In addition to our multi-partisan, multi-denominational nature (see below), Christian Civics Foundations is unique in multiple key ways:

We approach the question of faith, politics and public life from a spiritual formation perspective. This isn’t a program that was developed to fix a political problem. Political polarization brings with it specific challenges related to discipleship, church health, and witness and evangelism. Christian Civics Foundations is a tool Christian communities can use to either address those problems or get ahead of them. Becoming a healthier influence on our civic life is just a natural consequence of healthier discipleship and fellowship.

Our material enriches your spiritual life and helps you make Jesus look good for the long haul, not just during this present crisis. By the time we taught our first class in 2015, members of our team had already been leading church workshops on dealing with political tension and college courses on faith and government for decades. The terms of debate change in American politics every few election cycles, and Christian Civics Foundations will continue to apply even when they do.

Christian Civics Foundations is the result of years of collaboration between pastors, academics and political professionals from across the political spectrum. Our goal in creating this course wasn’t to argue for the Christian left or the Christian right, but to deepen personal discipleship and make church communities healthier.

Each week will offer you something interesting, something challenging and something encouraging, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum. Participants will leave this course humbler, more patient with others, and more comfortable following Jesus into questions that don’t have fast or easy answers.

While our team mostly comes from protestant traditions that could be classified as evangelical, we have worked hard to ensure that Christian Civics Foundations can be easily deployed by a wide range of churches, small groups and para-church ministries. If you can sincerely profess the Apostle’s Creed and believe the Bible has a unique authority in our faith, then Christian Civics Foundations is for you.

For eight years, we have done our work one church or ministry group at a time. If there’s one thing we learned from that experience, it’s that political polarization is taking a toll on more churches across the country than we could ever visit in-person.

We are committing to making this video-based course free for at least the first year, so as to allow as many people and as many church communities as possible to benefit from it.

If you are interested in helping us continue to make this course free beyond the 2024 elections, consider becoming a monthly supporter of our work.

Christian Civics Foundations was developed first and foremost to be used in community. Jesus said that he will be uniquely present where multiple people come together in his name, and Paul said that each believer is like a single piece of a larger body. Going through this material with other people will inevitably help you learn things you wouldn’t have otherwise—things about other people, things about God and things about yourself.

That said, if you wish to use this material in your own private devotional life, consider using the discussion questions as reflection questions. Many of the Notes for Leaders will also be helpful in providing you more context for the questions and videos.

Christian Civics Foundations is ten weeks long, but those ten weeks are broken up into three parts. Your church or small group can do the entire course straight through, or take a break between parts. This allows churches to honor important seasons in their community/liturgical calendars, enables small groups to keep in step with church-wide initiatives, and gives you natural “break” points to give people time to digest and practice what they learn.