"We have come to give." This was the statement of Dr. D. James Kennedy in 1995 when he founded a new Capitol Hill ministry called the Center for Christian Statesmanship.
Throughout the many political changes in Washington since 1995, the ministry has stayed true to its original goal of reaching out to government servants, training them to have a stronger and more active faith in Christ, and restoring a vision of true Christian statesmanship in Washington, D.C.
As the Center celebrates its 10th year of serving our nation's leaders, I sat down with Executive Director George Roller on a recent trip to Washington, D.C., and asked him to reflect back – as well as peek forward.
Chismar: What would you consider to be the Center's greatest accomplishments of the last 10 years?
Roller: I think our presence here has been an ongoing and growing encouragement to members of Congress and their staffs. It is so refreshing, so exciting to have members call us and ask, “Would you come over to pray with me?” To hear young staffers, time after time, say, “I don’t know what I would have done without the Center’s encouragement. I came to DC; I didn’t know anybody; I was alone. I didn’t think there were any other Christians here. But your ministry came along side me and encouraged me.”
The staffers tell us how encouraging it is to be growing spiritually with us, to be in our Bible Studies, to be coming to our events, to hear members of Congress speaking – sharing their faith. They realize they are part of a huge network of Christians here. Many have told me they probably wouldn’t have stayed around if they had not had that encouragement. They felt so low, so isolated. It’s a tough world here on Capitol Hill – the enemy is rampant in terms of spiritual discouragement.
Our goal was to be an evangelical presence on Capitol Hill and that goal is being realized day after day. It's expanding and growing. We’ve had doors opening to us – members of Congress who have been here 10, 15, 20 years – they’ve never allowed us to come and pray with them before. And now they are saying, “Yes, come on.”
I explain that as the grace of God, the effect of fervent prayer of righteous people and the fact that we have not compromised our mission statement of being nonpolitical – and people respect us for that. We don’t have an agenda. When we go in, it is truly to pray. I believe we are reaping the benefits of the integrity of those who have gone before us – my predecessor Frank Wright, a godly man and excellent leader, and the staff that has gone before.
We’ve always been careful to maintain a delicate balance of being involved spiritually, but not getting into sometimes closely related issues that the world has made political, but are spiritual. Most members of Congress have people come into them wanting something – to support or oppose an issue. They are surprised to learn we don’t want anything but are there to care.
We have counseled hundreds of people spiritually. We have seen many people come to faith in Christ. It is very gratifying to see the goals that we had come to reality.
Chismar: Do you minister strictly to members of Congress and their staffs, or to anyone in the Federal government?
Roller: That's a good question, Janet. Our initial target ministry audience, so to speak, was members of Congress and their staff. They certainly are the primary recipients of our ministry efforts, but do we work with other people? Yes. We are seeking to expand into the various departments – the Department of Labor, the Department of Transportation, and so forth. We are looking for open doors into the White House, into the Judiciary. We’ve had contact with the chaplain of the Pentagon.
Dr. Kennedy’s original vision for our Center was never limited to Capitol Hill. The fact that doors are opening and we are walking through them fits with his original vision – “to proclaim Christ and to encourage spiritual growth to people in positions of power and influence.” It’s an expanding ministry.
Chismar: Have you faced challenges and resistance to the Center's efforts?
Roller: Any time the Lord’s people are moving forward and something is happening spiritually, there is opposition. For instance, 9/11 created a window of openness. I know one of our staff led one of the Capitol Hill police to Christ during that horrendous period because there was so much emotional destruction as well as physical destruction. But 9/11 also had a dramatic impact on all ministries financially. The economy was in shambles for a while, and so ministries across the board suffered. We were not an exception to that. We had to cut back.
There’s always opposition, but that’s where we see God acting. He will clear the way, prepare the way for us to meet with a member of Congress. The fact that God has given us incredible favor here on the Hill – we’re able to get the rooms in the Capitol building that we need, we get parking places for our speakers. We are in awe of Him. He always provides.
Chismar: Looking toward the future, what are some of your hope and goals for the next 10 years?
Roller: We will be unveiling quite an extensive plan at our 10-year gala at the end of September. The night of the ceremony, where we will honor Dr. Kennedy and pay tribute to his vision for this ministry, we will also praise God for what has been accomplished over these past 10 years. Then we will share what we believe God will have us do in the next 10 years.
I can tell you in general terms, now, that we plan to expand into other areas and develop our Statesmanship Institute, which has been phenomenally successful in terms of impacting Christian staffers to be more effective for the Lord. I can’t accommodate all the members of Congress who want to teach for us. We also hope to be able to produce curriculum that will be available to churches, high schools and colleges. We want to do what we are doing better, more effectively.
Chismar: When this article is published, we will have just celebrated the National Day of Prayer. What are some key ways that people can pray for the nation and members of Congress?
Roller: We need to pray every day for our country and our leaders. I would love for those who read this article to be aware of our Washington Prayer Bulletin, which helps guide people into daily prayer for our leaders. We know that Scripture says we are supposed to pray for those who are in authority over us, and yet so often we don’t, especially if we don’t like their politics.
We send two months of the Prayer Bulletin at a time and request that people call (202.547.3052) or email us ([email protected]) so they can begin to receive it. It’s a wonderful device that has the names of two members of Congress and two Chiefs of Staff for each day. A member recently told us, once we showed him that he had been on the bulletin maybe three weeks prior, “Now I understand why I am beginning to get letters from people saying they are praying for me. It’s nice to be prayed for.”
So that’s one way readers can be in focused prayer for our leaders. Another way is to sign up for our Capitol Prayer Focus, which has personal prayer requests – with permission – from members of Congress. Rather than just praying for them generally, this has specific requests for an ill parent or situations like that.
Also, we have a prayer guide called 30 Days to Change the Nation. This is a guide for anyone to start on the first day of a 30-day period and points out how to pray for our nation.
In terms of the National Day of Prayer itself, we worked with the Bible Reading Marathon, which was so exciting. The Bible was read from May 2 through May 5 – from Genesis to Revelation – just off the steps of the west side of the U.S. Capitol. By the grace of God, I was given the privilege to start it off and read from Genesis 1. It was a thrilling experience to speak to anyone within hearing distance, the Word of God. It’s being broadcast over our Capitol and our city.
We are having fun doing God’s work here on Capitol Hill.
Raised on an Illinois farm, George Roller’s family relocated to South Florida during his teen years. It was in Florida where he would give his life to Christ and eventually launch a teaching career that spanned 35 years in a Miami school district. In addition, Roller earned his M.A. and J.D. from the University of Miami and practiced law for a quarter century, while continuing to teach. He has served as a deacon and elder at two major South Florida churches and has taught Evangelism Explosion clinics throughout the United States and in St. Petersburg, Russia. As missions chairman, Roller has lead short-term trips to Ukraine.
The D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship is an interdenominational, nonpartisan outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries .
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