Attention. You're listening to the top Huff radio show, America's home for a conservative not bitter talk radio. Be advised. The content of this program has been documented to prevents and he didn't cure liberalism, and listening may cause you to lean to the right. Here's your conservative but not Bitter host, Tod Huff. Hey, everybody, this is actually John Crane. I have the
privilege of being able to sit in the guest chair today. I'm always grateful when Todd Huff invites me to come down and be able to guest host the show, and I have a very very exciting show for you today. I have the opportunity to bring in a good friend of mine who I'll introduce here
in just a minute. We recently had the opportunity to go down to Mexico City and do some political leadership training down there that was intended to try to help really leaders from all over Latin America be able to get a better sense of how can we actually impact not only the lives but also the leadership of our elected officials. And so I was actually part of a trio from here in Indiana that went down and spent about three days down there doing some leadership
training. We had the opportunity to go to their national Congress and we were invited into that space by one of their Really, it would be the equivalent of one of our congressmen. It would be like being in Washington, d C. Only it was Mexico City for the country of Mexico. And so we were hosted there and got a chance to speak in the Congress, and then spent the next two days being able to do some actual leadership training at
a megachurch down there in Mexico City. So in light of that, I decided to invite my very good friend Matt Barnes to come in and to kind of have a conversation with us about not only that trip, but also the good work that he's doing. He is part of an organization called Public Servants Prayer. He is officially the head chaplain at our state House here in the state of Indiana, and he's got a great team around him that's doing some
fantastic work. They've been doing it for twenty years in this state. And so I just want to say welcome Matt onto the Todd huff Show. Glad to have you here, Senator Crane, it is great to be with you and glad to be on air. This is wonderful. Well, in light of your role in the leadership that you've been able to have here in the state of Indiana, I'd like for you to be able to give our audience just a little bit of a background on public servants prayer. How did you
get started? What is it that you all do? Well? Thank you, John, and again it's good to be with you, and truly inside the State House. I have discovered that politicians are people, and I know there are folks out there that that can't be possible, but they are. And I love political leaders, and that seems like an odd thing to say, you know, as I love politicians, and I often tell people it's because politicians are people and God loves people. Ergo, God loves politicians,
and so then I will often have an audience say that with me. You know, I love politicians, and it makes people uncomfortable, but I think that's it's important for us as we think about For me, as a believer, I'm told to pray for those in authority over me, and I find
it impossible to hate somebody i'm praying for. So that turned into twenty years ago, that turned into a ministry where I walked into the State House ask if I could meet with my elected leaders and I began to ask them how I could pray for them, and God started a ministry right there in late two thousand and four, and so it's been it's been the honor of a lifetime to be in that building and as you say, in that space, to begin to find out how political leaders think, what they're going through in
their life, because again they're just people, so there's just there's family issues. There are all sorts of ministry opportunities in the capital and it's been a thrill to be able to do that for the last twenty years. And over those twenty years, you know, it started with just you, but that team has grown about how big is your team now at the State House. So we have about three well with an intern now for full time folks, and then we have many volunteers, six or seven volunteers, and we look
to plant. What we want to do is encourage local churches to begin to go into county courthouses, city halls, because if we're to pray for our leaders, we need to find out how to pray for them. And so going in and listening is very helpful in determining how to pray for political leaders. So we've got a great team all over Indiana. And it's ironic, right because in the political space, usually people are down there focused on advocacy,
and certainly there's a place for that. We hear at the top Tuff Show talk about advocacy quite a bit, But tell us a little bit about a little further about the approach that you've taken of just offering to pray for people and how that has opened doors not just into their lives, but really in being able to have genuine and meaningful, sustained impact in the lives of the political leaders. As you know as a senator, everybody in that building
wants something from you. Yeah, there was a former senator that he came to me. He said, everybody in this building wants something from me except you, Matt, and so I want that to always be the case. We don't want anything from those leaders. What we want to do is be a blessing to them, and we establish peer based ministry because we come alongside. The difficult thing about once you get elected you have lots of friends. Yes, that's exactly right to go but yes, I've become very popular.
Correct. Yeah. Years ago I think it was The Onion put out an article and it was the headline was Congressman shocked to discover lobbyist really not his friend, and so exactly the whole satire article was, Oh, we used to go to games together and meals together. He'd laugh at all my jokes. And then I didn't vote in the way he wanted me to, and he doesn't like me anymore. He's not my friend. Then he dogs. There's a lot of those quote unquote friends in Indiana. In fact, we
have more than fifteen hundred registered lobbyists. And when you figure there are one hundred members of the House of Representatives fifty members of the Senate, that's a ten to one margin from lobby to lobbyist to legislator ratio. So we want to be that entity in the building that says we love you, we care about you, and we want to pray for you, with no strings attached,
no ulterior motive, no hidden agenda. And now I will tell you John that it took the better part of nine years for them to actually believe me. Yeah, tell us a little bit about that. There's always a natural skepticism in the political well, yes, especially you get a pastor coming in, clearly he's got an agenda. And so I just would sit in
the galleries in the House in the Senate for nine years. I sat there until finally a legislator in the House said, you know, we have a pastor of the day every day that comes in to pray and start each session of the House and Senate in prayer, and we just don't have a lot of time. We're running from bill to bill and committee to committee. Would you be able to come down meet that pastor of the day, talk with him, orient them to the process, and then we'll come in and say
hi and get started on session. So it gave me a quote unquote job to do, and so it was an honor to be on the floor. In fact, they say all unauthorized individuals leave the House chamber, leave the Senate chamber, and they finally got the golden ticket. I did. And
so typically the pastor will leave right after he here she prays. They leave, Yeah, and then there's this seat sitting there with their reserved stick around it, And I thought, well, if they're going to leave, I might as well sit, And so I began sitting there and that just turned into me being on the floor all the time. Whenever the House or Senator in session, we are there and we're praying and creating that pastoral presence in
the arena. So that's how it happened. It was just over time creating
trusts, and that trust turns into influencing the lives of leaders. Yeah, and I will tell you from my perspective as one of those elected leaders, having been in the Senate for many, many years now, I often tell audiences when they ask about the role that you all play, that it's really a ministry of presence, and that is being present in the room and knowing, especially when there's some really really difficult bills or people's emotions are getting all
fired up about a variety of different things, to know that I can always kind of look over my shoulder and look in the back of the room and see you or a member of your team back there, just present and praying, and that's a huge lift in those moments. Well. Pastoral presence is highly important and valued. In fact, the former Speaker of the House at one of our events, we have a State House prayer service at the beginning of every year where we invite Hoosiers to come in. Hundreds of Hoosiers come
in to pray within for their leaders. And at that event several years ago, former Speaker Brian Bosma, he surprised me. He says, hey, Matt, can I jump up and do well? Of course, you do whatever you want, you know. He jumps up on the stage. Yes, mister Smith, Yes, yes, he jumps up on the stage, and in front of all these hundreds of people, he said, I just want to commend public servants prayer and their team. He says, they have
fundamentally changed the atmosphere and the culture of the State House. And he says, I know for sure that has happened because as legislators get up and they want to speak and may want to say something not very nice about one of their fellow legislators, they look over and they see that there's a pastor sitting there praying for them, and it changes the tone and the tenor in the room. And so that's been what a blessing to be able to provide that
pastoral presence. I am a representative and I have to remind myself when I walk in that intimidating building every day that I'm a representative too. I just represent the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not representing constituents in a district, but I represent him and so hopefully when they see me, they see the Lord. And beyond that. I know that you are very diligent about not doing a lot of preaching. But there is a regular Bible study that you conduct,
is that right? Yes? Every week? In fact, there's a there's a couple Bible several Bible studies going on in the Capitol. So every Tuesday morning during session, we have a legislative Bible study that you are obviously very faithful lot, and in fact it's grown. When I first walked in twenty years ago, there were four or five legislators. Today there's thirty five to forty. They gather in the Governor's office and gather around the Word of
God to pray with one another and study the Word. That's remarkable. I think that should excite some believers in the state of Indiana that that's going on in your capitol. Yeah. I think it puzzles some believers in Indiana that there's any believers in the capitol, and yet there are, and it's a
regular thing. This is awesome. This is awesome. This is why I'm so grateful that you're able to be here and able to kind of give us that insider perspective on how you can have meaningful influence and impact in the lives of leaders. This is a fantastic conversation. We're gonna continue this on the other side of the break. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back on the Todd Huff Radio Show. Hey, this is John Crane filling in for Todd Huff on the Todd Huff Show. We are in the middle of a
really fascinating conversation. We're doing less issues today and more focus on how we can have impact with our political leaders. I'm here with my very good friend and colleague Matt Barnes, who is with Public Servants per and they've been serving in the state capital of Indiana for twenty years, and we've been getting into kind of the history of public servants prayer and really how coming in and trying to serve politicians has opened the door for influence both in their life and in
their leadership. As I mentioned at the top of the show, one of the things that we were able to do very recently was to go down to Mexico City for three days of leadership training in their state or in their federal capital, but also in a local megachurch down there. They brought leaders from all over Mexico and Latin America to be able to be a part of this conference, and it was hosted by an organization called Parliament and Faith. Matt,
I know you've been involved with them for quite some time. Tell us a little bit more about Parliament and Faith and the founder and what they do. Sure, I met Luciano Bangarra. He is from buenas Airis, Argentina, and I met him seventeen years ago and heard his passion. For he previously was doing ministry to athletes, that was his thing, and then he just transferred that focus to the political arena and started a ministry in Buenis Airi's
Argentina. And as he grew, the ministry grew there at morns Aires, he began to see that there was a need for ministry in the political arena and capitals around the world, and that has grown now into a worldwide ministry, a global ministry to political types and political leaders. So that's what this
was. A regional meeting, a conference that we were at recently, and so, like you say, it was Mexico, it was all around Central America and those there is a seed being planted, and is exciting to see that there are people willing to go into the political arena with no agenda, with no desire to accomplish some sort of advocacy other than we want political leaders
to know the love of Jesus and the forgiveness found in Christ. Well, and I think it's fascinating too because oftentimes, as I often tell audiences, people generally, and it's not just Americans, I think people all of the world have a negative impression of political leaders. And I'm only half joking when I talk about the meaning of politics. Right, So, Polly is many and ticks are blood sucking creatures, and that is what the vast majority of
the average citizens automatically assume about elected officials. Unfortunately, like so many situations in life, there are always some bad apples that taint the entire bunch,
and we have to try to work to overcome that. And so I remember one of the very first conversations that you and I had when I came into our Indiana Senate was explaining to you my desire to not just be a senator, but really to be a catalyst for redemptive good in the political arena, and my secondary goal was to try to redeem the reputation of the politician.
How have you seen that play out in the ministry opportunities that you've had both in our state but also some of these conferences that you've been able to be a part of. I'll never forget that first conversation you and I had because I looked at you and I said, please unpack that a little bit for me, a little more for me, and you did, and you've walked it out, Yes, you have. And it's that's been encouraging. And what I have seen over the course of twenty years. When you say twenty
years, it sounds like a lot of fact that we're getting. Well. Yeah. And also, you know, when I started in the state US, I was I had hair, you know, and I'm clearly follically challenged now. And so as we started the ministry there and there were there was a core of folks that love the Lord and would come to that Bible study. But what we've seen is that as we come in and we encourage folks
to gather together. One person strengthens another person. Right to that old Billy Graham quote, you know when one person stands, the backs of others are stiffened as well, something like that is what he said. And so we've seen that happen in our capital, and there becomes an accountability. Right.
So you're sitting in a Bible study together, and and by the way, John, as you know, we've got all four caucuses represented in the Bible study, right, So I know there are folks like that can't be possible. There's there's Christian republic, There's there's Republicans that are Christians. There are
Democrats that are Christians. The answer is yes. And so sitting on that table, there's a senator that says, it's really hard for me to sit there, and I'm praying with this particular senator that's from the other party. And then in the afternoon, I'm debating them on the floor and I can't go hit them upside that because I've discovered that they have prayer needs, they've got family problems, and they end up loving that member. And so it
is created an atmosphere of care. I know we often say that we want people say we want civility in politic in the political world, and I often tell legislators in our state House that civility is a really low bar. I mean that just means I have to tolerate you, when in fact, according to the Word of God, I need to love you, and that's a much higher bar. And so we've seen that culture change in our capital.
And I know in this segment we started with talking about how we ended up in Mexico City, some people maybe are a little puzzled by you know, you start this ministry in the capitol and the state of Indiana. How do you then find yourself in some of these overseas venues working with leaders from other
countries. How did that evolve? Well, the fact is there is a pastoral vacuum in the political arena, and so once you begin to start that and begin to create pastoral care in the political arena, what happens is because there's so few people out there doing it, you end up connecting with other people that are doing that, and that has led to going to other places.
And because of there's such a vacuum and there are so many people that need that ministry, and yet there's so few that do it now being twenty years in here this season, they kind of yeah, they to see me as the seasoned guy, like come tell us, And I often tell them, you know, I can at least tell you what not to do because I've had twenty years of experience. This is what not to do. What
to do We're still working on and so that's how I'm fine. But even still, though, John, I find myself in those arenas and I have to pinch myself, like what am I doing here? I'm just like I was a homeschooled kid from South East Indiana. What am I doing? But it's God. He's the one who opens the doors and and we just keep
walking through them. But it is amazing. Back to your point though, about the idea of politics being a dirty arena, there was a quote and it was it was profound down in Mexico, and it got through the translation our our intern this year is thankfully bilingual. I suffer from monolingualism, and so that's that's my bad. But through the translation it came something like, there was a guy who felt called to the political arena. He's a Christian
that went to his mom and his passions. I feel called to the political arena, and his mom said, no, you can't do that because it's like a sewer. And I thought, you know, that's in Mexico, but that's also in the United States. Well, And I shared a story even from one of my my local church. We had a guest speaker who came in and was talking about kind of his formative years and where he was wanting to go vocationally, and ultimately he ended up doing some what we would
call apologetics ministry of how to defend the Christian faith. But at the time, prior to that, he was doing some finance and the economics. But as he was describing this journey, he shared in this very large auditorium that originally he had thought about wanting to get in politics to try to make a difference. And I'll never forget listening to that because the audience laughed. They were laughing at the fact that he wanted to make a difference. Yeah,
there was this idea that you could actually make a difference in politics. And I'm sitting there as a sitting State senator, thinking, you know, that's part of our problem is that from a spiritual standpoint or a worldview standpoint, we get so focused on the advocacy and the issues that we don't often go back and source those. Right, If I take a particular political position or a philosophical position, you know, at some point I have to ask myself,
why why do I have this position? And well, because I believe this? Well, why do I believe this? Well? Because I believe that Ultimately, you know, does God have something to say about everything or not? And the answer is yes, because he created the system. And as we know, you know Romans thirteen, Yes, the idea of government
originated from God himself. And so after the break, I want us to unpack that a little further, just for our audience, because I think sometimes many times with talk radio shows, we talk about the issues and we don't often connect the dots for people. And I think it's really really important for us to understand our why behind the positions that we take, or the policy that we try to move, or even the approach that we might be trying
to take with our elected officials. Why we need to be thoughtful in terms of how we think and how we act. And so we're getting ready to take another break, but we're going to pick up this conversation and talking about some of the why behind this whole thing. Don't go away. We'll be right back on the Todd Radio Show. Hey, this is John Crane.
I'm privileged to be able to guest host the Todd Huff Radio Show today, and we've been in the middle of a really fascinating conversation with my very good friend and colleague Matt Barnes, who heads up the Public Servants Prayer Team at
the Indiana State Capitol here in the state of Indiana. They've been doing it for twenty years and really wanting to come alongside elected officials and frankly all the staff, anybody who works in the State House and trying to administer them starting with prayer, but also then morphing into being able to really interact with them
personally and build meaningful connections with them. As we've mentioned, we spent some time to get down in Mexico City recently, and that's part of the reason why I wanted to invite Matt onto the show today, so that we could provide some perspective on what we learned there and what we experience. It's very easy for us to kind of get insulated, especially here in the American culture, but oftentimes if we've ever been outside of the country or even in another
part of the country that's unfamiliar to us. It provides some needed perspective. One of the things that we were talking about before the break was this idea of really trying to help people connect the dots in terms of why we believe what we believe about certain things. And I know, for you all in the ministry space, you are not doing a lot of advocacy at all, other than advocating for politicians, which is kind of ironic, right, But
your job is not to necessarily advocate for or against a particular issue. You don't want the politics to get in the way of the person. Unpack that a little bit for us in terms of the approach that you all take that might be a little different than perhaps the approach that other folks have taken, and even other Christians or Conservatives. So what we do is, in looking at scripture, does God care about good law and good leadership? And the
answer is a resounding yes. And so you look at the first five books of the Bible, their books of the law. Then you get into books of leadership like Joshua, Judges and Ruth even having an impact. She became the great grandmother of King David, and so you begin to see that God cares about good law and good leadership. Then you fast forward in the in the Old Testament and you see prophets, and who did the prophets minister to?
They ministered to the kings, and so where there was a king, there was a man of God. And so our heart in the ministry is to come alongside leaders and encourage, pray for and then we're helpful. And so oftentimes a political leader will come and say, hey, this is this is what I'm struggling with, or this even maybe there's a bill that they're like, hey, this is coming up. What does the Bible say?
Remember, very vividly early on in the ministry, a legislater are coming to me and say, you're a pastor, what's the Bible say about this? And what's your opinion? And I remember distinctly saying, well, my opinion doesn't matter, but the Bible can speak, and we'll let because that's what those prophets are saying to the kings. Right, Thus saith the Lord and be able to speak for the Lord. And so we do that through the
word of God. Now that's our heart as we come alongside leadership and helping them do what they do better, because the proverbs say that when the righteous rule, the people rejoice, and that's what we want. We want a citizenry that rejoices under the leadership that is over us because, as you mentioned earlier, Romans thirteen one says there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. So if I'm looking through Scripture as
my prism to government, I often get saddened. I joke negative jokes about politicians. I'm like, especially from Christians or heard from the pulpit, It's like, those are those are the people that I love, and that's my mission field. I think a missionary would be very offended if a pastor got up and told a joke about a particular people group that they were ministry to, And I'm like that that's me because I love those people and want to
help them do what they do better. Because God can call the Christian to serve in the political arena, and especially if you think about it, we talk about it being dirty, but what happens when you take godly out of something it becomes ungodly. So that's why and you speak to that, this idea of when when the righteous are ruling, the people rejoice, right, Well, that gets into some deeper cultural, philosophical, even theological questions on
how do we define right and wrong? How do we define good and bad? Or ought and ought not? And I hear often from fellow legislators and even the average people, Wow, we can't legislate morality, right, that's a common phrase, and everybody just kind of nods and going, well, you're right, you know. Well, I've had to gently try to help people understand that we, as lawmakers in particular, are in the morality legislating business. We are making law, and any law, by definition says either
that the citizens can or cannot do whatever it is that we're undertaking. The question isn't whether or not we're legislating morality, is whose morality are we legislating? And so when we think about the idea of the righteous ruling, it begs that question, what is our standard? Right? What is our standard? If we keep it strictly at the political then it's simply whoever's you know,
the party in power. But I think that's the big challenge right as Christian leaders is to say, wait, a second, is there a higher standard to which we're all beholden? Well, I found it. I find it fascinating. The six hundred and some laws in the Old Testament that God put out and the summarises them down to ten, and then Jesus gets them down to two. Right, what are the two? What's the primary law? Love the Lord your God with all your hearts and mind and strength,
and love your neighbor as yourself. We could pretty much do a way. And I've been in the law library, but you probably have as well. In the state House in its law book upon law book upon me in the code for morality in our state is writ large. It's an entire library. And Jesus says, are you loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself? If we had those two, if if every heart and every person did those two laws, we wouldn't need all those laws. Well, I'm practically speaking,
That's what I've often said to people. You know, if you could, if you could accomplish two things, you would virtually eliminate the need for government. One is that we are truly kind of moral and ethical right according
to that standard that God established. But the second also is we could shore up the family, which is God's smallest unit of government, right, Mom, Dad, kids, That's where kids learn all kinds of really law rules, systems for not just surviving in life, but thriving within a civilized society. And if we could do both of those, and if we could teach people this idea of loving God and loving others, man, imagine how much better the world would be. And why do we help people learn to love
other people? Is so that they will get along well together. Why do we teach them to learn to love God? Because God says people matter. In fact, people are the most important thing, and unfortunately as important as politics is, and it's very important. Obviously we're all involved in that in some form or fashion. People matter more, right they do. And as you're saying that, and maybe we'll do with the next segment. But the
idea is what's behind. I don't preach morality, John, That's and hopefully most preachers of the Gospel don't, because that is a fruitless exercise to preach morality. What we preach is Jesus can help us accomplish those two things through and by the person Jesus Christ, and through the salvation. In the Gospel that's what helps us do what we're supposed to do, because I can't even do those two rules. They couldn't do one in the garden of Eden,
So we can't do those two without God's help. That's right, and I think it's ultimately an extension of our relationship with God and how that plays out into our interactions with other people. Well, we're going to pick this conversation up. We're getting into some really good stuff here, but we've got to take a quick break and we'll be right back right here on the Todd Huff Radio Show. We'll see in just a second. This is John Gray.
We're back on the Todd Huff Radio Show, and we've been having a very fascinating conversation with my good friend and Kyle Matt Barnes, a public servants prayer. They've been doing some ministry to political leaders because they love politicians. It's a mission field, yes, and they've been doing that for twenty years here in the state of Indiana, but it's also expanded. Their reach has expanded not just across the United States and to other capitals and encouraging leaders in those
capitals as well, but also in other countries around the world. And the backdrop for why I invited Matt to join me on the show today is because we recently were down in Mexico City doing some really some leadership training for elected officials and also faith leaders who are interested in ministering to politicians. I didn't
ask at the outset. I'm interested to know what was what were some of your takeaways from our time in Mexico City and those conversations that we were able to have, well thankfully with Aliseo, our translator, we were able to discover that the same problems that we have in Indiana and the United States are the same problems they're dealing with in Mexico. And as we've traveled around the
world, the same problems around the world. It's because we have as really we have as a preacher, I would say, we have a sin problem. It's the same where sinners around the world. It's a human issue, human problem, and so that's why we need government, right because government is to restrain evil. And in First Peter chapter two, he says the purposes
of government are punish evil and praise the good. And so that's what government and we need restraints and the problem with people writ large is that we don't have restraints internally, and so the less self government we have, the more civil government. Yeah, grow there's that. There's that line from history where they say, you know, the less that you're able to govern yourself from within, the more you will be governed from without, And that's exactly right,
so true. So that's what I took away was, you know, as we're meeting with these leaders, and whether some were pastoral leaders, many were political leaders as well, they're dealing with the same problem. Yeah. It was interesting because you kind of think, Okay, I'm going into a foreign culture. In this case, it was Latin America, so a lot of Hispanic leaders, and there's certainly some cultural issues right, clearly language issues
and things like that. But I think one of my takeaways was not realizing that one of my initial assumptions was that the differences would be more stark and contrasting, when in reality, to your point, once you get past some of those contextual or cultural issues, at the most basic level, we're human and the political the political nuance, the political considerations, all those different things that we deal with here in an American context are the same types of things
that they deal with in their own context as well. It's just it's couched a little bit differently. Even the organization of the of the different positions and
things like that. One of the things that I thought was very, very fascinating, And this is something that I think is any difference, and certainly something that gave me a much greater appreciation for America as challenging as kind of where we are in our own journey, was that when we were getting ready to go into their National Congress, the pastor who was hosting us told us that tomorrow, when we go in, he said, that will be the
first time in four years that Christians have even been allowed to darken the door, which I thought was fascinating. What was your take on that. It's hard to believe, first of all. Secondly, as I tried, as I travel our state in the United States, I often say this access is granted because all public meetings are public by definition. The problem is nobody shows up, and so its access is granted. Influence is earned. Can we imagine It's hard to imagine a place where the access is not granted. Oh,
you are a Christian, You're not allowed in here? Yes, And so the pastor was just thrilled that we were able to be in there, and I praise to God for that, and hopefully that's an open door that will continue to be open well. And I think that was the key, right. It wasn't even that we were allowed to kind of darken the door in the lobby. It was that doors had been opened for us to be able to get into one of the presentation rooms. You and I shared the
dais with really a congresswoman who the vice president of their Congress. Right she is not the Speaker of the House for them, but she is the second in command for their entire Congress. And then to be able to go onto the floor of their Congress, and in talking with some of those pastoral leaders, you could just see the shock on their face. They had never been there, and they had never been received so warmly into some of these spaces.
And for somebody like me who has had the privilege of being able to serve in Indiana and also go out to Washington, d C. And have that experience without fear of repression or anything like that, it was a great reminder of how blessed we are here in the United States. Truly. You know, we talk about freedom of religion. And I look at freedom of religion as an exercise and the less you exercise something, the more actrophy you have and the muscle. And we have freedom of religion here, we just
don't use it. And it's entirely possible. And I think we should be going into those spaces of the political world, and why can't we go and sit and listen and pray. Everybody can do that. Represent of Ailsworth says this, the world is governed by those who show up. And that's it's a simple statement, but it's profound. And I would also I would encourage those that are listening, if you're if you're a believer, just start showing
up at a city council being. First of all, they're going to wonder who the new person is because there's no one there, like who's the new guy? And I got that as I started going. I went to my city council, who's the new guy? In fact, they're like, hey, are you the attorney sho No, no, no, I'm not. I please don't. And so it's it's that idea of access is granted, influences earned. Let's go in these places and begin to pray for our leaders.
And then see what God does in our heart. Maybe God is calling an individual to run for office. We want more godly leaders. Maybe that person's just supposed to go and pray and find out how to more impact their civil government. What a blessing that would be to our state and to our nation if God's people would engage in an arena that is often viewed negatively and we come in positively. Well, And I think that's the key, right.
Another variation of that quote from Representative Aylesworth is that we get the government that we deserve. If we choose to be involved, then we can have a greater voice. And if we choose not to be involved, the wheels of government are still turning whether we're present or not, and all the more reason why those of us who have a biblical worldview should be engaged in this right. The idea that the public square is empty is true in the sense
of our involvement. By choice, by circumstance, we found ourselves in the periphery, and yet the people and the problem still exist in the public square. So it begs the question, if we are not present, then who will be? And if it's not somebody with a biblical world you're will be somebody who doesn't share that particular worldview who will be, even from a good heart, striving to help those people and solve their problems. And so I
think it's a good reminder for us not to stand on the sidelines. Well, we've got to take one more break before we round out our conversation, but we'll be right back right here on the Todd Huff Radio Show. We'll see in just sec Hey, this is John Crane. We've been having a great conversation here on the Todd Huff Radio Show, and I just want to say thank you to my great friend Matt Barnes for being on the show with us today. Thank you, John, it's been an honor to be here
with you. Well, and as we mentioned, you're part of Public Servants Prayer. How can people find out more about Public Servants Prayer or a Public Servants Prayer. We are a volunteer organization, by the way, so we're not paid by state funds or taxpayer dollars. So when I say colleague, I meet it generically. You're not elected, happy to be a colleague, just a volunteer one. And so you can find us at VPSP dot org.
So that's te PSP dot o org and that and we are nationwide, by the way, so we put three leaders to pray for every day. It's part of our ministry, and so three legislators every single day to be praying for. And that is now around the country, so every state, every legislator, every day we're praying for each one of those leaders. So
that's at VPSP dot org. Well, and we really appreciate that. I'm reminded on that note of a friend of mine who texts me every single week and she asks the same question and I typically try to respond, and it's this question, how can I be praying for you and your leadership? And my friend Becca sends that to me faithfully, and it's just administers to me on a personal level and on a professional level, because I know that somebody
is praying for the decisions that have to be made. Well, I tell you what, Matt, it's been fantastic to be able to have you on the show today, and I'm so grateful for all of you out there who have been taking some time to listen to this. Hopefully some of the things that we've shared with you have challenged your way of thinking that perhaps we politicians
aren't quite as bad as everybody assumes. But God does certainly love politicians, and we should too, And so we look forward to being able to continue this conversation on another episode of the Todd Huff Radio Show. To appreciate being here today, and we'll look forward to seeing you then