#342 Don’t Sit on the Sidelines: My Review of Andy Stanley’s Book Not In It to Win It

The Good Citizen Podcast

Over the last few months, I have received a number of questions about Andy Stanley’s book Not In It to Win It: Why Choosing Sides Sidelines the Church and the general approach to public life the book recommends. Here is a review of that book and why I believe our Christian citizenship compels us to engage in the public square rather than sit on the sidelines.

Summary: Not In It to Win It is largely a call to avoid the public square lest we jeopardize our gospel witness. In essence, we should sit on the sidelines (continuing the author’s analogy) in public life because we can’t engage politics without wearing the jersey of one of the teams and playing the game according to the parties’ playbook. But we are not called to sit on the sidelines. We should get in the game, but we should wear Christ’s jersey and play according to His playbook and for His glory. Let’s be model players instead of silent spectators.

Positive Points:

• The church’s mission is the Great Commission.
• Our ultimate allegiance is to Christ and not a political party or candidate.
• We should distinguish between God’s covenant with Israel and the United States.

Questions:

• What about the Great Commission’s command to make disciples?
• What about government as a God-ordained institution and our role as citizen?
• What about the church’s role as conscience?
• What about Christ as King?

A few key quotes from the book:

• “The moment we step into a ring that requires someone to lose in order for us to win, we are no longer followers of Jesus.”
• “The moment our love or concern for country takes precedence over our love for the people in our country, we are off mission. When saving America diverts energy, focus, and reputation away from saving Americans, we no longer qualify as the ekklesia of Jesus. We’re merely political tools. A manipulated voting demographic. A photo op. Again, we lose our elevated position as the conscience of the nation. We give up the moral and ethical high ground.”
• “When Christianity is reduced to belief, we lose our voice…By reducing Christianity to a pagan bifurcation of sacred and secular, we’ve abandoned our opportunity – our responsibility – to serve as the conscience of the nation.”
• “Our ultimate allegiance is to a King who came to reverse the order of things – the king who rather than requiring his subjects to die for him, died for them instead.”

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