Christian Civics Foundations
A dynamic online course providing principled, non-partisan discipleship for people who want to follow Jesus in a polarized democracy.
Free Through 2024!
Is the current political climate making it hard for you to love the church?
Do you have trouble understanding Christians on the other side of the aisle?
Are you looking for options besides cynicsim, extrmism or despair?
Christian Civics Foundations is an easy-to-implement, video-based course covering the ten most important topics in civic discipleship.
Christian Civics Foundations is incredibly useful as a general-purpose introduction to the intersection of discipleship and civic life. The course can speak effectively to Americans from almost any protestant tradition, whether you are going through the material alone, with a small group or as part of a church-wide study.
The course content is optimized for individuals and groups who want to resolve political tension, become more hospitable to their neighbors, and make their faith seem more credible to anyone who is overwhelmed by a rapidly polarizing world.
Format
Christian Civics Foundations is broken down into ten modules. Each module explores one faith-and-politics topic in three different ways: Through private reflection, group discussion and embodied practice.
Private Reflection
Before each group discussion, participants are asked to watch a short video or read a short article, and work through an accompanying reflection question or prayer prompt.
Group Discussion
Each group discussion consists of two videos (each video is up to ten minutes in length), along with accompanying discussion questions, prayer prompts and leader’s notes.
Homework
Simple assignments that help connect big spiritual concepts to practical daily life, plus optional additional reading.
Structure
Many participants, churches or small groups will want to go through all ten modules in a row, one week at a time, and that is a great way to use this material.
We also designed the program to have natural, optional “pause” points.
By breaking the course up into three sections, you can more easily fit the class into gaps in your existing church/small group calendar, give yourself more time to digest major points before moving on, and allow other participants time to catch up on content or exercises that they missed.
Content
The full list of ten topics we cover, broken down into three parts:
Why should we care about government? Can we disagree without falling into sin? Why is political diversity essential for witness and evangelism?
Our first four modules introduce a new way of thinking about faith, politics and church community, contextualized for life in a representative democracy.
Topic One: Democracy
How is contemporary American government similar to and different from biblical-era governments? How do these differences change our perspective posture toward civic life?
Topic Two: Witness
What is the goal of Christian witness? How do the unique dynamics of democracy that we discussed last week change our strategy for offering that witness?
Topic Three: Disagreement
Why do people of the same faith disagree about partisanship and public policy? What kinds of disagreements are spiritually acceptable?
Topic Four: Community
What is the role of healthy disagreement in a local congregation? How is disagreement useful for witness, discipleship and mutual spiritual formation.
The next four modules cover the most common pitfalls, idolatries and cultural forces that make healthy discipleship difficult in the American public square. We’ll also look at the most common heresy that candidates, elected officials and political operatives leverage to secure our support.
Topic Five: Separatism
Is the public square a redeemable use of our time? Or is it just an exhausting distraction from the real work of Christian life? And what does “citizenship in Heaven” actually mean?
Topic Six: Theocracy
Why do some Christians become so set on merging the values of the church with the law of the state? What is a faithful, biblically consistent alternative to the theocratic impulse?
Topic Seven: Idolatry
What are the ten most common idolatries in American public life? We offer biblical examples and analysis for each, as well as signs it may have taken root in our own hearts.
Topic Eight: Heresy
What is the most common heresy that politicians and political operatives leverage to secure our support? And how does our political system work to shape us into its own image?
While we weave practical application into the entire course, we also dedicate the final two modules to practical habits Christians can build together to foster better relationships across deep divides and engage with civic life generously and humbly.
Topic Nine: Civic Practices
How can we conduct ourselves in the public square in order to set ourselves apart from people who might share our politics but not our faith? These twelve practices both shape us and witness to our neighbors, no matter where we fall on the political spectrum.
Topic Ten: Relational Practices
How can the church function as a different kind of community in a polarized age? What can we commit ourselves to doing together to be Jesus’ new creation now?
Start Today
Christian Civics Foundations is available now for individual use, small group study, or church-wide teaching! Sign up now for lifetime access, including any and all future updates.
Your free registration includes lifetime access to…
Nearly 30 short video lessons with reflection and discussion guides
Thematic ice breakers and prayer prompts for each group discussion
Application activities and further reading for each group discussion
Notes for leaders with additional background and context
Extensive bibliography and recommended reading
Frequently Asked Questions
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In addition to our multi-partisan, multi-denominational nature (see below), Christian Civics Foundations is unique in multiple key ways:
We approach the question of faith, politics and public life from a spiritual formation perspective. This isn’t a program that was developed to fix a political problem. Political polarization brings with it specific challenges related to discipleship, church health, and witness and evangelism. Christian Civics Foundations is a tool Christian communities can use to either address those problems or get ahead of them. Becoming a healthier influence on our civic life is just a natural consequence of healthier discipleship and fellowship.
Our material enriches your spiritual life and helps you make Jesus look good for the long haul, not just during this present crisis. By the time we taught our first class in 2015, members of our team had already been leading church workshops on dealing with political tension and college courses on faith and government for decades. The terms of debate change in American politics every few election cycles, and Christian Civics Foundations will continue to apply even when they do.
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Christian Civics Foundations is the result of years of collaboration between pastors, academics and political professionals from across the political spectrum. Our goal in creating this course wasn’t to argue for the Christian left or the Christian right, but to deepen personal discipleship and make church communities healthier.
Each week will offer you something interesting, something challenging and something encouraging, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum. Participants will leave this course humbler, more patient with others, and more comfortable following Jesus into questions that don’t have fast or easy answers.
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While our team mostly comes from protestant traditions that could be classified as evangelical, we have worked hard to ensure that Christian Civics Foundations can be easily deployed by a wide range of churches, small groups and para-church ministries. If you can sincerely profess the Apostle’s Creed and believe the Bible has a unique authority in our faith, then Christian Civics Foundations is for you.
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For eight years, we did our work one church or ministry group at a time. If there’s one thing we learned from that experience, it’s that political polarization is taking a toll on more churches across the country than we could ever visit in-person.
We are committing to making this video-based course free for at least the first year, so as to allow as many people and as many church communities as possible to benefit from it.
If you are interested in helping us continue to make this course free beyond the 2024 elections, consider becoming a monthly supporter of our work.
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Christian Civics Foundations was developed first and foremost to be used in community. Jesus said that he will be uniquely present where multiple people come together in his name, and Paul said that each believer is like a single piece of a larger body. Going through this material with other people will inevitably help you learn things you wouldn’t have otherwise—things about other people, things about God and things about yourself.
That said, if you wish to use this material in your own private devotional life, consider using the discussion questions as reflection questions or journaling prompts. Many of the Notes for Leaders will also be helpful in providing you more context for the questions and videos.
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Christian Civics Foundations is broken up into ten sessions, and we think most churches and small groups will want to cover one session each week.
Your church or small group can do the entire course straight through, but we also broke the course up into three parts for groups that want to spread it out over six to twelve months. This allows churches to honor important seasons in their community/liturgical calendars, enables small groups to keep in step with church-wide initiatives, and offers natural “break” points for participants to digest and practice what they learn.
Course Instructor
RICK BARRY
Co-Founder/Executive Director
As Executive Director of the Center for Christian Civics, Rick Barry helps ministry leaders apply missionary theology to questions of civic engagement and public discipleship. His principled, empathetic focus on witness, humility and spiritual formation makes him a uniquely encouraging voice on questions of political polarization and church health.
His work with Christian Civics has been featured multiple times in The Washingtonian, as well as on the radio programs The Reconnect with Carmen LaBerge, Good News for the City, and Grace in 30. His writing on faith and culture has also appeared in The Huffington Post, Christ and Pop Culture, and Comment magazine.
Before launching Christian Civics, Rick worked as a political and non-profit communications professional, first as a script-, speech- and copy-writer, then as a communications strategist. He has worked on campaigns for local, state and federal office, served as the in-house writer and editor for Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, and oversaw communications for the Grace DC church network. He also served on the advisory board for Pepperdine University’s Institute for Public Service and Policy Development.