Attention. You're listening to the top Huff radio show, America's home for a
conservative not bitter talk radio. Be advised. The content of this program has
been documented to prevents and he didn't cure liberalism, and listening may cause you
to lean to the right. Here's your conservative but not Bitter host, Tod
Huff. Hey, everybody, this is actually John Crane. I have the
privilege of being able to sit in the guest chair today. I'm always grateful
when Todd Huff invites me to come down and be able to guest host the
show, and I have a very very exciting show for you today. I
have the opportunity to bring in a good friend of mine who I'll introduce here
in just a minute. We recently had the opportunity to go down to Mexico
City and do some political leadership training down there that was intended to try to
help really leaders from all over Latin America be able to get a better sense
of how can we actually impact not only the lives but also the leadership of
our elected officials. And so I was actually part of a trio from here
in Indiana that went down and spent about three days down there doing some leadership
training. We had the opportunity to go to their national Congress and we were
invited into that space by one of their Really, it would be the equivalent
of one of our congressmen. It would be like being in Washington, d
C. Only it was Mexico City for the country of Mexico. And so
we were hosted there and got a chance to speak in the Congress, and
then spent the next two days being able to do some actual leadership training at
a megachurch down there in Mexico City. So in light of that, I
decided to invite my very good friend Matt Barnes to come in and to kind
of have a conversation with us about not only that trip, but also the
good work that he's doing. He is part of an organization called Public Servants
Prayer. He is officially the head chaplain at our state House here in the
state of Indiana, and he's got a great team around him that's doing some
fantastic work. They've been doing it for twenty years in this state. And
so I just want to say welcome Matt onto the Todd huff Show. Glad
to have you here, Senator Crane, it is great to be with you
and glad to be on air. This is wonderful. Well, in light
of your role in the leadership that you've been able to have here in the
state of Indiana, I'd like for you to be able to give our audience
just a little bit of a background on public servants prayer. How did you
get started? What is it that you all do? Well? Thank you,
John, and again it's good to be with you, and truly inside
the State House. I have discovered that politicians are people, and I know
there are folks out there that that can't be possible, but they are.
And I love political leaders, and that seems like an odd thing to say,
you know, as I love politicians, and I often tell people it's
because politicians are people and God loves people. Ergo, God loves politicians,
and so then I will often have an audience say that with me. You
know, I love politicians, and it makes people uncomfortable, but I think
that's it's important for us as we think about For me, as a believer,
I'm told to pray for those in authority over me, and I find
it impossible to hate somebody i'm praying for. So that turned into twenty years
ago, that turned into a ministry where I walked into the State House ask
if I could meet with my elected leaders and I began to ask them how
I could pray for them, and God started a ministry right there in late
two thousand and four, and so it's been it's been the honor of a
lifetime to be in that building and as you say, in that space,
to begin to find out how political leaders think, what they're going through in
their life, because again they're just people, so there's just there's family issues.
There are all sorts of ministry opportunities in the capital and it's been a
thrill to be able to do that for the last twenty years. And over
those twenty years, you know, it started with just you, but that
team has grown about how big is your team now at the State House.
So we have about three well with an intern now for full time folks,
and then we have many volunteers, six or seven volunteers, and we look
to plant. What we want to do is encourage local churches to begin to
go into county courthouses, city halls, because if we're to pray for our
leaders, we need to find out how to pray for them. And so
going in and listening is very helpful in determining how to pray for political leaders.
So we've got a great team all over Indiana. And it's ironic,
right because in the political space, usually people are down there focused on advocacy,
and certainly there's a place for that. We hear at the top Tuff
Show talk about advocacy quite a bit, But tell us a little bit about
a little further about the approach that you've taken of just offering to pray for
people and how that has opened doors not just into their lives, but really
in being able to have genuine and meaningful, sustained impact in the lives of
the political leaders. As you know as a senator, everybody in that building
wants something from you. Yeah, there was a former senator that he came
to me. He said, everybody in this building wants something from me except
you, Matt, and so I want that to always be the case.
We don't want anything from those leaders. What we want to do is be
a blessing to them, and we establish peer based ministry because we come alongside.
The difficult thing about once you get elected you have lots of friends.
Yes, that's exactly right to go but yes, I've become very popular.
Correct. Yeah. Years ago I think it was The Onion put out an
article and it was the headline was Congressman shocked to discover lobbyist really not his
friend, and so exactly the whole satire article was, Oh, we used
to go to games together and meals together. He'd laugh at all my jokes.
And then I didn't vote in the way he wanted me to, and
he doesn't like me anymore. He's not my friend. Then he dogs.
There's a lot of those quote unquote friends in Indiana. In fact, we
have more than fifteen hundred registered lobbyists. And when you figure there are one
hundred members of the House of Representatives fifty members of the Senate, that's a
ten to one margin from lobby to lobbyist to legislator ratio. So we want
to be that entity in the building that says we love you, we care
about you, and we want to pray for you, with no strings attached,
no ulterior motive, no hidden agenda. And now I will tell you
John that it took the better part of nine years for them to actually believe
me. Yeah, tell us a little bit about that. There's always a
natural skepticism in the political well, yes, especially you get a pastor coming
in, clearly he's got an agenda. And so I just would sit in
the galleries in the House in the Senate for nine years. I sat there
until finally a legislator in the House said, you know, we have a
pastor of the day every day that comes in to pray and start each session
of the House and Senate in prayer, and we just don't have a lot
of time. We're running from bill to bill and committee to committee. Would
you be able to come down meet that pastor of the day, talk with
him, orient them to the process, and then we'll come in and say
hi and get started on session. So it gave me a quote unquote job
to do, and so it was an honor to be on the floor.
In fact, they say all unauthorized individuals leave the House chamber, leave the
Senate chamber, and they finally got the golden ticket. I did. And
so typically the pastor will leave right after he here she prays. They leave,
Yeah, and then there's this seat sitting there with their reserved stick around
it, And I thought, well, if they're going to leave, I
might as well sit, And so I began sitting there and that just turned
into me being on the floor all the time. Whenever the House or Senator
in session, we are there and we're praying and creating that pastoral presence in
the arena. So that's how it happened. It was just over time creating
trusts, and that trust turns into influencing the lives of leaders. Yeah,
and I will tell you from my perspective as one of those elected leaders,
having been in the Senate for many, many years now, I often tell
audiences when they ask about the role that you all play, that it's really
a ministry of presence, and that is being present in the room and knowing,
especially when there's some really really difficult bills or people's emotions are getting all
fired up about a variety of different things, to know that I can always
kind of look over my shoulder and look in the back of the room and
see you or a member of your team back there, just present and praying,
and that's a huge lift in those moments. Well. Pastoral presence is
highly important and valued. In fact, the former Speaker of the House at
one of our events, we have a State House prayer service at the beginning
of every year where we invite Hoosiers to come in. Hundreds of Hoosiers come
in to pray within for their leaders. And at that event several years ago,
former Speaker Brian Bosma, he surprised me. He says, hey,
Matt, can I jump up and do well? Of course, you do
whatever you want, you know. He jumps up on the stage. Yes,
mister Smith, Yes, yes, he jumps up on the stage,
and in front of all these hundreds of people, he said, I just
want to commend public servants prayer and their team. He says, they have
fundamentally changed the atmosphere and the culture of the State House. And he says,
I know for sure that has happened because as legislators get up and they
want to speak and may want to say something not very nice about one of
their fellow legislators, they look over and they see that there's a pastor sitting
there praying for them, and it changes the tone and the tenor in the
room. And so that's been what a blessing to be able to provide that
pastoral presence. I am a representative and I have to remind myself when I
walk in that intimidating building every day that I'm a representative too. I just
represent the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not representing constituents in a district, but
I represent him and so hopefully when they see me, they see the Lord.
And beyond that. I know that you are very diligent about not doing
a lot of preaching. But there is a regular Bible study that you conduct,
is that right? Yes? Every week? In fact, there's a
there's a couple Bible several Bible studies going on in the Capitol. So every
Tuesday morning during session, we have a legislative Bible study that you are obviously
very faithful lot, and in fact it's grown. When I first walked in
twenty years ago, there were four or five legislators. Today there's thirty five
to forty. They gather in the Governor's office and gather around the Word of
God to pray with one another and study the Word. That's remarkable. I
think that should excite some believers in the state of Indiana that that's going on
in your capitol. Yeah. I think it puzzles some believers in Indiana that
there's any believers in the capitol, and yet there are, and it's a
regular thing. This is awesome. This is awesome. This is why I'm
so grateful that you're able to be here and able to kind of give us
that insider perspective on how you can have meaningful influence and impact in the lives
of leaders. This is a fantastic conversation. We're gonna continue this on the
other side of the break. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back on
the Todd Huff Radio Show. Hey, this is John Crane filling in for
Todd Huff on the Todd Huff Show. We are in the middle of a
really fascinating conversation. We're doing less issues today and more focus on how we
can have impact with our political leaders. I'm here with my very good friend
and colleague Matt Barnes, who is with Public Servants per and they've been serving
in the state capital of Indiana for twenty years, and we've been getting into
kind of the history of public servants prayer and really how coming in and trying
to serve politicians has opened the door for influence both in their life and in
their leadership. As I mentioned at the top of the show, one of
the things that we were able to do very recently was to go down to
Mexico City for three days of leadership training in their state or in their federal
capital, but also in a local megachurch down there. They brought leaders from
all over Mexico and Latin America to be able to be a part of this
conference, and it was hosted by an organization called Parliament and Faith. Matt,
I know you've been involved with them for quite some time. Tell us
a little bit more about Parliament and Faith and the founder and what they do.
Sure, I met Luciano Bangarra. He is from buenas Airis, Argentina,
and I met him seventeen years ago and heard his passion. For he
previously was doing ministry to athletes, that was his thing, and then he
just transferred that focus to the political arena and started a ministry in Buenis Airi's
Argentina. And as he grew, the ministry grew there at morns Aires,
he began to see that there was a need for ministry in the political arena
and capitals around the world, and that has grown now into a worldwide ministry,
a global ministry to political types and political leaders. So that's what this
was. A regional meeting, a conference that we were at recently, and
so, like you say, it was Mexico, it was all around Central
America and those there is a seed being planted, and is exciting to see
that there are people willing to go into the political arena with no agenda,
with no desire to accomplish some sort of advocacy other than we want political leaders
to know the love of Jesus and the forgiveness found in Christ. Well,
and I think it's fascinating too because oftentimes, as I often tell audiences,
people generally, and it's not just Americans, I think people all of the
world have a negative impression of political leaders. And I'm only half joking when
I talk about the meaning of politics. Right, So, Polly is many
and ticks are blood sucking creatures, and that is what the vast majority of
the average citizens automatically assume about elected officials. Unfortunately, like so many situations
in life, there are always some bad apples that taint the entire bunch,
and we have to try to work to overcome that. And so I remember
one of the very first conversations that you and I had when I came into
our Indiana Senate was explaining to you my desire to not just be a senator,
but really to be a catalyst for redemptive good in the political arena,
and my secondary goal was to try to redeem the reputation of the politician.
How have you seen that play out in the ministry opportunities that you've had both
in our state but also some of these conferences that you've been able to be
a part of. I'll never forget that first conversation you and I had because
I looked at you and I said, please unpack that a little bit for
me, a little more for me, and you did, and you've walked
it out, Yes, you have. And it's that's been encouraging. And
what I have seen over the course of twenty years. When you say twenty
years, it sounds like a lot of fact that we're getting. Well.
Yeah. And also, you know, when I started in the state US,
I was I had hair, you know, and I'm clearly follically challenged
now. And so as we started the ministry there and there were there was
a core of folks that love the Lord and would come to that Bible study.
But what we've seen is that as we come in and we encourage folks
to gather together. One person strengthens another person. Right to that old Billy
Graham quote, you know when one person stands, the backs of others are
stiffened as well, something like that is what he said. And so we've
seen that happen in our capital, and there becomes an accountability. Right.
So you're sitting in a Bible study together, and and by the way,
John, as you know, we've got all four caucuses represented in the Bible
study, right, So I know there are folks like that can't be possible.
There's there's Christian republic, There's there's Republicans that are Christians. There are
Democrats that are Christians. The answer is yes. And so sitting on that
table, there's a senator that says, it's really hard for me to sit
there, and I'm praying with this particular senator that's from the other party.
And then in the afternoon, I'm debating them on the floor and I can't
go hit them upside that because I've discovered that they have prayer needs, they've
got family problems, and they end up loving that member. And so it
is created an atmosphere of care. I know we often say that we want
people say we want civility in politic in the political world, and I often
tell legislators in our state House that civility is a really low bar. I
mean that just means I have to tolerate you, when in fact, according
to the Word of God, I need to love you, and that's a
much higher bar. And so we've seen that culture change in our capital.
And I know in this segment we started with talking about how we ended up
in Mexico City, some people maybe are a little puzzled by you know,
you start this ministry in the capitol and the state of Indiana. How do
you then find yourself in some of these overseas venues working with leaders from other
countries. How did that evolve? Well, the fact is there is a
pastoral vacuum in the political arena, and so once you begin to start that
and begin to create pastoral care in the political arena, what happens is because
there's so few people out there doing it, you end up connecting with other
people that are doing that, and that has led to going to other places.
And because of there's such a vacuum and there are so many people that
need that ministry, and yet there's so few that do it now being twenty
years in here this season, they kind of yeah, they to see me
as the seasoned guy, like come tell us, And I often tell them,
you know, I can at least tell you what not to do because
I've had twenty years of experience. This is what not to do. What
to do We're still working on and so that's how I'm fine. But even
still, though, John, I find myself in those arenas and I have
to pinch myself, like what am I doing here? I'm just like I
was a homeschooled kid from South East Indiana. What am I doing? But
it's God. He's the one who opens the doors and and we just keep
walking through them. But it is amazing. Back to your point though,
about the idea of politics being a dirty arena, there was a quote and
it was it was profound down in Mexico, and it got through the translation
our our intern this year is thankfully bilingual. I suffer from monolingualism, and
so that's that's my bad. But through the translation it came something like,
there was a guy who felt called to the political arena. He's a Christian
that went to his mom and his passions. I feel called to the political
arena, and his mom said, no, you can't do that because it's
like a sewer. And I thought, you know, that's in Mexico,
but that's also in the United States. Well, And I shared a story
even from one of my my local church. We had a guest speaker who
came in and was talking about kind of his formative years and where he was
wanting to go vocationally, and ultimately he ended up doing some what we would
call apologetics ministry of how to defend the Christian faith. But at the time,
prior to that, he was doing some finance and the economics. But
as he was describing this journey, he shared in this very large auditorium that
originally he had thought about wanting to get in politics to try to make a
difference. And I'll never forget listening to that because the audience laughed. They
were laughing at the fact that he wanted to make a difference. Yeah,
there was this idea that you could actually make a difference in politics. And
I'm sitting there as a sitting State senator, thinking, you know, that's
part of our problem is that from a spiritual standpoint or a worldview standpoint,
we get so focused on the advocacy and the issues that we don't often go
back and source those. Right, If I take a particular political position or
a philosophical position, you know, at some point I have to ask myself,
why why do I have this position? And well, because I believe
this? Well, why do I believe this? Well? Because I believe
that Ultimately, you know, does God have something to say about everything or
not? And the answer is yes, because he created the system. And
as we know, you know Romans thirteen, Yes, the idea of government
originated from God himself. And so after the break, I want us to
unpack that a little further, just for our audience, because I think sometimes
many times with talk radio shows, we talk about the issues and we don't
often connect the dots for people. And I think it's really really important for
us to understand our why behind the positions that we take, or the policy
that we try to move, or even the approach that we might be trying
to take with our elected officials. Why we need to be thoughtful in terms
of how we think and how we act. And so we're getting ready to
take another break, but we're going to pick up this conversation and talking about
some of the why behind this whole thing. Don't go away. We'll be
right back on the Todd Radio Show. Hey, this is John Crane.
I'm privileged to be able to guest host the Todd Huff Radio Show today,
and we've been in the middle of a really fascinating conversation with my very good
friend and colleague Matt Barnes, who heads up the Public Servants Prayer Team at
the Indiana State Capitol here in the state of Indiana. They've been doing it
for twenty years and really wanting to come alongside elected officials and frankly all the
staff, anybody who works in the State House and trying to administer them starting
with prayer, but also then morphing into being able to really interact with them
personally and build meaningful connections with them. As we've mentioned, we spent some
time to get down in Mexico City recently, and that's part of the reason
why I wanted to invite Matt onto the show today, so that we could
provide some perspective on what we learned there and what we experience. It's very
easy for us to kind of get insulated, especially here in the American culture,
but oftentimes if we've ever been outside of the country or even in another
part of the country that's unfamiliar to us. It provides some needed perspective.
One of the things that we were talking about before the break was this idea
of really trying to help people connect the dots in terms of why we believe
what we believe about certain things. And I know, for you all in
the ministry space, you are not doing a lot of advocacy at all,
other than advocating for politicians, which is kind of ironic, right, But
your job is not to necessarily advocate for or against a particular issue. You
don't want the politics to get in the way of the person. Unpack that
a little bit for us in terms of the approach that you all take that
might be a little different than perhaps the approach that other folks have taken,
and even other Christians or Conservatives. So what we do is, in looking
at scripture, does God care about good law and good leadership? And the
answer is a resounding yes. And so you look at the first five books
of the Bible, their books of the law. Then you get into books
of leadership like Joshua, Judges and Ruth even having an impact. She became
the great grandmother of King David, and so you begin to see that God
cares about good law and good leadership. Then you fast forward in the in
the Old Testament and you see prophets, and who did the prophets minister to?
They ministered to the kings, and so where there was a king,
there was a man of God. And so our heart in the ministry is
to come alongside leaders and encourage, pray for and then we're helpful. And
so oftentimes a political leader will come and say, hey, this is this
is what I'm struggling with, or this even maybe there's a bill that they're
like, hey, this is coming up. What does the Bible say?
Remember, very vividly early on in the ministry, a legislater are coming to
me and say, you're a pastor, what's the Bible say about this?
And what's your opinion? And I remember distinctly saying, well, my opinion
doesn't matter, but the Bible can speak, and we'll let because that's what
those prophets are saying to the kings. Right, Thus saith the Lord and
be able to speak for the Lord. And so we do that through the
word of God. Now that's our heart as we come alongside leadership and helping
them do what they do better, because the proverbs say that when the righteous
rule, the people rejoice, and that's what we want. We want a
citizenry that rejoices under the leadership that is over us because, as you mentioned
earlier, Romans thirteen one says there is no power but of God. The
powers that be are ordained of God. So if I'm looking through Scripture as
my prism to government, I often get saddened. I joke negative jokes about
politicians. I'm like, especially from Christians or heard from the pulpit, It's
like, those are those are the people that I love, and that's my
mission field. I think a missionary would be very offended if a pastor got
up and told a joke about a particular people group that they were ministry to,
And I'm like that that's me because I love those people and want to
help them do what they do better. Because God can call the Christian to
serve in the political arena, and especially if you think about it, we
talk about it being dirty, but what happens when you take godly out of
something it becomes ungodly. So that's why and you speak to that, this
idea of when when the righteous are ruling, the people rejoice, right,
Well, that gets into some deeper cultural, philosophical, even theological questions on
how do we define right and wrong? How do we define good and bad?
Or ought and ought not? And I hear often from fellow legislators and
even the average people, Wow, we can't legislate morality, right, that's
a common phrase, and everybody just kind of nods and going, well,
you're right, you know. Well, I've had to gently try to help
people understand that we, as lawmakers in particular, are in the morality legislating
business. We are making law, and any law, by definition says either
that the citizens can or cannot do whatever it is that we're undertaking. The
question isn't whether or not we're legislating morality, is whose morality are we legislating?
And so when we think about the idea of the righteous ruling, it
begs that question, what is our standard? Right? What is our standard?
If we keep it strictly at the political then it's simply whoever's you know,
the party in power. But I think that's the big challenge right as
Christian leaders is to say, wait, a second, is there a higher
standard to which we're all beholden? Well, I found it. I find
it fascinating. The six hundred and some laws in the Old Testament that God
put out and the summarises them down to ten, and then Jesus gets them
down to two. Right, what are the two? What's the primary law?
Love the Lord your God with all your hearts and mind and strength,
and love your neighbor as yourself. We could pretty much do a way.
And I've been in the law library, but you probably have as well.
In the state House in its law book upon law book upon me in the
code for morality in our state is writ large. It's an entire library.
And Jesus says, are you loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself?
If we had those two, if if every heart and every person did those
two laws, we wouldn't need all those laws. Well, I'm practically speaking,
That's what I've often said to people. You know, if you could,
if you could accomplish two things, you would virtually eliminate the need for
government. One is that we are truly kind of moral and ethical right according
to that standard that God established. But the second also is we could shore
up the family, which is God's smallest unit of government, right, Mom,
Dad, kids, That's where kids learn all kinds of really law rules,
systems for not just surviving in life, but thriving within a civilized society.
And if we could do both of those, and if we could teach
people this idea of loving God and loving others, man, imagine how much
better the world would be. And why do we help people learn to love
other people? Is so that they will get along well together. Why do
we teach them to learn to love God? Because God says people matter.
In fact, people are the most important thing, and unfortunately as important as
politics is, and it's very important. Obviously we're all involved in that in
some form or fashion. People matter more, right they do. And as
you're saying that, and maybe we'll do with the next segment. But the
idea is what's behind. I don't preach morality, John, That's and hopefully
most preachers of the Gospel don't, because that is a fruitless exercise to preach
morality. What we preach is Jesus can help us accomplish those two things through
and by the person Jesus Christ, and through the salvation. In the Gospel
that's what helps us do what we're supposed to do, because I can't even
do those two rules. They couldn't do one in the garden of Eden,
So we can't do those two without God's help. That's right, and I
think it's ultimately an extension of our relationship with God and how that plays out
into our interactions with other people. Well, we're going to pick this conversation
up. We're getting into some really good stuff here, but we've got to
take a quick break and we'll be right back right here on the Todd Huff
Radio Show. We'll see in just a second. This is John Gray.
We're back on the Todd Huff Radio Show, and we've been having a very
fascinating conversation with my good friend and Kyle Matt Barnes, a public servants prayer.
They've been doing some ministry to political leaders because they love politicians. It's
a mission field, yes, and they've been doing that for twenty years here
in the state of Indiana, but it's also expanded. Their reach has expanded
not just across the United States and to other capitals and encouraging leaders in those
capitals as well, but also in other countries around the world. And the
backdrop for why I invited Matt to join me on the show today is because
we recently were down in Mexico City doing some really some leadership training for elected
officials and also faith leaders who are interested in ministering to politicians. I didn't
ask at the outset. I'm interested to know what was what were some of
your takeaways from our time in Mexico City and those conversations that we were able
to have, well thankfully with Aliseo, our translator, we were able to
discover that the same problems that we have in Indiana and the United States are
the same problems they're dealing with in Mexico. And as we've traveled around the
world, the same problems around the world. It's because we have as really
we have as a preacher, I would say, we have a sin problem.
It's the same where sinners around the world. It's a human issue,
human problem, and so that's why we need government, right because government is
to restrain evil. And in First Peter chapter two, he says the purposes
of government are punish evil and praise the good. And so that's what government
and we need restraints and the problem with people writ large is that we don't
have restraints internally, and so the less self government we have, the more
civil government. Yeah, grow there's that. There's that line from history where
they say, you know, the less that you're able to govern yourself from
within, the more you will be governed from without, And that's exactly right,
so true. So that's what I took away was, you know,
as we're meeting with these leaders, and whether some were pastoral leaders, many
were political leaders as well, they're dealing with the same problem. Yeah.
It was interesting because you kind of think, Okay, I'm going into a
foreign culture. In this case, it was Latin America, so a lot
of Hispanic leaders, and there's certainly some cultural issues right, clearly language issues
and things like that. But I think one of my takeaways was not realizing
that one of my initial assumptions was that the differences would be more stark and
contrasting, when in reality, to your point, once you get past some
of those contextual or cultural issues, at the most basic level, we're human
and the political the political nuance, the political considerations, all those different things
that we deal with here in an American context are the same types of things
that they deal with in their own context as well. It's just it's couched
a little bit differently. Even the organization of the of the different positions and
things like that. One of the things that I thought was very, very
fascinating, And this is something that I think is any difference, and certainly
something that gave me a much greater appreciation for America as challenging as kind of
where we are in our own journey, was that when we were getting ready
to go into their National Congress, the pastor who was hosting us told us
that tomorrow, when we go in, he said, that will be the
first time in four years that Christians have even been allowed to darken the door,
which I thought was fascinating. What was your take on that. It's
hard to believe, first of all. Secondly, as I tried, as
I travel our state in the United States, I often say this access is
granted because all public meetings are public by definition. The problem is nobody shows
up, and so its access is granted. Influence is earned. Can we
imagine It's hard to imagine a place where the access is not granted. Oh,
you are a Christian, You're not allowed in here? Yes, And
so the pastor was just thrilled that we were able to be in there,
and I praise to God for that, and hopefully that's an open door that
will continue to be open well. And I think that was the key,
right. It wasn't even that we were allowed to kind of darken the door
in the lobby. It was that doors had been opened for us to be
able to get into one of the presentation rooms. You and I shared the
dais with really a congresswoman who the vice president of their Congress. Right she
is not the Speaker of the House for them, but she is the second
in command for their entire Congress. And then to be able to go onto
the floor of their Congress, and in talking with some of those pastoral leaders,
you could just see the shock on their face. They had never been
there, and they had never been received so warmly into some of these spaces.
And for somebody like me who has had the privilege of being able to
serve in Indiana and also go out to Washington, d C. And have
that experience without fear of repression or anything like that, it was a great
reminder of how blessed we are here in the United States. Truly. You
know, we talk about freedom of religion. And I look at freedom of
religion as an exercise and the less you exercise something, the more actrophy you
have and the muscle. And we have freedom of religion here, we just
don't use it. And it's entirely possible. And I think we should be
going into those spaces of the political world, and why can't we go and
sit and listen and pray. Everybody can do that. Represent of Ailsworth says
this, the world is governed by those who show up. And that's it's
a simple statement, but it's profound. And I would also I would encourage
those that are listening, if you're if you're a believer, just start showing
up at a city council being. First of all, they're going to wonder
who the new person is because there's no one there, like who's the new
guy? And I got that as I started going. I went to my
city council, who's the new guy? In fact, they're like, hey,
are you the attorney sho No, no, no, I'm not.
I please don't. And so it's it's that idea of access is granted,
influences earned. Let's go in these places and begin to pray for our leaders.
And then see what God does in our heart. Maybe God is calling
an individual to run for office. We want more godly leaders. Maybe that
person's just supposed to go and pray and find out how to more impact their
civil government. What a blessing that would be to our state and to our
nation if God's people would engage in an arena that is often viewed negatively and
we come in positively. Well, And I think that's the key, right.
Another variation of that quote from Representative Aylesworth is that we get the government
that we deserve. If we choose to be involved, then we can have
a greater voice. And if we choose not to be involved, the wheels
of government are still turning whether we're present or not, and all the more
reason why those of us who have a biblical worldview should be engaged in this
right. The idea that the public square is empty is true in the sense
of our involvement. By choice, by circumstance, we found ourselves in the
periphery, and yet the people and the problem still exist in the public square.
So it begs the question, if we are not present, then who
will be? And if it's not somebody with a biblical world you're will be
somebody who doesn't share that particular worldview who will be, even from a good
heart, striving to help those people and solve their problems. And so I
think it's a good reminder for us not to stand on the sidelines. Well,
we've got to take one more break before we round out our conversation,
but we'll be right back right here on the Todd Huff Radio Show. We'll
see in just sec Hey, this is John Crane. We've been having a
great conversation here on the Todd Huff Radio Show, and I just want to
say thank you to my great friend Matt Barnes for being on the show with
us today. Thank you, John, it's been an honor to be here
with you. Well, and as we mentioned, you're part of Public Servants
Prayer. How can people find out more about Public Servants Prayer or a Public
Servants Prayer. We are a volunteer organization, by the way, so we're
not paid by state funds or taxpayer dollars. So when I say colleague,
I meet it generically. You're not elected, happy to be a colleague,
just a volunteer one. And so you can find us at VPSP dot org.
So that's te PSP dot o org and that and we are nationwide,
by the way, so we put three leaders to pray for every day.
It's part of our ministry, and so three legislators every single day to be
praying for. And that is now around the country, so every state,
every legislator, every day we're praying for each one of those leaders. So
that's at VPSP dot org. Well, and we really appreciate that. I'm
reminded on that note of a friend of mine who texts me every single week
and she asks the same question and I typically try to respond, and it's
this question, how can I be praying for you and your leadership? And
my friend Becca sends that to me faithfully, and it's just administers to me
on a personal level and on a professional level, because I know that somebody
is praying for the decisions that have to be made. Well, I tell
you what, Matt, it's been fantastic to be able to have you on
the show today, and I'm so grateful for all of you out there who
have been taking some time to listen to this. Hopefully some of the things
that we've shared with you have challenged your way of thinking that perhaps we politicians
aren't quite as bad as everybody assumes. But God does certainly love politicians,
and we should too, And so we look forward to being able to continue
this conversation on another episode of the Todd Huff Radio Show. To appreciate being
here today, and we'll look forward to seeing you then