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Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

Should Pastors Be More Political from the Pulpit?

Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

J.D. Greear

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 630 Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Pastor J.D.  discusses a question many church leaders face: Should pastors be more political from the pulpit?

As part of a short series surrounding Pastor J.D.’s new book Everyday Revolutionary, the conversation explores how faithfulness to the gospel intersects with public issues, when to speak clearly, and when to show restraint.

J.D. argues that pastors must boldly proclaim biblical truth even when it overlaps with politics—but resist aligning the name of Jesus with any political party. Political engagement  is a result of discipleship, not the gateway to it.

Key Takeaways

  • Be bold on biblical truth, even when it’s political. Some moral issues, like the sanctity of life and God’s design for gender, require clear biblical conviction.
  • Don’t confuse political alignment with gospel faithfulness. The pulpit should be reserved for “thus says the Lord,” not personal policy opinions.
  • Discipleship precedes political realignment. True change begins in the heart before it’s reflected in the ballot box.
  • Avoid both ditches. On one side lies cowardly silence; on the other, a Christless conservatism that replaces the gospel with partisanship.
  • Keep Jesus’ name holy. Associating Christ too closely with a political party risks damaging His reputation and alienating those who need the gospel.

Dive more into this conversation with Pastor J.D.’s new book, Everyday Revolutionary, which explores how ordinary believers can live out the gospel in ways that transform their communities.

Episode Links:

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey everybody, welcome to Ask the Pastor. I am Matt Love. I am here with Pastor J.D. Greer,

0:13.0

and we are back with a few special episodes that we're going to do focused on Pastor J.D.

0:18.2

J.D.'s brand new book Everyday Revolutionary, which released on October 7th. And so because of the book's coming out, we just wanted to record

0:26.3

a few episodes to maybe give some clarity around your vision and purpose and why you felt

0:31.1

like this book needed to be written. And so we're going to do that. Before I dive into the first

0:35.6

question, though, I just, like, I know that for you, this book is all, every book that you write I know, like, matters to you and is important. And it's like, you feel like God's giving it to you to build up the church. But I also know that this book in particular kind of holds a special place in your heart. Yeah. And there's books that every book I've released I believe in. Yeah. But people say, how long did this one take to write? I'm like, well, kind of like almost 50 years, you know, because I felt that's something the Lord wrote into me. And I feel like when I'm, you know, whatever, when I'm ready to retire, ready to be with Jesus, I look back and there might be one, two, three kind of messages that you felt like.

1:12.4

That was a life message for me and I felt like this is one of those.

1:15.7

Gospel was one of those.

1:17.3

Stop asking Jesus into your heart, gaining by losing.

1:20.7

But this one, it also feels like, I mean, this is what faithfulness to the gospel is what I felt like the Lord has wired into me and

1:30.3

and hopefully into the church and churches that we're called to lead now yeah well I mean it is

1:35.0

a you know uh if you attend summit and read your books you get you that's a rare that's rare

1:40.9

yeah you can definitely skim some pages because like I yeah I remember this story that kind of stuff. But this book is one that when you were even talking about writing it, I was just like, this is, I knew this is something that you talked about a lot. It also feels like, it definitely feels like this book in your heart for this is something that God has positioned you in this moment to speak to. And so I'm excited for the book. I'm excited for

2:01.6

people to engage with it. I'm excited for whoever manages your social media comments.

2:06.2

And yeah, they're just so pleasant. All of them. It's going to be a good time for them.

2:11.5

But we want to dive into a couple questions. Again, allow you to maybe unpack some elements

2:15.4

of the book and share more and more about why you feel like it's important. But the first question, I think this is such an interesting thing that a lot of pastors are starting to navigate now or feeling like they need to navigate more. There's maybe this sense that pastors need to be more political from the pulpit. Yeah. So my question to you is, should pastors be more political from the pulpit?

2:36.4

Yeah.

2:36.8

Yeah.

2:37.4

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to qualify, but it really depends what you mean by, be political.

2:44.0

Yeah.

2:44.3

There are certain moral issues that have become political issues.

...

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