Your Vanguard leadership team met as we always do on Thursday morning and our discussion led us to some conclusions that I think are important to share with the whole community today. These are strange and unprecedented times we are living in. We are a global community, but as illustrated by those of us living as Christians in the United States, I think we are all experiencing pressures we have not felt before in our lifetime. There are alliances between politics and religion that can easily lead to distortions of our faith should we submit to these pressures without scrutiny. So to help guard against that, we came up with two simple priorities to keep forefront in your mind and heart.

First, followers of Christ are residents of the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is completely other than any of the kingdoms of this world. The infrastructure and power sources of the kingdoms of this world are other than and in many cases contrary to the infrastructure and power source of the kingdom of God. We’re not even talking about apples and oranges here; we’re talking about apples and Erector Sets.

The kingdom of God does operate within the kingdoms of this world but it operates on a completely different basis and set of rules. And though the kingdom of God can operate within the kingdoms of the world, the converse is not true. The kingdoms of this world cannot further or accomplish the goals or even the values of the kingdom God because the kingdoms of this world are corrupt. In its simplest form, you cannot further the kingdom of God through political means or political power. This is one of the reasons why the separation of church and state is so important.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Zechariah 4:6

The second thing to keep always before us is that it is always all about Jesus. Take a page here out of the Jesus Movement, 50 years ago. It’s Jesus. It’s not about Christianity, or family values, or tradition, or pro-life, or gender; it’s about Jesus. Keep the main thing the main thing. And the way to keep Jesus the main thing is to hold Him in your heart not just your head, and speak of Him often.

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2

Two things to remember: we are citizens of the kingdom of God, and we are following Jesus; everything else is just politics and religion.