Politics. It's seemingly invaded every facet of our lives.

And whether we're into politics or not, sometimes it can feel as if we simply can't escape the constant drumbeat of political news and opinions, even at church.

Which raises an important question. how should Christians think about the intersection

of politics and faith, especially when it comes to the church? My guest today is Alan Strange,

and in our conversation we discuss the doctrine of the spirituality of the church, a doctrine

on clearly defining the church's central mission and mandate.

While countless organizations and institutions, and even we ourselves as individual Christians,

can and should be engaged in the political sphere,

the doctrine of the spirituality of the church emphasizes that the church, and the church alone has been entrusted with the mission of proclaiming the good news of the gospel to a lost and dying world.

And therefore the church and the church alone must remain focused on that core mission.

Alan serves as professor of church history at Mid-America Reform Seminary and is the author of various books, including Empowered Witness,

Politics, Culture, and the Spiritual Mission of the Church from Crossway. Let's get started.

Well, Dr. Strange, thank you so much for joining me today on the Crossway podcast. It's my great pleasure to be here with you.

So your new book that you've written with Crossway is about the doctrine of the spirituality of the church, which on the surface seems like a rather straightforward, obvious, maybe non-controversial kind of doctrine.

Yeah. And yet, nothing could really be further from the

truth. There's a lot going on with that seemingly simple name for a doctrine. So I wonder if you

could just very briefly summarize what is the doctrine of the spirituality of the church?

Well, yes, Matt, and maybe I could just begin by saying one of the reasons that it is controversial

is because it's been badly used at times. So if something is badly used, there's a phrase that we have.

We say it's a Latin phrase, and I'll just give it in English. The wrong use of something doesn't mean it doesn't have a

right use. But sometimes something has been so wrongly used, you sort of have to recover it

and say, let's aim for a better use of it. There's some rehab work to be done. Yeah, and part of the

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