How the church in Iowa answered the call in the 2016 Iowa Caucus: 50,000 more evangelical voters!
Forget for just a moment who won the Iowa Caucuses. Our hope never has been in one politician’s victory or failure.
In a country where we have been truly blessed with the gift of self-government, the direction of our nation is more determined by the voice of the people than the voice of a candidate.
But for too many years in America, the voice of the church has been muted.
Poll after poll has shown America’s Christians no more likely to be involved in government than the culture at large. Even in Iowa, where Christians play an unusually large role in the caucus system, hundreds of thousands of believers – more than the total number of people who participate – have typically stayed home on Caucus Night.
Is that really how God would have Christians steward this gift of self-government? Is it any wonder, then, that our government and culture have drifted from their moral compass, have sprinted from the heart of God?
But all of that is changing!
At The FAMiLY LEADER, we yearn for a revived America that honors God and blesses people. That means inspiring believers toward Christ-like leadership in their homes, churches, and government.
So we were enthusiastic to launch the “Caucus 2016 … It Is Time” initiative to encourage Christians to take up the mantle of leadership, answer the call of stewardship, and let their voice be heard in the 2016 Caucus.
Through the “Caucus 2016 … It Is Time” initiative:
- 1,400 Iowa churches were contacted about encouraging their people to caucus
- Our Church Ambassador Team spoke directly to 800 Iowa pastors about getting involved
- Tens of thousands of Iowans encountered online, radio, and print ads encouraging them to caucus. Many heard our ad on WHO’s “Van and Bonnie” program or through the Pandora online music site.
- Over 1.8 million people were reached through Facebook posts encouraging Christians to caucus
In addition, churches were provided a variety of materials to help congregants understand both how to caucus and why caucusing is so important.
“Bulletin inserts, a PowerPoint slide, videos, directions on where to caucus,” summarized Pastor Philip Herman of Fellowship Community Church in Norwalk. “All those things were really helpful, just exactly the tools we needed to do the proper education of our people.”
And THIS is how the Body of Christ in Iowa responded:
- 850-950 Iowa churches participated in the “Caucus 2016 … It Is Time” project
- An estimated 130,000 Iowans learned about the caucus either from the pulpit or during worship services
- Over 60,000 people visited the “Caucus 2016 … It Is Time” webpage to learn how to caucus and why caucusing is so important!
- Iowa Republicans shattered their previous record of 121,500 for caucus turnout, with 186,874 caucusgoers, while the Democrats estimate similar numbers.
- And according to the Washington Post, 64% of those 186,874 caucusgoers were evangelical voters. When you compare that against 57% of 2012’s 121,500 Republican caucusgoers who claimed to be evangelical, it means in 2016, there were 50,000 more evangelicals participating in the caucus than in 2012. And that’s just the Republicans! The numbers for evangelicals participating in the Democrat caucus are not as readily available yet.
THANK YOU, Iowans, for responding to the call and making your voice heard in the arena of God’s third social institution, the government!
May this be just the first step toward the goal of a revived America that honors God and blesses people.
