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After decades of secular chaos, Westerners are rediscovering how desperately we need God back in the public square. If only Christians believed it too.

For a good decade, we’ve seen a major political realignment taking place across the Western world — whether Brexit, Trump, Reform UK, or the rise of populist parties in Europe.

In the month or so since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, there’s good evidence that we’re also living in a time of spiritual revival among the unchurched.

If you don’t believe me, consider that Charlie Kirk’s memorial service was watched by over 200 million people. Some of the most powerful world leaders not only spoke at that event, but explicitly shared the gospel and urged people to turn to Christ. It was easily the furthest-reaching gospel presentation in human history, dwarfing even the biggest Billy Graham crusades. Since Charlie Kirk’s death, church attendance, baptisms and Bible sales have all spiked.

If we’re seeing a realignment of politics, and a revival among the unsaved, then I contend that we also need a reformation of the church.

Reformations happen when the old spiritual paradigms and power structures no longer serve their intended purpose, and the people revolt. That was true in Martin Luther’s day, and I believe it’s also true in ours.

Beginning last century, the West conducted a very risky experiment. We’ve removed every semblance of Christianity and godliness from the political order.

We were promised utopia. Instead we got “pregnant men”. Castrated kids. A silent holocaust of abortion. Mandated injections. Hatred of our own country. And censored for noticing.

This secular experiment is not working out so well.

For thousands of years, Christianity helped shape the West’s political order. By driving God out of the town square, we didn’t get neutrality. We got chaos. And it’s increasingly obvious — even to the unchurched — that we need God back again in our politics and our civilisation.

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses set off the Protestant Reformation.

I’m no Martin Luther, and I have a lot less theses than he did, but here are a few thoughts I’d like to share in the hope that we might see a new church reformation.

1. Christians Belong in the Public Square

Jesus called us — his followers — “the light of the world”. When he said, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven,” he wasn’t giving us advice. Our Lord was issuing a commandment.

Yes, Christian faith is personal, but God does not intend for it to be private. He has commissioned us to shape the world we live in. He wants us to put our light on a stand so it gives light to everyone in the proverbial house.

The Reformers understood this, and they completely transformed the continent of Europe.

The Revivalists understood this, and they shaped the major institutions of our civilisation.

William Wilberforce understood this, and he led the charge to abolish slavery across the British Empire.

The Pilgrims understood this, and they founded the most explicitly Christian nation in the history of world, which has gone on to become the most successful, powerful and prosperous country that’s ever existed.

All of these people realised that their Christian faith could not be confined to the four walls of the church. They took seriously the Saviour’s command to let their faith spill over into public life.

In our individualistic age, we tend to think of the Great Commission as only a person-by-person task. We forget that Jesus sent us to make disciples of all nations.

Jesus wants to save individuals, yes. But he also wants the nations to pursue biblical righteousness in all aspects of life and culture, because that’s how nations prosper.

This isn’t my idea. It comes from Scripture:

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12).

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.” (Proverbs 14:34).

2. The Gospel Applies to All of Life

The West’s emphasis on individualism comes with strengths and weaknesses. One of the strengths of the Western church, I believe, is our ability to help believers apply the gospel to all the parts of our individual lives — whether money, relationships, evangelism, our devotional life, and so on.

What we’re not so good at is applying the gospel beyond the individual to the broader world.

The Western gospel is, in many ways, individualistic. Privatised. Shrunken down. Truncated.

That’s not how an ancient Jew saw things. They didn’t have a word for “religion” because “religion” was intertwined with every aspect of life. It couldn’t be separated.

That’s the kind of integrated worldview we’re supposed to have. Christianity is not a private religious experience but a total way of life. The gospel applies to everything. That includes politics.

Charlie Kirk understood this. He wasn’t afraid to apply the gospel and the Christian worldview to everything because he knew it was relevant to everything.

When churches or pastors say, “We don’t talk about politics,” or “Let’s not get political,” what they’re really saying is, “We won’t apply God’s Word to public life”.

But God’s Word should shape public life. The gospel should be applied to every area of life, without exception.

3. Jesus Christ is Lord of All

The reason the early church was persecuted was not simply because they appealed to individual people to come to Christ.

They were persecuted because they were announcing the arrival of a new cosmic king to whom even Caesar had to bow the knee.

This is how the apostle Paul explained the new status quo in Colossians 1:17–18:

He [Jesus Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

That’s quite a thing to tell the Roman Empire. But that was precisely the message of the early church. And it’s still our message today.

In the words of Dutch theologian and Prime Minister Abraham Kuyper, “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which Christ, Who alone is sovereign, does not declare, ‘That is Mine!’”

The gospel is comprehensive. The Great Commission is premised on Jesus possessing all authority in heaven and on earth.

He has commissioned the church to preach the gospel. Part of that gospel — a part we have long neglected — is that Christ is Lord of all. He is the God of Australia, even if we no longer acknowledge that.

May the day come when we acknowledge it again.

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Image courtesy of Freepik.