Crisis Demands Collaboration
The Church's Role in Partnering with Government
By: Christian Postel | CEO
September 19, 2025
When children are sleeping in offices because their aren’t enough foster homes, the question isn’t whether the Church should work with government, it’s whether we can afford not to.
Not everyone believes that the church should be in partnership with a government entity.
Some folks worry that partnering with government means watering down conviction, or that it somehow turns serving vulnerable children into politics. I’m not really a bullhorn and picket-sign-at-the-farmer’s-market kind of guy. In fact, I don’t even own a bullhorn. But if I did, I’d be tempted to use it for this: LLF has a long history of working with government, no matter who’s in office. And I believe the church in Lexington is mature enough not to confuse the difference between working with government and being political. This isn’t about allegiance to power. It’s about proximity to pain.
Scripture gives us plenty of examples. Joseph stewarded Egypt’s resources during famine. Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls with help from a king. Daniel worked inside a foreign government without ever bowing to idols. The pattern is there: God’s people serving within broken systems, not to gain favor but to bring redemption.
And if you zoom out, it’s not just biblical history that points this direction, it’s American history too. Religion has always had a role in shaping public moral life. The goal was never to scrub faith from the public square, but to keep it from becoming coercive, like the monarchies we broke away from. Even secular legal scholars like Bruce Ledewitz argue that faith-based partnerships are critical to rebuilding civic trust. Others, like John Witte Jr., note that our legal tradition not only allows this, but actually expects it.
Yes, there are critics who call for a wall so high and thick between church and state that faith has no place in public life. But history tells a different story. Philip Hamburger, in Separation of Church and State, shows how the “wall” metaphor was shaped more by political prejudice than by the Founders themselves and how it’s often been used to shut down religious voices rather than protect freedom. (Never thought a book I was forced to read in college would circle back into my work 20 years later, but alas, here we are.)
Here’s the point: faith-based nonprofits like LLF aren’t threatening constitutional order. We’re an expression of civic partnership. The Constitution protects freedom of religion, it doesn’t demand freedom from religion. And when it comes to vulnerable children, government needs trusted community intermediaries.
In partnership with the state, the mission LLF is now inviting the faith community into is simple: stack hands with us to end the child welfare crisis in Lexington.