Spotlight Interview: Daryl Crouch on Post-Election Opportunities and Responsibilities for Believers

We woke up November 6, knowing Donald Trump is president-elect. There are still some results pending, and it may be weeks before we know which party will control the House of Representatives, but there is a lot we do know. So, knowing what we know now, how do we respond? How are you preparing right now to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep? How do we make the most of every opportunity today and how do we hold it all in a right and righteous perspective? 

Until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, we are going to live in the midst of division. And so let us be people whose hearts are deeply concerned with the divided loyalties of individuals and the ways in which hearts are divided against God. Primarily, let us set ourselves toward the task of sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus.

Our friend, Daryl Crouch, who serves with an organization called Everyone’s Wilson, joined me to discuss the opportunities and responsibilities we have in the post-election era. 

This transcript is edited for clarity and space. Listen to the full Mornings with Carmen interview on FaithRadio.com or wherever you get podcasts.

Carmen: I had anticipated that you and I would be sitting in a waiting room together today. This would be like, Hey Daryl, what do you do when you have the prospect of sitting for hours in a waiting room? That’s the conversation I thought we were going to have today. That is not the reality that we find ourselves in. It just didn’t take the time that we had been led to believe it might take.

Daryl: Yeah, predicting the future is really not our gig either, is it?

Carmen: Oh, that’s good. That’s good. What do you have to say to us this morning? What are your thoughts as you arise?

Daryl: Yeah, and there’s a few things obviously with everyone else today, but I think political victories or political defeats, they’re not ultimate if your candidate won, you need to rejoice, you need to celebrate. That’s good. If your candidate lost, sadness is a reasonable emotion. And all of that’s fair. And I think we need to be very careful if you are on the winning side today, that we’re not dunking on other people. I think it’s important from my perspective, and I think maybe from a lot of our perspective, that political wins are not the same thing as spiritual awakenings. Political loss is not the same thing as the apocalypse. Public policy does have the power in the United States and many other places to restrain evil, to protect the vulnerable. But then it also can either open the window or close the window for gospel proclamation, for gospel mission.

So the question that I have for us and for just everyday believers is that are we taking, will we be good stewards of the opportunity that we have? It appears that the new administration is more friendly to people of biblical convictions, and I hope that’s not a political statement that incites anybody, but I just think generally speaking, they’re more faith-friendly than the current administration. And so I think if you’re a person of faith, whoever you voted for, you have a great opportunity to live out your life and with a lot of freedoms and a lot of opportunities for gospel mission. And I just think for us to, we’ve prayed, I think at least my prayer over the last several months is that God would just keep the window open. Now we know in some nations around the world, the window is not open yet the gospel is going forth with power.

Political wins are not the same thing as spiritual awakenings. Political loss is not the same thing as the apocalypse. Public policy does have the power in the United States and many other places to restrain evil, to protect the vulnerable. But then it also can either open the window or close the window for gospel proclamation, for gospel mission.

Daryl Crouch

So in Iran I think I’ve read that the Christianity is growing at over 5% every year. It’s a very oppressive government in the United States. Christianity is on the decline numerically. And so I think we got to keep all that in perspective. We obviously don’t want to be Iran or anything like that, but we do want to be good stewards of the opportunity that God’s given us to live the life he’s called us. I think today we give thanks in all things. I think all of us can do that, should do that. We should pray for our governing authorities. All of us should do that. We should keep in step with the Holy Spirit, be filled with the spirit and let him bear fruit in our lives. And we know what that looks like in terms of love, joy, peace, patience and all the rest, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. I think you talked about the golden rule earlier, and then again, taking every opportunity we can to invite people to follow Jesus with us and say, Hey, come, will you follow Jesus with me? And so I think keeping the mission and the sovereign hand of a good God in perspective today is a really good place to start.

Carmen: Talk with us about the importance of thinking very, very locally today about who has been elected in our communities and how you would encourage us as Christians to press in locally to the conversations that are happening.

Daryl: That’s so good. And I think that’s the most exciting opportunity that we have, that we stop waving at our neighbors and we start engaging with our neighbors and asking questions and being friends. I think the local, we talk about all politics is local, and that’s true. So as public policy and all the things that come with politics, I think it’s important. It’s a good opportunity for us to just be reminded that the community events, the Christmas parade, the fall festivals that happen in the city park or in your HOA park, all of us can’t do everything, but as we are involved in our local communities, we’ll get to know these people. We’ll get to know these folks are very accessible. They’re very willing to share their cell numbers with you. They’re very willing to have lunch or coffee with you. They’re very willing to have a conversation with you as you’re watching your kids slide down the slide at the local park.

And so that gives us both an opportunity and a responsibility to come beside them as friends to ask questions about how they see the future of our city or our county, whatever it may be. And so it’s a great opportunity, I think for us to not know who those folks are, to not have any opportunity to engage in them is really a missed opportunity. And it is interesting, however, even in communities like ours, which is relatively small, our county is about 150 to a hundred, probably close to 160,000 people now. So not a big place, but not a small place. But you can get to know a lot of people if you’ll get involved in a few different areas outside of your church and hopefully you’re involved in your church and very active. But I find that there’s a lot of active church leaders that don’t know those people you just listed, that have never had a conversation with them, that don’t have any opportunity to engage with them.

And so I think to be intentional where you can’t do everything, but where you can, and that really begins to affect the way your neighbors live out their life. And certainly national policies are important for all the reasons we know, but politics is local and there’s a lot of influence that a few people—the voting turnout this year on this cycle has been really strong— but in off years it’s not. It’s really a sad metric when you think about how few people vote in most local elections. And so we just have such an opportunity as Christians to shape our communities if we’ll get

Carmen: Involved. Yeah, I mean in some places it’s not a few thousand votes, it’s a few hundred votes in those off year elections. And so yeah, when we talk about the language of taking advantage— I want to use it the right way, but taking advantage of the opportunity that we have to make our voice heard to participate in local and state and national government. I don’t want to miss the opportunity that others died to win the right for me to have. There’s a part of this, Daryl, that feels like a responsibility in a good way, not a responsibility that’s a burden, but a responsibility that’s a privilege. And that’s sort of in my view, that’s like the positive patriotism that sometimes we don’t talk enough about. So today seems like a good day to honor the fact that millions of people did take seriously the privilege of voting and making their voices heard. And we should not just pass by this national election without saying we live in a great time, in a great place with great opportunity to do great good. And nobody listening should miss those opportunities.

Daryl: Absolutely. And doing is better than talking, right? I mean, we talk a lot and that’s a good thing. But actually engaging and finding out I’m in a civic organization that is just incredible doing all kinds of wonderful things. And those wonderful things aren’t always evangelistic. Obviously it’s a civic organization, not a religious organization, but I mean we’re delivering spaghetti meals to senior adults. We’re helping the local habitat build. There’s just so many opportunities if people engage that, that let us get to know our neighbors in very tangible ways. And obviously as Christians, those opportunities are leveraged for gospel mission, for gospel conversations, for care and nurturing of relationships. And so that’s what makes local communities so great. That’s what makes our towns great to live in and places that we want our kids running around in and where our kids don’t want to move away when they get married and have kids.

They want to live in this community that we’ve built together. And so I think we have so many opportunities and voting is one of those, like you said, just a privilege and a responsibility that we have. And so if you’ve voted this cycle, you’ve done the right thing and you’ve participated, but then there’s opportunities today as well, and there’s opportunities tomorrow as well to be just as powerful of an influence, salt and light in your community. And so I think patriotism again, opens the window for even greater works and that are redeeming and that are life-giving to you and to your neighbors, and that give us an opportunity. Then what happens amazingly is the next election is also influenced by the way we steward the relationships we have today.

There will be conversations today consumed with one particular kingdom of this world known as the United States of America. But the greater concern that you and I should have about every person we encounter today is whether or not they are a Big K Kingdom person. Are they a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? Do they know the reality of the grace of God in Jesus Christ? Do they know the way home? Do they know his name? Do they know Jesus as the way and the truth and the life?

Carmen

Carmen: The next election is influenced by how we respond even today to the election that has just concluded. And so maybe we can’t emphasize too much the calling upon Christians to be light today and to be prayerful today and to be responsible today and to recognize the eternal nature of God’s sovereignty over all things. And that not everyone who we will encounter today is yet a kingdom person. They are a “kingdoms-of-this-world person” for sure. And there will be conversations today consumed with one particular kingdom of this world known as the United States of America. But the greater concern that you and I should have about every person we encounter today is whether or not they are a Big K Kingdom person. Are they a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? Do they know the reality of the grace of God in Jesus Christ? Do they know the way home? Do they know his name? Do they know Jesus as the way and the truth and the life? Have they come to the Father through the Son by the power of the Spirit? And so let’s be those people today who are consumed with that concern and question for our neighbors, even as we do press into the fullness of the freedoms that we have in this great land in which we live.