Pastor Josh Howerton of Lakepointe Church, a multi-state congregation in Dallas, has a reputation for helping believers put their faith into action.
He’s also not afraid to share politically incorrect or even unpopular facts regarding concerning trends in American Christianity. Speaking recently on his podcast, Live Free with Josh Howerton, the 42-year-old mega pastor stated:
“If you want the advancement of the Gospel and the growth of the church to get significantly smothered in your state or your city, here’s all you gotta do. Let it go blue. That’s simply what data shows. I’ll say it like this. Show me a map of the most progressive areas in our nation. Then show me a map of the areas in our nation that have the fewest churches. It’s the same map.”
Pew Research data shows that states with the fewest churches include Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon, Massachusetts and Hawaii.
Pastor Howerton, though, isn’t crunching the numbers for politically partisan reasons but rather for evangelistic outreach. Instead, he notes that political conservatism serves as a good prelude to reaching people for Christ.
“It is a significant and powerful force for pre-evangelism because it installs a plausibility structure in the populace that leads to intuitively understanding Christianity is true, right, and good.”
Pastor Howerton then goes on to say something that may make some people very uncomfortable:
“In order to accomplish the Great Commission, we need to advocate for it at the political level. When political conservatism spreads, more people become Christians. And when political progressivism spreads, less people become Christians.”
Why is this the case?
The New Testament talks about laws. The book of Galatians talks about laws. It talks about the law as a teacher. What people do not understand is that laws in a nation, they have what Christians have historically called a didactic function. Laws do not simply legislate right and wrong. They teach the populace what’s right and wrong.
Laws calibrate the consciences of a nation. If you start swimming in the streams of truth and liberty, you’re eventually going to find its source. Conservatism in general calibrates the conscience in such a way that it pushes people toward the God from whom the principles came.
As social conservatives, we’re drawn to and encouraged to preserve and protect God’s most fundamental and foundational institutions and values. These include the uniqueness and distinctiveness of male and female, the sacredness of human life from conception to death, the beauty of one-man, one-woman marriage, and our rights to worship and live out our faith in the public square.
Radical progressivism pushes to upend societal norms by redefining and reimagining and reengineering what God has established.
“Progressivism, particularly secular progressivism, calibrates the consciences of people away from what is true, right, and good,” observes Pastor Howerton. “It teaches people to call evil things good and good things evil. And you can do that with abortion, with gay marriage, with trans stuff, with redistribution of wealth, all the things, literally all the things.”
Our faith informs our politics – but our politics will also help shape faith and provide us with opportunities talk about the life saving and transformational power of Jesus Christ.
Image credit: Josh Howerton
