The Church Ambassador Network is on Mission in 2024
5/23/24
The Church Ambassador Network (CAN) is a ministry initiative of IFI that equips the church to engage government for the advance of God’s kingdom. CAN accomplishes this mission by building relationships between pastors and government officials, partnering with government to solve key problems, and producing resources to equip church leaders and committed Christians in the area of citizenship. Here’s an update on how CAN is impacting Indiana in 2024:
Building Relationships at the Statehouse. During the 2024 legislative session, Josh Hershberger, the Director of CAN, and Gerson Cardona, the Deputy Director, were at the statehouse on a daily basis connecting pastors with their state representatives and state senators with the goal of (1) ministering to those officials and (2) partnering with them for the common good.
Altogether, CAN made 1,220 shepherd-to-shepherd connections between pastors and governing officials this spring. CAN also scheduled and led meetings with members of the Executive Branch, including Governor Holcomb, Secretary of State Diego Morales, Comptroller Elise Nieshalla, and Treasurer Daniel Elliott.
One of the highlights of the session was the first-ever Burmese pastors day as pastors that fled political persecution in their home country of Burma came up to the statehouse to pray with their governing officials. We were deeply moved by the joy of these pastors as they experienced American government firsthand, connected with their officials, and even toured the chamber of the House of Representatives.
CAN also promoted HB 1137, which requires school districts to release children to religious instruction during the public school day if that instruction is off campus, privately funded, and agreed to by the parents. This bill is now law in the state of Indiana.
Partnering with Government to Solve Key Problems. Motivated by the consistent command throughout the New Testament to “do good” (Matt. 5:16; Titus 3; I Tim. 6:18), CAN is partnering with government to impact key community needs such as foster care, the drug crisis, and mental health. If you would like to review CAN’s Community Impact Plan, here is a link. CAN is now focused on (1) a statewide Community Impact Survey designed to gather data on the number of churches impacting these issues in every county and (2) the issue of addiction recovery and identifying churches that are or are willing to impact this issue in their zip code.
Equipping the Church to Engage Government. CAN is also connecting with churches around Indiana and equipping them to engage government through speaking and resources. Josh Hershberger recently spoke to a group of pastors in southeast Indiana and led the National Day of Prevent event there, and he routinely preaches in churches or at events on Biblical citizenship and worldview. Josh also hosts the Good Citizen Podcast and recently interviewed David Closson from the Family Research Council about the Biblical Worldview Crisis in churches and how pastors can respond.
CAN has been supported for a number of years by startup grants from national ministry partners, and we now need to move this to a ministry supported by Hoosiers and especially churches in Indiana. If you feel led to give to the work of CAN or to speak to your pastor about getting involved financially, follow this link. Here is our funding goal over the next year and how we plan to achieve it.
As always, thank you for your prayers for our ministry and for your financial support!