Pastoring in the land of Minnesota Nice often isn’t very nice at all. In recent years, our state has had its fair share of embarrassments.
- In 2020, the death of George Floyd was followed by riots that burned Minneapolis and led to the questionable imprisonments of the likes of Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao.1
- In 2023, Minnesota passed the PRO Act, establishing a statutory right to abortion, even allowing newborns to be left to die.2 That same year, it became a “Trans Refuge” state, protecting access to so-called “gender-affirming care.”3
- In 2025, Nick Shirley’s viral investigation brought national attention to rampant fraud involving state-funded child-care centers, including the now-infamous Quality Learing Center.
- Then, in January 2026, Governor Tim Walz’s and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s encouragement of resistance to ICE eventually led anti-ICE agitators to walk into Cities Church and disrupt Sunday worship.4 Local officials refused their duty to impartially enforce the law by refusing to press charges against those involved.
1. Daniel Strand, “Manufacturing Guilt,” American Reformer, 27 August 2026.
2. Abigail Dodds, “Minnesota’s Unthinkable Abortion Bill,” WORLD Opinions, 6 February 2023.
3. Levi J. Secord, “A Dangerous Precedent for Christian Parents,” WORLD Opinions, 28 April 2023.
4. See Levi J. Secord, “The Parable of Minnesota’s Decline,” WORLD Opinions, 23 January 2026; Andy Naselli, “I’m a Pastor in Minnesota. Here’s How I Prayed for ICE Yesterday,” Center for Baptist Leadership, 12 January 2026.
Welcome to Minnesota Nice.
But Minnesota is our home. We love our state, our neighbors, and our churches. And as pastors ministering in a deep-blue state, we regularly face questions about race, sexuality, abortion, immigration, policing, elections, and politics. These controversies aren’t confined to the news or social media; they have directly impacted our friends, congregants, neighbors, and families.
Pastors in all states face steady pressure to remain silent on political issues. Some suggest that speaking on politics betrays the gospel and the office of pastor. While pastors do need to be careful to not let the news cycle or their algorithm determine their preaching, they also cannot fail to apply the gospel to life. We believe pastors must speak into the civil sphere because the gospel is a public message and modern politics has become increasingly religious.
The Gospel Goes Public
One of the great assumptions of modern life is that religion is a private matter.5 You can believe whatever you want about God. You can worship however you please. You can even let your religion shape how you live at home. Just don’t bring it into public life, and definitely not into politics. Christians are often even told by other Christians to keep their Christianity to themselves.
5. Religion is difficult to define because some definitions are too broad, while others exclude belief systems commonly regarded as religions (e.g., secular humanism). In this article, by “religion” we mean an organized system of beliefs that provides answers to ultimate questions and, on the basis of those answers, prescribes or commends a particular way of life. See Garry R. Morgan, Understanding World Religions in 15 Minutes a Day (Bethany House, 2012), 16.
Jesus and the apostles must have been ignorant of this requirement. When you read the Gospels and the Book of Acts, you will find that the gospel goes public.
When the promised Messiah-King arrived, he didn’t keep his religion to himself. Jesus began his public ministry proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). His message was public because his kingdom is public. And before ascending to heaven, Jesus commanded his disciples to take that message even farther: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20). Jesus even told his followers that they would go before public officials to testify about him (Matt. 10:18).
And that’s exactly what we see throughout the book of Acts. Peter preaches Christ before thousands at Pentecost (Acts 2). The apostles teach openly in the temple (Acts 5:20–21, 42). Paul reasons with people in synagogues and marketplaces (Acts 17:17). In Athens, he walks straight into the intellectual center of the city and proclaims the risen Christ before the Areopagus (Acts 17:22–31).
The gospel must go public because Christ is preeminent over all things in heaven and on earth (Col. 1:15–20). The gospel doesn’t merely go before ordinary, private citizens. It also goes before rulers.
When Christ commissions Paul, he tells Ananias exactly what Paul’s ministry will involve: “He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Notice that: kings. From the beginning, Paul’s calling was to bring the name of Jesus Christ to those who hold public and political power.
Paul fulfills this command throughout Acts. He brings the gospel before Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus (Acts 13:6–12). He confronts the magistrates in Philippi (Acts 16:35–39). He stands before Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia (Acts 18:12–17), and later before the Roman tribune Claudius Lysias (Acts 22–23), Governor Felix (Acts 24), Governor Festus (Acts 25), and King Agrippa (Acts 26). By the end of Acts, Paul has carried the gospel all the way to Rome, the center of imperial power, where Luke leaves him “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28:31). He must testify before Caesar (Acts 23:11; 27:24), which leads to converts in Caesar’s house (Phil. 1:13; 4:22).
Once you notice this pattern, you can’t unsee it. Luke repeatedly shows the gospel coming into contact with political authority. This isn’t an accidental feature of Acts. Christ commissioned Paul to bear his name before kings, and that’s precisely what he did.
Paul even instructed Christians to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions.” For what purpose? “That we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Why? Because such prayers are good and pleasing to God our Savior, who “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1–4). Kings. We. All people. The gospel is anything but private.
So where did Christians get the idea that the gospel is essentially a private message? Part of the answer is that we have absorbed modern assumptions about the proper place of religion. We instinctively divide life into “sacred” and “secular” categories and assume that Christianity belongs primarily in the former.6 But the lordship of Christ doesn’t allow us to make that division so neatly.
6. On the modern sacred-secular and public-private divide, see Nancy R. Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity, Study Guide ed. (Crossway, 2008), chaps. 2–3.
The gospel announces Christ as Lord over all. He possesses “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18), and through him God is reconciling all things to himself (Col. 1:20). Christ’s authority, therefore, cannot be confined to our private devotional lives. Christ cannot be Lord over all and irrelevant to public life. This inescapably includes politics.
Modern Religious Politics
The gospel is a public message, and it has public enemies. Throughout Scripture and history, governments that attach themselves to divinity have risen in opposition to God’s people (Dan. 7:1–8; Rev. 13:1–18). The same is seen in the rise of progressive political thought (e.g., cultural Marxism, critical theory, social justice, etc.). These are not just political ideologies, but entire worldviews—rival religions—to the Christian faith. Progressive thought builds upon an atheistic and evolutionary foundation that forms a comprehensive way of life.7 Joseph Boot writes about what the Marxist religious system means for politics:
7. Joseph Boot, Think Christianly: Developing an Undivided Mind (Ezra Press, 2025), 318.
The present life and visible material world is all there is; there are no God-given laws and norms for people and society; no eternal God who is judge over all the earth; no government of God in history; no salvation or kingdom of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. For the cultural Marxists, this bleak situation demands that man’s collective idea realizes a radical egalitarian equality (i.e., the new “justice” as far as possible) and implements it . . . in the final court of appeals which is now immanentized as history itself . . . man can now save and emancipate himself because human beings . . . become the self-creating producers of their own history.8
8. Boot, Think Christianly, 318.
With no God above, reality is undefined and the state is the only savior left to us. For this reason, politics has swelled to God-like importance in our naturalistic culture. Many seek the power of the state in order to transform the world in opposition to its creational design. Politics is now where people find their identity, righteousness, and meaning. According to Marxism, it is only through political power that we can cast off the oppression of the past (e.g., Christianity), so that we can be free to create a new us and world.
In such a culture, everything we do—from eating fried chicken at Chick-fil-A to buying Bud Light—is measured politically. Instead of eating and drinking to the glory of God, we do so to the glory of the party (1 Cor. 10:31). Politics is the always-present and all-judging reality of our day.
Some well-meaning Christians see this reality and argue that withdrawal is the only solution to this idolatry. Yet, politics is a creational reality we cannot avoid, and as demonstrated above, God has commissioned us to preach into it. Christ doesn’t ask us to avoid idols, but to tear them down.
The best way for politics to decrease in importance is not removing religion from the public square. That removal created the vacuum which allowed this false religion of progressivism to move in. The only solution is to bring the public sphere into active subjection to the lordship of Christ. The idol must fall before its true Master (1 Sam. 5).
Conclusion
The gospel is the declaration that Christ is the Lord and Savior of all things. God’s eternal plan is to unite all things, in heaven and on earth, under Christ (Eph. 1:10). Such a vision makes demands on every part of life and culture. As we live in a chaotic age where the state seeks to take the throne, we must shepherd our people to think distinctly as Christians in all life, including public life. This is part of what it means to be a faithful pastor, so get to it.
