Lately, I have been telling people that the problems we face are not a matter of too little government.
They are a matter of too little God.
That may sound strange coming from someone who has spent more than 25 years involved in local government. I believe government matters. I believe public service matters. I believe law, order, budgets, roads, public safety, land use, and local accountability matter. I have spent a pretty good chunk of my adult life in rooms where those things are discussed, debated, funded, unfunded, overcomplicated, and occasionally made better.
But the longer I serve in government, the more convinced I become that government is often being asked to fill a space it was never created to fill.
People come to government asking it to solve homelessness, hunger, loneliness, addiction, broken families, fatherlessness, despair, and moral confusion. Those are real problems. They are human problems. They are neighbor problems. They deserve serious attention.
But they are not problems government can finally redeem.
Government can restrain evil. It can preserve order. It can protect the vulnerable. It can punish wrongdoing. It can maintain basic public structures. Romans 13 gives civil authority a real and serious role.
But government cannot disciple a father, restore a marriage, teach repentance, create neighbor love, rebuild a conscience, or make a broken soul whole.
For the government to get smaller, people need to realize just how big God is.
That is why I am launching The Faithful Citizen.
The website category says it this way:
Christian worldview commentary and explainers from an average sinner (me), examining public issues through Scripture and helping Christians think clearly and act faithfully.
That is exactly what I want this to be.
Not a sermon.
Not a Republican mailer with Bible verses taped to it.
Not a rage machine for Christians who need one more reason to yell at their phone before breakfast.
The Faithful Citizen is my attempt, as an average sinner saved by grace, to look at the world, open God’s Word, and ask what faithfulness requires.
I have watched people increasingly come to government asking “the government” to fix problems that should first be addressed by families, churches, neighbors, charities, communities, and faithful people willing to get close enough to the pain to actually help.
The requests are often noble. People see suffering and want action. That instinct is not wrong. Christians should never mock compassion. We should just insist that compassion be rooted in truth.
A hungry person may need food tonight. A homeless person may need shelter. A struggling family may need help. But if our only answer is another government program, we may be treating the symptom while ignoring the deeper wound.
Government makes a terrible savior.
It can write checks, create programs, hire staff, build systems, and regulate behavior. Sometimes that is necessary. Sometimes it is even helpful.
But it cannot do the work God assigned to His people. And it cannot heal a broken heart and a bruised soul.
Here is the uncomfortable part. Conservatives often say we want smaller government. I believe many of us mean it. But when hard issues show up, even conservatives can quickly ask, “What is the government going to do about it?”
Homelessness gets worse. What is the government going to do?
Families fall apart. What is the government going to do?
Children are hungry. What is the government going to do?
People are lonely, addicted, fatherless, anxious, confused, and spiritually lost. What is the government going to do?
That question is sometimes appropriate. But if it is always our first question, something is wrong.
Nature abhors a vacuum. So does public life.
When churches grow quiet, government grows loud. When families fracture, bureaucracies multiply. When neighbors stop knowing each other, agencies step in. When Christians retreat from mercy, justice, truth, service, and leadership, somebody else fills the empty space.
And not every replacement comes wearing a name tag that says, “Hi, I’m here to help.”
When church leaders and Christian people say, “We cannot house the homeless. We cannot feed the hungry. We cannot aid the poor. We cannot help broken families. We cannot speak to public issues. We cannot get involved because that would be political,” we should not be surprised when government charges in to take the territory.
The devil loves a vacuum. And he is perfectly happy to ride in on the back of government power when Christians abandon their rightful work.
That does not mean every government program is evil. It does not mean every public servant is corrupt. It does not mean Christians should sneer at people who need help. God forbid.
It means Christians need to recover a biblical view of responsibility.
Jesus did not tell His disciples to hide until heaven. He gave the Great Commission. He told His people to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything He commanded. That is not a private little religious hobby. That is a whole-life mission under the authority of Christ.
If Jesus is Lord over all of life, then He is Lord over how we treat the poor, how we raise children, how we form families, how we serve neighbors, how we vote, how we govern, how we speak, how we build institutions, and how we resist evil.
Christians should not worship politics.
But Christians should stop pretending politics has nothing to do with discipleship.
The Faithful Citizen exists because I want to examine the issues facing our world through a biblical worldview. Not through cable news panic. Not through party talking points. Not through whatever slogan is currently trending among people who think compassion means spending money they do not have on programs they do not understand.
Through Scripture.
That means asking better questions.
What does God’s Word say? What is government actually responsible for? What belongs to the family? What belongs to the church? What belongs to neighbors and local community? Who is being harmed? Who is being helped? Are we protecting the vulnerable or creating dependency? Are we practicing mercy or outsourcing obedience? Are we seeking justice or just building another expensive machine with a nice brochure?
The Faithful Citizen is not about making Christians angrier. We have enough angry Christians. Half of them need a nap and the other half need to log off.
This is about helping Christians become more faithful.
Faithful in prayer, yes.
Faithful in service, yes.
Faithful in truth, yes.
Faithful in public life, yes.
Sometimes that means voting. Sometimes it means running for office. Sometimes it means serving on a school board, helping at a food pantry, mentoring a young father, fostering a child, supporting a pregnancy center, visiting the lonely, challenging a bad policy, attending a public meeting, or simply refusing to let government become the substitute parent, pastor, neighbor, and savior.
The church does not need to become the state.
The state does not need to become the church.
But Christians do need to become Christians in public again.
The Great Commission calls us to make disciples and teach obedience to Christ. That includes obedience in the home, in the church, in the workplace, in the neighborhood, and yes, in the public square.
So that is why I am launching The Faithful Citizen.
I am not doing it because politics is ultimate. It is not.
I am doing it because Christ is Lord, people matter, government has limits, the church has responsibilities, and silence is not always faithfulness.
If we want smaller government, we need bigger faith. Not louder faith. Not performative faith. Not bumper-sticker faith.
Real faith.
Faith that feeds people, tells the truth, raises children, serves neighbors, builds institutions, enters public life, resists evil, and remembers that God is not small simply because our politics has become so big.
Look at the world. Open the Word. Think clearly. Get political as a Christian. Act faithfully.
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