10/5/26 - 2167: Why Christians Can’t Afford to Sit This One Out

Jim: It's not a new conversation on iWork4Him. We've talked often about this inner church conflict about getting into politics and government. For almost seven decades, the message from the pulpit has been: stay out of politics and government because it's run by sinners and it's a dirty place.

Jim: That is a summary of perspectives I've heard over the years, but Essentialsly it's saying Christians should avoid all things that are inherently sinful, like politics, government, and let's throw in there Hollywood, too.

Jim: You wanna know when our, why our country has fallen into brokenness today? Jesus followers have been told and obeyed the command to avoid all these three parts of our society, therefore those three parts, and education too, have all gone to hell. They're not going to hell, they're gone. But there's hope.

Jim: There's always hope when Jesus is around. There are 100 million believers in this country, and we could turn this around, but it's gonna be messy. It's gonna involve tough conversations and a lot of diligence coupled with perseverance, but you'll not have to go it alone. You can have a partner in this.

Jim: The Center for Christian Virtue is focused on seeking the good of our neighbors by advocating for public policy that reflects the truth of the gospel, because the Good News brings good news for all of our lives. Jesus told us to love our neighbors. Public policy can reflect that love as long as God's truth is behind it.

Jim: Sarah Shifflet is here today to talk about the Center for Christian Virtue and their upcoming annual summit. Sarah Shifflet, welcome to iWork4Him.

Sarah Shifflet: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Jim: So grateful to have you here. Sarah, we always start off this question for everybody who's a first-time guest on the show.

Sarah Shifflet: Okay.

Jim: How did you become a follower of Jesus?

Sarah Shifflet: Sure. I would say in stages. So I grew up going to church. My family went to church on Sundays but a checking the box, go to church on Sundays. And it wasn't actually until I went away to college in the Bible Belt down in Alabama that I came to know who Jesus was and asked Jesus to become the savior of my life.

Sarah Shifflet: It was another 10 years before I actually started walking that walk with Jesus. And over the last 15 years, that has just grown exponentially. I became a parent. I think once you become a parent, for the first time I was like, "Wow, that's how much God loves me. That's crazy."

Jim: That's a good way to put it.

Sarah Shifflet: And I also looked at my own parents and said the same thing. I was like, "That's how much you love me? That's amazing." And then, just in the past three years was able to kind of- I'm not gonna say I did it, it was definitely a Jesus thing, but my husband also accepted the Lord. So it's just been a, a true progression, and I'm just grateful for each stage and all the life experiences that I had along the way.

Jim: Oh, very cool. Great story. I love that. And in stages. So you just ruffled every eve- evangelical's feathers and we're like, "But you know what? It's okay." It happens in stages. We get... Jesus constantly is knocking at the door, "Hey, come on. Come on, let's go." I love that in stages you've gotten closer, and that today you're closer than ever.

Jim: And you're right, becoming a parent is a game changer. Now, after you realized how much your parents loved you because of how much you love your kids, did you ever go back and apologize?

Sarah Shifflet: I think that came before kids, right?

Jim: Okay. All right. I was just checking.

Sarah Shifflet: But definitely. It became, I think I really came to understand how much parents give up for their kids, right? Time-wise and all of those things as our daughter became very active in activities and those types of things. So I really had a new appreciation and deep amount of gratefulness to my parents for everything they did for me and my siblings.

Jim: Oh that's good. And it's good to go back. For those of you listening, if you haven't gone back and apologized to your parents yet, schedule a time on your calendar really soon. They need to hear it. It's a refreshing thing.

Jim: All right. Yes. So then how did God lead you to being passionate about public policy?

Sarah Shifflet: So yeah, that is really an interesting story because never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be in public policy. It's not... I had not been very political. I think that like so many of us during COVID, we became more involved. We're paying attention more, doing our own research more, really diving into it.

Sarah Shifflet: And I by trade I guess or by schooling, I was a child and family therapist for 10 years, and as my faith grew, I knew I could no longer counsel in community-based counseling the way that the Lord wanted me to. And I felt released, and I actually had gone into real estate for about 10 years, and I was attending events for a nonprofit that I'm on the board of, and I kept running into an old friend.

Sarah Shifflet: And I was like, "What are you doing?" And this was the course of over a year from 2024 to the spring of 2025. And she and I and my husband sat down, had lunch. She told us a little bit about, she worked for the Christian Business Partnership, which is part of the Center for Christian Virtue, one of our pillars, and she ended up inviting us to the Columbus Celebration Gala in the spring of 2025, so in May of last year.

Sarah Shifflet: And while my husband and I were sitting there, we just looked at each other and I said, "These are our people," and he was like, "Yes." And my girlfriend turns around and she's "We have open positions. You should apply for one." I was like, "I'm not really sure that's what I meant." They say if you wanna make God laugh, tell him your plans.

Sarah Shifflet: And my plan was to never go back to a W-2 job, and God had very significantly different plans. And for the first time in my career life, I consulted God on what I should do next. So he released me from counseling, but I did not ask what I should do next. And that was the first time where I actually listened, and wound up here at the Center for Christian Virtue.

Jim: I love it. What I also love as part of your story is that you said never, "I never wanna have another W-2 job." And God goes, "Oh, really? Oh, that's cute how you think that."

Sarah Shifflet: Yep. Yeah.

Jim: Yeah. "Let me just say, if you're gonna follow me, anytime you've ever said never or no way, those are the places I'm gonna take you."

Jim: That's, 'cause that's just, yeah, that's just what he does. All right. So were you one of those people, though, Sarah, that was told stay out of politics and government because it's dirty?

Sarah Shifflet: No. Nobody ever said stay out of it to me, honestly. It was always just, es- especially in today's day and age, right? In the age of social media let's make sure... And even with mainstream media, right? Make sure that you're doing your own due diligence. So that, I feel like that was really... I grew up in the era where we didn't have those things, so I didn't have to worry about that. But as I got older and what I will teach my own child is it's not that you don't get involved in those things, it's that you do your own research and you don't just forward and share.

Jim: Did you ever feel like from the pulpit, though, when you were going to church, that you had support to be able to get involved in political things or governmental things?

Sarah Shifflet: It's interesting because when people say that there's no place in church for politics, Jesus was extremely political. Right?

Sarah Shifflet: A lot of issues that are taboo, you know, like the abortion issue. Abortion is not a political issue. It's a biblical issue. But I say aside from that, Jesus was political. He was the one ruffling the feathers, there at the temple. So it's just so interesting when, they, you hear there's no place for politics or stay away from it because truly, if we're going to affect change in a biblical way within government, you have to be involved.

Jim: And there's no- really very few places on earth that are more political than church. So I, I don't know why people even say that stuff. All right, so let's talk about - let's not go down that rabbit trail for today. Tell us about the Center for Christian Virtue. What's your mission as an organization?

Sarah Shifflet: Yeah. What most people don't know is that we've actually been around for over 40 years. So we originated in 1983 under the name Concerned Citizens for Community Values. We just dropped one of the Cs and instead of CCCV, now we're CCV. And it started really as grassroots. Pastor Jerry Kirk out of Cincinnati with about three others started just a grassroots effort to get pornography, or to take on the pornography industry: to get strip clubs off of every corner in Cincinnati, to get Playboys out of every corner store.

Sarah Shifflet: And they were very successful. And then over the next 30 years, 30-plus years, they just would tackle issues a little at a time. But basically, just grassroots Cincinnati, nothing huge. So in 2016 when our current president, Aaron Bair, took over, he said he would come. He had been working for Arizona policy. He is an Ohio boy. But came back and said, "I'm gonna do two things. I'm gonna change the name, and we're gonna move to Columbus, because if we're really going to affect policy change, we gotta be where the, that is occurring, and that's at the State House."

Sarah Shifflet: And at that time it was just Aaron and one other employee, and they moved up from Cincinnati to Columbus. And Aaron just celebrated his 10 years here at the beginning of this month, and now we have 40-plus employees and a national expansion that we can talk about. But, it just... God has given Aaron the gift of vision and the gift to hire really good people. And he formed... So we have three pillars.

Sarah Shifflet: So at our core, we are Family Policy Council. We are the largest Family Policy Council in the United States now. Family Policy Councils are run by the state, but we are the largest in the nation. And we have had our hand in getting over 300 bills passed at the State House.

Sarah Shifflet: Actually, and you'll love this, because we found that out when, might have been the Cincinnati Enquirer was doing, like a hit piece, and they were talking about how relentless we are, which is true. And they'd vetted it and said, "Oh yeah, they've been involved in over 300." And we were like, "That's great. We didn't even know that." But now we're happy to know that number.

Jim: Give us an example of one of those victories. 300 bills being passed into law, that's a lot. Tell us about one... what are some of those big victories?

Sarah Shifflet: I would say, probably the biggest victory was, what was, what was known here in Ohio as House Bill 68, and that was the SAFE Act and save women's sports. And so that was us working relentlessly, specifically our policy director, David Mahan, and that, when that passed, that was really what was going to keep women safe in their most sacred spaces.

Jim: Who'd ever thought we'd have to have that conversation? But Title IX is supposed to take care of that and protect women's sports, and it's been under siege for a decade already. So what's one big initiative you guys are working on right now that you haven't succeeded at just yet?

Sarah Shifflet: We have one that we are just starting. House Bill 68 took us several years to get passed. And I don't know if you know that our governor actually vetoed it, and we then got more support than we even had on the original passing to override his veto.

Jim: Nice.

Sarah Shifflet: Yeah. So the biggest one that we have right now is called the SOS what we're calling the SOS bill, and that's Save Ohio Sports. And we are trying to take on the online gambling industry. And so we also expect this to be a lengthy process because, as like DraftKings, FanDuel, all those guys, they have limitless amounts of money and have already shown that just in the Ohio primaries this year.

Sarah Shifflet: That's gonna- that's one of our very, very big initiatives, and we are going to be working on that tirelessly over, I would guess, the next few years.

Jim: And it- the whole gambling has messed up so many sports. There's no question. And, you know-

Sarah Shifflet: Yeah, and lives, and so many lives.

Jim: Nobody realized it, though, till Pete Rose got caught. A big Cincinnati boy.

Jim: Okay. So talk about- People listening today, and they've heard me on the show, they all know that I ran for mayor this earlier this year, and they all know that I said, "Please consider running for office."

Jim: But running for office is not for the faint of heart, and it's absolutely shouldn't be done without praying about it, and making sure your whole family's on board, and that you have a whole team of intercessors around you if you're going to run for office, certainly as a believer. Do you help people who are running for office to get a solid understanding of the issues? Is that something you guys are utilized for?

Sarah Shifflet: So we are a non-partisan-

Jim: Okay ...

Sarah Shifflet: organization. And so no, I wouldn't say that, we are the ones, having those conversations. It might be, we might be having conversations as far as praying for them and what could they expect.

Sarah Shifflet: But what we are really doing when it comes to elections, for example, is we put- just released last week our church toolkit and iVoter Guide. Not iVoter Guide 'cause we're not iVoter Guide. Our Ohio voter guide that is non-partisan. It is the only voter guide that churches will use.

Sarah Shifflet: And it really... So what we want to do is educate specifically Christians about the importance of getting out to vote. But anyone can use this. And what we do is, you get online, you register, and you put in your district. You put in, we put in what we consider to be, like, the main issues, and it will tell you what each candidate believes about that issue.

Sarah Shifflet: And then you vote accordingly. And we'll say, "This is what the Bible says about those issues," right? And so we really focus on educating people on the importance of voting and how to vote biblically.

Jim: But it sounds to me like a guy could go to your website and also learn a lot of things about, "Hey, here's how a conservative, here's how a biblical candidate should look at the issues." And that's really what I was looking for, is can you be a resource? Yeah. And maybe you're not being a specifically outward facing resource, but you still are a resource.

Sarah Shifflet: Correct. Yep.

Jim: CCV established in Ohio, but you've been expanding across the country now. How is that expansion going, and what do you see as the impact?

Sarah Shifflet: Sure. I said at our core we are public policy, but then we have three pillars, and one of them... really now we have four pillars. So one of those is statewide Christian chamber of commerce. One of those is our church ambassador network where we work with almost 6,000 churches around our state.

Sarah Shifflet: And then our third major pillar was originally the Ohio Christian Education Network. And we here in Ohio have a state tax credit. It's just amazing. You can donate $750 per individual toward a Christian school, and you get that right back as a credit, not even a deduction, a credit on your state taxes.

Sarah Shifflet: And so then we in turn... So it's run, it's called a scholarship granting organization. We run the largest in the state. We are giving out over $6 million this year in $750 donations. We also have come up with this great model of how do we get more Christian schools? We need to find a place where there are classrooms available during the week because building a school is really difficult and very expensive. Oh where are classrooms typically sitting empty all week?

Jim: Let me think about that. Local churches. Oh, my word.

Sarah Shifflet: Ding. And so yes, we have helped over the last few years we've established 25 schools either starting brand new or helping them get their charter, and that's across three states.

Sarah Shifflet: This year we were able to expand across a few other states. So to give you that background, because a lot of people don't know, but in the Big Beautiful Bill, I'm sure you've heard of that, there, there was something written in there that most people don't know about, and it is the first ever national school choice program.

Sarah Shifflet: And so just like Ohio, we have a state tax credit. Starting in 2027, there is going to be a federal tax credit available that is $1,700 a person, so you donate $1,700 to an SGO, and you will get $1,700 back as a credit on your federal taxes.

Jim: W- A SGO, people just said, "is that kind of a tea or is that a coffee drink? What is an SGO?"

Sarah Shifflet: I did just say it a minute ago. It's a scholarship granting organization.

Jim: I know, but repetition is the key to learning.

Sarah Shifflet: And you know what? At CCV, at the Center for Christian Virtue, we are the kings of...

Jim: acronyms?

Sarah Shifflet: Yes ... yeah.

Jim: There you go.

Sarah Shifflet: Yes. Everything's an acronym, I know. Took me a while to learn them all, but so when we heard that this was coming in 2027, since in Ohio we were already established, we know what we're doing, we were already planning to expand, this just really escalated our timeline. So we decided that we were gonna keep the O in Ohio Christian Education Network for Ohio, but we were going to drop it and do a national expansion CEN, Christian Education Network.

Sarah Shifflet: To be eligible for this federal tax credit, your governor has to opt you in. Once you're opted in, you cannot be opted out. But would you believe it if I told you that only 31 states have opted in? There are 19 governors that didn't wanna opt in their states for this tax credit.

Sarah Shifflet: So of those 31 states, we said, "We're gonna go out and try and get as many to be what we call affiliates." And if you are one of our state affiliates, we have eight states signed on so far, we are going to teach you how to run your education network the same way we run it and plant schools. We're gonna teach you how to market to get people to give to your scholarship granting organization to utilize those dollars.

Sarah Shifflet: And we will - in fact, we've built the infrastructure out over the last year, we will run your SGO for you, so you don't even have to worry about how to do that. And so right now, I said we have eight states. We're looking to hopefully double that before the end of the year. But that's what our national expansion is, and we are so excited. We really think this is just a huge opportunity to evangelize our children and get them a really strong Christian education.

Jim: I was gonna say, and actually teach them how to read, write, do math, that kind of stuff, too, at the same time. Amazing. Because public education's a mess, and what they need is a little competition, and this is the competition that they need.

Jim: Let's redirect some of those dollars, because we actually, I actually live in a part of the country where public education's actually pretty close to top-notch.

Sarah Shifflet: That's awesome. And I am the daughter of two public school teachers. And so I understand how important they are but that's just not the case everywhere.

Jim: No, it's not.

Sarah Shifflet: And no matter what, no matter if your teachers are amazing, there is nothing like getting 30 hours a week that brings Jesus into everything as well.

Jim: A biblical worldview. Just help our kids understand, reinforce it all the time. So every year, you bring people together and celebrate. Your annual Essentialss Summit is coming up here on October the 23rd in Columbus, Ohio.

Sarah Shifflet: Yes.

Jim: Talk to us about that event. Why do you have the event?

Sarah Shifflet: Yes, so this is what we call our equipping conference. So this conference is really meant to engage... it's over five tracks. So this is for us to help, and - I will tell you what those five tracks are in each of those areas - to be able to go out and lead in a biblical worldview, for the times that we are living in now. So we want to equip you for those conversations. We want to equip your mind, equip your heart, equip your soul.

Sarah Shifflet: And this year, our theme is called Restoring Faith in America, which could be taken two ways, really. So our tracks that we offer are, we have a faith in action, which is our policy, people who want to be involved in the public policy track. We have a church leadership track for our church leaders. We have an education leadership track for - that speaks for itself. We have a marketplace impact track, which is for our business people, business owners. And then we have a track dedicated to our pregnancy resource center leaders as well.

Jim: Wow. It sounds so much fun. Like, how many... who should be there? If people are just hearing about this for the very first time, the Center for Christian Virtue Essentialss Summit coming up on October the 23rd, and we're gonna make sure this show gets out there well in advance, 'cause we really feel like this is something people should hear about. All the different things you're working on and expanding across the country. Who should be there?

Sarah Shifflet: I know it sounds so cliche, but honestly everyone should be there, because there's something for everyone at this conference. We start it with worship, we end it with worship. We have four amazing keynotes, not to mention then, you know, going out and having four breakout tracks.

Sarah Shifflet: But if you are just somebody who wants to be around like-minded believers and like what I said "These are my people," to my husband then you should be there, because it's just such a great... you walk away like, "Wow, I am invigorated." And I can't be in every track, so I don't know specifically what every track has said, but just when people come out of there, they are, like, they're just on fire to get back to whatever walk of life they came from and share and take what they learned. So it's really amazing.

Jim: What I love about the fact is you're giving people a lot of options here and you've already intrigued people. Like this scholarship granting organization having to do with the federal tax credit that's gonna be available in 31 states right now, maybe more by the time it comes around in 2027, 'cause the 2027 tax year is not done for another 18 months or 17 months or whatever it is.

Jim: There's so much possibility, and people are going the pregnancy resource centers?" Wow, that's another thing that, there's so many. The policy people get involved in public policy, actually shaping public policy, understanding public policy. There's a lot there. This, is it a week-long summit or is it just you get that all done in one day?

Sarah Shifflet: We get that all done in one day.

Jim: Wow, that must, you must come out of that just your feet worn out and your shoes on fire.

Sarah Shifflet: Oh, it is a long week for our staff, and it is completely worth it. I will say last year, the very next day, we, so we also run the Ohio March for Life, and last year it was the very next day.

Jim: Oh, wow. Nice. Nice.

Sarah Shifflet: We aren't doing them back to back this year.

Jim: Nice.

Sarah Shifflet: It's great for us, but it is, it's just, just absolutely a, an amazing day. And we are exhausted, but it is so worth it.

Jim: So when I look at the four, the pillars that you're talking about, one of the ones I'm super excited about is the Christian Chamber of Commerce, 'cause I'm one of the founding members of the US Christian Chamber and also the Tampa Bay Christian Chamber. Love it. So I love Christian Chambers as they're popping up across the country and they're affiliating and collaborating with each other.

Jim: When you look at the work of the Christian Chamber of Commerce right there in Ohio, big state. When you look at from Toledo, Ohio, down to Cincinnati, Ohio, with Columbus and Cleveland in there and all the way over to the, the western edges, Ohio's got a lot of different flavors to it. It just does. It's Amish country. It's got iron ore country up on the Great Lakes. Cincinnati's the Deep South, and the food, by the way, is very good.

Jim: Talk to us about the Christian Chamber stuff. What's your involvement there?

Sarah Shifflet: Sure. So while we are at a statewide chamber of commerce, we have chapters all over the state. So the chapters are meeting individually and then coming together a few times a year to do things. For instance, we do, excuse me. I just need a sip of water. We have a Statehood Day for Ohio on our, on the day our state was born. And we had an event in Cleveland, an event in Columbus, and we had Attorney General Yost in Columbus. We had Senator Moreno up in Cleveland, and just brought everyone together and just - it was They were both so wonderful and both so different.

Sarah Shifflet: Like Senator Moreno is so full of energy and, getting people rocking, and AG Yost was just fantastic. He's just such a man after God's heart. So they do a lot of networking obviously. They are a huge part of our advocacy. So we actually keep a legislative liaison on staff who can go over to the State House.

Sarah Shifflet: So he or she is the one lobbying over there on behalf of our business owners. We get to go over there with roughly a billion dollars of revenue from our members, and that carries some weight. And so like for them, we were... And we take them to the State House one day too. It's called Advocacy Day, if they wanna come, and they get to sit in on some hearings and things like that.

Sarah Shifflet: But we were able to make sure that some things here in Ohio got passed that benefited them so that they know that who they're hiring is the best person for the job.

Jim: I love that. You got so much stuff going on. And people who are gonna listen today are just like, "I'm not sure I can make the October 23rd Essentials Summit there in Columbus, Ohio. But I wanna get involved in one of your... " You said four pillars, but I counted five, but, whatever you wanna, however you wanna ki- Yeah ... it's the new math kinda stuff.

Jim: But for church leaders, and you got business people, and you got the chambers, you got the education, you got the pregnancy center, the pregnancy resource centers. You got a lot of stuff. How can people get involved? Maybe they've got, maybe they're in one of those states of the 31 that's not the eight. The 31 that have signed up to do the scholarship granting stuff having to do with that new federal law, but they're not, their state's not do- how do people get involved? What's the best way?

Sarah Shifflet: Sure. They can contact their state's family policy council and tell them, "Hey, you guys need to get involved with what the Center for Christian Virtue is doing." We are always looking to connect. We have several other states in the pipeline right now, but obviously we'd love all 31. We want to raise as much money as possible for these scholarship granting organizations. It would be amazing if we could, have $100 million the first year, which is perfectly doable if we're doing 6 million and $750 donations in Ohio.

Jim: That's big.

Sarah Shifflet: And that's just us.

Jim: How cool would that be? Unbelievable. All right, this... Why, just speak to everybody that's listening today. Why is it so important that believers get involved in shaping public policy, maybe even running for public office to shape public policy even more by getting to vote on it? How, why is it so important?

Sarah Shifflet: I think if any believer looks around our country today, you can see what happens with the absence of the Lord. And it is... If we want to... Because no matter what we hear, we know that our country was founded on biblical values.

Sarah Shifflet: Our Founding Fathers - it's perfectly clear. And they try to erase it and it's there for all to see if you just dig even just a little bit. And so I just think it's so vital and so important that, one, everyone needs to get out and vote. You don't have to run for office, but you need to vote, and you need to educate yourself, and you need to know what you're voting for and not just what either side is telling you to vote for.

Sarah Shifflet: Do your own due diligence. If you're in Ohio, go to voteforohio.org. We've done the due diligence for you. But if we want to make sure that we are keeping God at the forefront and that we aren't losing our freedom of religion, then I think it's just imperative that Christians not only vote, but also want to get involved politically, no matter what that looks like. But it, It's- it's a must.

Jim: Well said. I... The statistics just released from the 2024 election that over 60 million believers sat on the sidelines. And if we wanna know why abortion became legal in so many states, and you're like, "How did that happen in Missouri?" People didn't go to the polls. They didn't vote. It's unbel- Ohio did the same thing.

Sarah Shifflet: And I don't know if I shared with you when we spoke, but I think this is important for people to hear. And this is why we can't keep politics out of the church. So when the abortion amendment failed in 2023 here, or I should say passed, whatever you wanna call it that allows abortion up until birth in the state of Ohio, that we at CCV did exit polling at that time.

Sarah Shifflet: And what we found out from that exit polling was that was lost at the church. 34%. 34%. 'Cause that's a 68% swing the other direction, right? 34% of people who identify as going to church every single week voted yes on this abortion amendment. And they said they did because it wasn't addressed at their church. Nobody talked about it.

Sarah Shifflet: And so several initiatives for us at CCV have been born out of out of that exit polling that we did and to work on changing the mindset and teaching pastors how to have those hard conversations. But in Ohio, we lost it at the church, and I would imagine several other states did too.

Jim: I would imagine. Sarah Shifflet, there's so much from the Center for Christian Virtue that we need to talk about, but more than anything, we wanna invite people to your October 23rd Essentials Summit. A day jam- as you guys have heard, jam-packed full of great ways to just really get a handle on what God is doing in this country from a public policy standpoint.

Jim: Imagine that. Sarcasm noted. Sarah Shifflet, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it.

Sarah Shifflet: Thank you so much for having me, and keep doing what you're doing because it is needed.

Jim: We appreciate that. And listeners, remember to hit and subscribe on your favorite platform as you listen to the show today. This really helps more Christ followers to hear about how their work matters to God. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim Brangenberg. I'm a Christ follower in my workplace. It's my mission field, and ultimately, iWork4Him