Capitol Ministries

History 13 History C apitol Ministries was established for one purpose: to make disciples of Jesus Christ in the political arena throughout the world. is mission may seem to be a common-sense objective; it certainly was during the founding years in America history. But aer the incursive and faux-Christian "social justice" So- cial Gospel period of American church history, Bible-believing Evangelicals backed away from missions to and among politi- cal leaders. For this reason and others, some pastors even pro- nounced government as evil and counseled believers against any involvement in politics. As a result, political leaders, who had historically been embraced by the church and had counted many pastors among them, became a forgotten and neglect- ed mission field. Paradoxically, at the same time, the Religious Right movement was born. Christians began to form organiza- tions to lobby legislators for better laws rather than evangelizing and dis- cipling public servants to create better hearts. Not surprisingly, the United States suffered continuing moral decline. In 1996, Danielle Drollinger was the executive director of a successful political action committee that helped Christians become elected to office in California. But once elected, over and over again, these Christians pub- lic servants failed to vote in keeping with the convictions they professed to hold. Danielle and Ralph oen discussed the problem. As a former profes- sional athlete, Ralph was the director of America's trade organization for its various and many sports ministries. He was very familiar with America's sports ministry movement that planted ministries to athletes in high schools, colleges, and on professional sports teams. Ralph had personally benefitted from one of Campus Crusade for Christ's (CRU) ministries, Athletes in Action (AIA), on the UCLA campus where he played for two national championship teams under legendary coach John Wooden. Aer graduat- ing, Ralph postponed a professional career to play basket- ball for AIA, a Christian evangelistic basketball team that traveled the world playing national teams and sharing their Christian testimonies at halimes. Twenty-five years ago, Ralph and Danielle were once again discussing the problem of weak-kneed Christian politicians. e problem wasn't so much getting Christians elected as much as it was their lack of Christian maturity, convictions, and courage aer they were in office. e sports ministry model dried into the conversation, and Ralph and Danielle had an epiphany—"We need discipleship ministries for public ser- vants in office!" e couple immediately realized that idea—evangelizing and discipling public servants—was what was being overlooked by the Religious Right movement. ey began to talk about launching biblically based minis- tries in government buildings and teaching the Word of God weekly through exegetical in-depth Bible studies. Public servants would be regularly strength- ened through support, prayer, and one-on-one ministry and discipled to maturity in the faith. eir prayerful vision was to establish ministries at all levels of government in the United States and in foreign nations and make History 13

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