Presidential Press Conference Challenges Church

In a rare Labor Day press conference, held outdoors, the president announced the amazing news that the unemployment rate had fallen to 8.4%—something even the experts had estimated would take up to a year to attain—and the economy gained 1.4 million new jobs in just one month.

The president went on to, for the first time, use the word “decoupling”—breaking trade relations—when referring to China: “So when you mention the word ‘decouple,’ it’s an interesting word—we lose billions of dollars, and if we didn’t do business with them, we wouldn’t lose billions of dollars. It’s called ‘decoupling,’ so you’ll start thinking about it.” Both the president’s good news on the economy and his strong stand on China reemphasize a true challenge for the church.

According to the United States Election Project, nearly half of eligible voters did not vote in the 2016 election, and there are approximately 94 million Christian voters, further narrowing it down to the fact that according to a study by the Barna organization, nearly 40% of—or approximately 37 million—Christians did not vote in 2016.

A new initiative called Our Church Votes is urging those estimated 37 million to register and vote immediately and every believer to work with their families, friends and more and urge them to register and vote as well. Jason Yates, CEO of My Faith Votes says,