L ast November, I was struck by a disconcerting thought: The next U.S. presidential election is only one year away. I sat and stared at the wall of my study as the thought rumbled through my mind. How bad is it going to be this time? We managed to survive the 2016 and 2020 elections alright, but that doesn’t mean anything for this election. Who will leave our church in this election cycle? How do I even begin to prepare myself and my congregation for whatever comes? If I just eat donuts when I feel anxiety will that help?
Maybe it was PTSD from the last two election cycles and I was overreacting. To check this theory, I called four pastoral colleagues in my city and asked if they’d be willing to have a conversation about the upcoming election. Each of them expressed gratitude for the call and quickly jumped at the opportunity to talk about the coming election season with other pastors.
Their readiness to accept my invitation surprised me, but it probably shouldn’t have. The impact of national politics on churches is responsible for a lot of spilt ink, and for good reason. Since the Civil Rights Era, there has been a significant realignment of the United States’s two political parties. There was once diversity within the parties. Conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans comfortably existed among their colleagues. But in the last 60 years, the parties have become ideologically uniform. There is one conservative party; there is one liberal party. As a result, the partisan divide has increased.
The shift in the political parties has happened alongside a revolution in the media landscape. In the past, if one wanted to get news about the day, they had a limited number of choices. But now, one can get news from whatever kind of source they want. As creatures who trust those in our tribe before others, the natural thing to do is get our news from like-minded people. The result, however, is only to increase the gap between people of difference. More than ever, our ideologies, worldviews, and narratives about what America is and who an American is are isolated from one another.
Related: People are being discipled by their cable news choices
The difficult task before us
My pastoral colleagues and I gathered in my study at church and began sharing our concerns and anxieties about the current political landscape. Our concerns were not merely theoretical. Each of us had stories that gave us reason to be apprehensive about November 2024. Around the circle we shared: a parishioner who had accused us of being political when we weren’t meaning to be; a group questioning the church’s leadership by parroting political talking points; congregation members leaving because we were too political, others leaving because we weren’t political enough.
The effects of the partisan divide were manifesting in our churches.
Related: Richard Mouw on disagreeing with convicted civility
In the past decade, it has become more difficult for people with differing political views to remain connected. A 2019 study found that a child choosing to marry someone who belonged to the opposing political party would be more troubling than marrying someone of a different faith. As much as we hope the church would be immune from this division, sadly, it is not. Pastors across the country are struggling to navigate the partisan divide and remain relationally connected with people of varied political persuasions.
Casting vision for a community that is committed to reconciling those with differences is some of the most difficult pastoral work in this cultural moment because it cuts against the cultural currents. From 2016 to 2022, there was a pronounced increase in the negative perspectives Americans had towards those across the political aisle. According to a 2016 Pew Research Report, “in 2016, 47% of Republicans and 35% of Democrats said members of the other party were more immoral than other Americans; that increased to 55% and 47%, respectively, in 2019.” In 2022, that number grew to 72% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats seeing those in the other party as immoral.
How do you reconcile people with those who they see as immoral? Is that possible? How will trying to reconcile them impact my congregation? How will not trying impact my congregation?
Related: How to navigate and resolve family conflict in a healthy way
Christ holds all things together
When my oldest son was three, he randomly looked at me and asked, “Do you want to know how strong God’s love is?” I expected him to compare God’s love to Superman or the sun or his dad’s biceps—you know, something tangible that he had experience with. But then he said, “He’s so strong that he can make things that are enemies to be friends.” I wish I could take credit for my son’s theological acumen, but I can’t. That one was all him. Ten years later, when I am anxious about whether it is possible for the Republicans and Democrats in my congregation to be reconciled, I need to be reminded of that truth.
In Christ, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. Through Christ, those who were enemies of God in their minds have become friends. Not slaves. Not servants. Friends. This is our gospel hope. And that gospel hope is not relegated to our individual relationships with God, but it permeates every relationship. If we, sinners, can be reconciled to God, we can be reconciled to one another.
Related: What it means to live in the middle and be a peacebuilder
This is the belief of The Colossian Forum. Based upon Colossians 1:17, they believe that Christ “holds all things together.” My pastoral colleagues and I contacted The Colossian Forum early this year. We each took a team of people through their WayFinder training. And then, this summer, I took ten people from my congregation through The Colossian Forum’s new curriculum, OneAnothering. OneAnothering is a curriculum designed to cultivate Christian mindsets and habits that enable us to express Christian virtues in the midst of polarizing politics.
In our class, we had Republicans and Democrats; there were people who were pro-life and pro-choice; there were people who were more conservative in their thoughts about human sexuality and people who were more liberal; we had people who were gun owners and people who wanted more gun law reforms. The potential for things to get ugly was absolutely present. But it never did. We learned how to practice curiosity, to be charitable in our assumptions about another, to not assume that we knew a person’s motivations, and to accept that we are all trying to be faithful in a world where perfect solutions to life’s most complicated questions do not exist.
Most importantly, we learned that in our differences, we can remain relationally connected because we all belong to Christ. And that’s the most important thing we needed to learn.
Rev. Nate Pyle
Nate Pyle is a pastor, author, and coach. In addition to being a pastor and coach, Nate is an author. His first book,Man Enough: How Jesus Redefines Manhood, was released in 2015. He also contributed toLearning Change: Congregational Transformation Fueled by Personal Renewal.Nate’s second book,More Than You Can Handle: When Life’s Overwhelming Pain Meets God’s Overcoming Grace, released in March of 2019.