Capitol Ministries

16 T he political leaders of tomorrow are serv- ing in the city halls and county chambers of small-town America today. at is what stud ies show, and that is why we are committed to creat- ing Bible-study based discipleship ministries to local office holders. rough CapMin's Local Gov- ernment Ministries (LGM), we are working with local churches to establish Bible-study based min- istries to the 500,000 elected and appointed city and county public servants in the 40,000 incorpo- rated municipalities in the U.S. as well as in nations around the world. e earlier public servants begin to learn God's Word, the sooner they will develop a Christian worldview. And as they ascend to higher office, as most do, CapMin Bible studies will be there at state and federal levels to help them mature in their faith. is is how we are fulfilling our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ in the political arena through- out the world. We have planted 48 Local Government Ministries Bible studies in neighborhoods in several U.S. states. CapMin's most notable achievement in 2023 was to intensify targeted recruiting efforts to attract more skilled and experienced Bible teachers to lead weekly Bible studies to local leaders across America. To locate these mature Christians, Cap- Min went fishing in the best possible ponds. We sponsored all 19 Pastor Appreciation Day (PAD) events that media giant Salem Media Group hosted for pastors and church leaders throughout the country all year. We reached additional mature Christians by participating in national and regional meetings of Southern Baptist Conventions and Independent Baptist Conventions—12 in all. Led by Dr. Dan DeShong, CapMin's LGM global director, and the LGM regional directors, CapMin leadership teams manned our booths and talked to visitors, distributed ministry bro- chures, Bible studies that were written specifically for political leaders, and complimentary copies of Ralph's book, All in Authority: Reigniting the Bible's Top-Down Missions Strateg y which explains through the Scriptures, the biblical priority for teaching God's Word to political leaders. Pastors at the PAD events viewed a pre-recorded video of Ralph explaining the biblical directive to minis- ter to political leaders. He invited participants to join with us in building ministries in their neigh- borhoods. e response was encouraging. We reached 22,741 participants, 7,231 people visited our booth, and 484 of them signed up to learn about our ministry or about becoming a LGM ministry leader. We are in the process of vetting the LGM ministry leader applicants. Candidates who are accepted will be trained and certified at regional conferences next year. CapMin offers training, certification, teaching materials, support, and other assets at no charge. "LGM proved to be refreshing for these pastors," said Dr. Dan. "Across our nation pastors are becoming dismayed at the great divide in our country and how weak the church has become. Many expressed con- cern about pastors not teaching the whole Gospel. We pray that LGM will offer the spark they need to light a fire in their hearts for evangelism and discipleship among our political leaders so nations will turn to Him one heart at a time." So faith comes om hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. R o m a n s 1 0 : 1 7 "e future of our nation depends upon the local church taking the Gospel to public servants and discipling them through weekly in-depth Bible studies." RALPH DROLLINGER local government Ministries

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