How can pastors, preachers and leaders encourage their congregations to pray for the nation, particularly in 2024, with a General Election almost certain to take place before the end of the year? We look at some of the available organisations and resources.
Groups and organisations
A good starting point is Christians in Politics, which has a wealth of ideas and suggestions. Churches often have a small group of people who are really interested in politics, and CinP model working together across political divides in a very helpful way, particularly as the public discourse on politics has become increasingly polarised recently. The major political parties also have their own dedicated Christian groups – the Conservative Christian Fellowship (www.ccf.co.uk); Christians on the Left (www.Christiansontheleft.org.uk); and the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum (www.ldcf/org). Christians in Politics also have their own local groups.
If you want to encourage your congregation to pray for the nation, but not necessarily for its politics, then the Evangelical Alliance (www.eauk.org) is one port of call. One of its aims is to ‘connect people with their public representatives’ and to do so, the EA has developed a series of place-specific resources – so one for England, one for Northern Ireland, one for Scotland, and one for Wales.
Another organisation that works to raise awareness of public policy is JPIT, which stands for the Joint Public Issues Team, and brings together the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church, with the Church of Scotland as an Associate Partner (jpit.uk).
There are some excellent books out there which give a much clearer picture on the way the country is run than is provided by a quick look at the BBC Six o’clock news. Memoirs, biographies, studies of specific prime ministers’ periods in office, and books that consider the way Westminster works can all be recommended. Amongst the best that have come out in the last few years are Isabel Hardman’s Why we get the wrong politicians, (see review on page 21 opposite) and Anthony Seldon’s latest books on Theresa May (May at 10) and Boris Johnson (Johnson at 10). For the really keen, Seldon has also produced two books on Blair, one on John Major and one on Gordon Brown. As these have been out for a while, they can be found at a reasonable price on the World of books website.
