1,204 Meaningful Connections
Throughout the 2025 Legislative Session, we sent you updates on dozens of bills the IFI team was faithfully pursuing with our partners in the legislature to create an Indiana where God is honored and families can flourish. What you didn’t see was the behind-the-scenes work our Church Ambassador Network (CAN) was involved in. From building relationships between pastors and government officials to forming partnerships on tough issues like foster care, the drug crisis, and mental health, CAN was equipping and encouraging Christians to confidently and faithfully engage in government. IFI’s incredible success in the session was greatly aided by CAN’s involvement.
CAN has flourished under IFI General Counsel Josh Hershberger’s leadership and that of CAN Deputy Director Gerson Cardona, and we are proud to share that during this year’s session, CAN created 1,204 connections between pastors and governing officials (connection = meaningful conversation of several minutes). Over 240 of those connections were with members of the state executive branch, including Governor Mike Braun, Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith, Treasurer Daniel Elliott, Comptroller Elise Nieshalla, Secretary of State Diego Morales, and new Department of Child Services Director Adam Krupp. These critical relationships contributed to the successful passage of the parental rights bill and other important measures, resulting in IFI’s most successful session to date. We now have the remarkable opportunity to partner with Governor Braun and his administration to impact the issue of foster care and addiction through CAN.
CAN is gaining statewide attention and was recently featured in a Baptist Press article, where one pastor shared: “Josh is doing incredible and eye-opening work, bridging the gap between politics and faith.” That’s exactly what CAN was created to do – to build relationships between pastors and governing officials for the purpose of ministering to them and partnering with them for the common good. Our ultimate goal is to see our cities, state, and nation transformed through the power of the Gospel. For the first time in CAN’s history, we ministered to 90% of House Republicans, 90% of House Democrats, 90% of Senate Democrats, and 92% of Senate Republicans. Praise God!
We also launched a new strategy called “denominational days” this session, and they were a great success! Read more about this new strategy here. Thank you to all of the network and denominational leaders who organized and led these days!
If you believe in this mission and would like to get involved with the Church Ambassador Network, please reach out to Josh Hershberger at josh@hoosierfamily.org for more details. As always, our work would not be possible without your support. Please prayerfully consider donating to CAN so we can continue to build meaningful relationships between pastors and government officials, uniting on the issues that matter most to our communities.