the imperfections, this is the place where people want to come because of that thing called freedom, and we know that freedom in Christ is the only true liberty. That’s really why they want to be here. We need to preserve us a nation, Rick, and here’s our opportunity. Go out and vote biblical values.

Rick:

I love how you said that, Chad, because that’s really, you know, America has been under attack so much this year in the story of America. And I was in Georgia last night, and that was my main point was, look, you know, you wonder whether or not America is good or bad, just look at whether or not people are trying to get in or trying to get out. That’s your basic country boy test. I’m a country boy from Dripping Springs, I look at things in a very simple way. And that is a simple way of looking at it.

People are still wanting to come to America, not wanting to flee America, and it’s because of that biblical foundation. It’s because faith has won throughout our history to make us a better nation all the time, and we’ve got to continue to do that faith. Our faith leaders can’t sit on the sidelines, this is too important right now.

Chad:

No, sir. And I appreciate the good words, and I’m so glad I know you guys are out there running. Like I said, I ran into Tim at a Baptist pastors event in Virginia a week or so ago, and we’ve got to go lay it all on the line. Really and truly, this is the most important election in our lifetimes. And we as Christians, we see the impact of judges and courts, whether they’re constitutional, pro- America, and just doing their job as judges with their being an activist judge, we see the results from religious liberty, we see whether or not an administration appoints people and personnel that carry out conservative policy and things like the defense of Israel, or the sense of the unborn.

And when we see the antithesis of those things, when we see rules and policies per set for five ministrations that aren’t friendly to biblical principles, then that ought to cause us great action and activity. But we’re even seeing right now attacks on America from people that are causing destruction and mayhem and disorder. Our God is not a God of disorder and chaos, our God is a God of order. And safety and security only come from the rule of law and law and order.

Rick, I stood in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago with a local pastor, then I went to Kenosha, we did seven States in five days. A generous donor gave us this jet, or we couldn’t have done it. We did 17 meetings, I think we had over 650 pastors, seven different States in five days, and we were with the people in the States. And we went to those two cities and looked at that kind of nasty destruction that even the elected officials wouldn’t put down and stop. That’s not America. That’s not freedom. And we have the right to peaceably assemble. But I believe that is another issue that we as Christians need to pay attention to, and make sure we vote for law and order, not lawlessness and destruction.

Rick:

Amen. Amen. Faithwins.us, folks, you got to get signed up, be a part of this. And Chad, I’ll say this. I mean, with only a couple of weeks left, some people may say, well, there’s not enough time and I got other things to do. This is going to be way beyond November 3rd in terms of influence, salt and light, all the important things that you’re doing and the network that you’re building and getting churches to work and influence the culture, is so, so important. Faithwins.us.

Chad, look forward to having you back after the election as well to talk about what we do moving forward. Regardless of who wins and all these different races, our work is definitely cut out for us in the coming years to win our culture back.

Chad:

Amen. Brother, I appreciate you all. I can’t tell you what an influence you and WallBuilders and David and Cheryl, the whole family and the whole administration have been to me and I just want to thank you personally and tell you I love you, brother and God bless and keep in the fight. I’m proud to be in the trenches with you, man.

Rick:

Well, right back at you, man. Faithwins.us, folks, and oh, wait, Chad, before you go, that text again, 76…?

Chad:

76076 one word, “myvoice”, you got to put the two words together, a little auto create, you create a space, eliminate the space and put “myvoice” in the message and hit send, you’ll get a link back with all 50 States. 76076 “myvoice”.  

Rick:

76076 and put “myvoice” together, no space. Chad, bless you, brother. Thanks for coming on today.

Chad:

God bless you, brother.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks, we’re going to take a quick break. When we come back, we’ll be with David and Tim Barton.

BREAK

Hi, this is David Barton. I want to let you know about a brand new book we have out called “This Precarious Moment: Six Urgent Steps that Will Save You, Your Family, and Our Country”. Jim Garlow and I have coauthored this book, and we take six issues that are hot in the culture right now, issues that we’re dealing with, issues such as immigration, and race relations and our relationship with Israel and the rising generation Millennials in the absence of the church and the culture wars, and where American heritage is, our godly heritage.

We look at all six of those issues right now that are under attack and we give you both biblical and historical perspective on those issues that provide solutions on what each of us can do right now to make a difference. These are all problems that are solvable if we’ll get involved. So you can grab the book, “This Precarious Moment” and find out what you can do to make a difference. “This Precarious Moment” is available at wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Chad Connelly for joining us, Faith Wins, check it out, and be sure to send that text as well so that you can get your church engaged. David, Tim, as you were saying at the beginning, David, I mean, more and more pastors are doing this. There’s a courage I think, coming in response to the whole COVID situation and pastors just tired of government tell them they can’t even meet or worship.

David:

Yeah, they have seen their rights infringed a lot this year. We’ve been seeing Pastor John MacArthur, who in previous years has said, hey, I don’t think it’s right for you to vote, you shouldn’t get involved in the civil process, and you should always obey what the government tells you, and it’s wrong to have civil disobedience. He’s now engaging in civil disobedience, because I told him, he couldn’t have church.

So his experience has kind of changed his theology, or at least his beliefs in some ways. And we’re seeing that with a lot of pastors, rights? They just assumed to always be there. And even though the Constitution secures protection for those rights that God gives them, that doesn’t mean the government’s going to protect those rights and government supposed to.

So these guys, really, a lot of them have had a really polyphony over this. But I thought a point Chad made was really, really significant, is you got to vote all the way down the ballot, because you might be in California, and I think everybody expects California to go Blue, and it’s going to be a State that does not support President Trump. So why should I go vote? You should go vote, because what’s happening in your school board? What’s happening in your city council? What’s happening in places that you can control?

You might not be able to control the outcome if you live in a Blue State, if you’re in Delaware, or Connecticut, or if you’re in Washington or California say, well, they always vote Blue. Yeah, maybe they do, but not all the way down to the school board, and that’s where you can have a difference, because turnout is so poor at those lower levels.

Tim:

And more specifically, it’s when you are at the local level, you’re not voting against the whole State. So if you say my State is so liberal, or my State is this or that, well, when you’re looking at your school board, your city council, you’re talking about a 2% voter turnout in many situations. So you’re not voting against the whole State or even the whole city, and this is where Christians can get really involved in the process and make a really big difference. Because when nobody shows up, all of a sudden, the people that show up have a lot bigger voice and a lot bigger influence, because nobody’s showing up.

And probably far too often, in some of these States, there are people who don’t show up, because they think well, my voice doesn’t count, but when you have enough people thinking my voice doesn’t count that they don’t show up, all of a sudden, what could have been a swing in an election is not swung the way it could have gone because that many people didn’t show up. So Christians, we always want to make sure we show up.

And this is part of even that notion of being a steward, that you want to be a good steward of what God has given you. And we don’t want to be that one servant that when the master returns, he goes, I was so scared because I knew you were hard man, you reap what you haven’t scattered, you gather what you haven’t sown, so I buried it. But here, I’m bringing back my vote. God, I didn’t vote for the wrong person. But like, yeah, you didn’t vote at all, right. No, you should have at least invested it, and then I would have received interest on that money when I returned.

We want to be good stewards, and part of that stewardship is casting a vote. And we have many listeners and many friends in some of these very liberal states and some very liberal cities. Just because you live in a liberal city does not excuse the responsibility that God gives you to be a good steward. No, this is where, if you read through the Gospels in the parables, you’ve not been called to be successful. It doesn’t say well done, good and successful servant, it says well done good and faithful servant. You’ve been called to be faithful.

And this is where for so many pastors, if people in their church aren’t registered, man, we encourage them to get registered. And for those that are registered, we want them to vote. But as Christians, we need to be involved in this process.

David:

And I would also say, despite what I was mentioning earlier, don’t predetermine what you think the results are going to be. In the case of the last presidential election in a nation of 330 million people, you had about 130 million votes cast in the election. So there were millions and tens of millions not cast. What if they all decide to show up this time? What if California does become Red because people that have voted, get frustrated and should…? You just don’t know, you have no clue.

So as Tim said, you’ve got to be faithfulness. It’s not a matter of I can’t win or we never win or we always lose. That’s not it. You have to be faithful, and you have to be salt and light. And so the stuff that Chad has got, and by the way, I emphasize what you guys have all emphasized, but text 76076 one word, “myvoice”, text that and get voter information for your States. It’s a really easy way, it’s a really good way to get information. And if you get informed, you can make even a more substantial difference in your state, in your city, in your county.

Rick:

Well, folks, there’s something everyone can do. This isn’t one of those things where you say, well, the pastor will take care of it, oh, this will happen. Somebody else will take it. Rick and David and Tim, they’ll take it. No, everyone out there has a role to play in this. Faithwins.us. Faithwins.us. Get on there, get those tools, send it to your pastor, if you’re a pastor out there listening, get some of those videos, play them on your Sunday morning, send them an email to your congregation, get people educated to know that Christians are people of faith, that the church has a voice that is so needed in our culture right now, and we have to use that voice, we have to use these tools that we’ve been given. Now is the time, showing up for this election is going to impact us for generations. So make sure you’re encouraging your church to be engaged. Faithwins.us. Faithwins.us is the place to go. 

Visit our website today as well, wallbuilderslive.com. We’ll have a link to Faithwins.us to make it easy to get over there. And while you’re there at wallbuilderslive.com, please consider making that one time our monthly contribution, and you can also listen to some of those archived programs and some of the other links that we have there for some great tools to equip and inspire you after the election. I encourage you to start a Constitution class, I would say start it right now, but it’s only a couple of weeks away. So maybe just focus in right now on getting people to turn out to vote. But as soon as it’s over, it’s time to dive back into the history, dive back into the truth. It’s a great time for you to host a biblical citizenship class at your church or in your home or your living room. You can learn how to do all of that at constitutioncoach.com.

Thanks for listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.