--- title: Evangelical Group Training Pastors to Run for Office description: An effort to recruit 1,000 pastors to run for political office in 2016 hopes to sign them up during a campaign training in South Carolina. canonical: https://time.com/3919862/american-renewal-project-pastors/ author: Aisha Bhoori article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-12T21:06:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T06:53:29.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Evangelical Group Training Pastors to Run for Office og:description: They hope to recruit 1,000 to run for office in 2016. og:url: https://time.com/3919862/american-renewal-project-pastors/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt252e7d326840bcc0/69885461e20a87248da8bd24/voting-midterm-elections.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Voters line up outside a polling station to cast their ballots within US mid-term elections in Rockville, Maryland, United States on November 4, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Evangelical Group Training Pastors to Run for Office twitter:description: They hope to recruit 1,000 to run for office in 2016. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt252e7d326840bcc0/69885461e20a87248da8bd24/voting-midterm-elections.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Evangelical Group Training Pastors to Run for Elected Office > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=43360f2a-3a1d-439e-a32c-23237046a194&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Aisha Bhoori](https://time.com/author/aisha-bhoori/) ## Aisha Bhoori Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:53 AM UTCPublished: Jun 12, 2015 9:06 PM UTC  Voters line up outside a polling station to cast their ballots within US mid-term elections in Rockville, Maryland, United States on November 4, 2014. Voters line up outside a polling station to cast their ballots within US mid-term elections in Rockville, Maryland, United States on November 4, 2014. Anadolu Agency—Getty Images by [Aisha Bhoori](https://time.com/author/aisha-bhoori/) ## Aisha Bhoori Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:53 AM UTCPublished: Jun 12, 2015 9:06 PM UTC An effort to recruit 1,000 pastors to run for political office in 2016 has already signed up 90\. This weekend, organizers hope to add to that number from a pool of more than 350 people attending a campaign training session in South Carolina. Led by conservative activist David Lane, the American Renewal Project’s program is called the Issachar Training, after the Israelite tribe “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do,” as [a Bible verse](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+chronicles+12%3A32&version=NIV) has it. More than 350 people are registered for the event, which takes place in North Charleston just before the Response, a prayer rally supported by the South Carolina Baptist Convention Saturday. That includes about 100 women, mostly pastors’ wives, who are also encouraged to run for local, state or national office. “Believers have been comfortable taking a back seat. We need a bigger place at the table,” pastor Mitch Brooks, who leads the South Baptist Church in Belton, S.C., says. “We believe that, in a lot of areas, we have some insight into what the country ought to do.” During a Friday session, pastors will learn “Campaign Mechanics 101,” including messaging and setting up a finance committee. They’ll also hear from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a likely 2016 presidential contender. “You cannot disconnect the man in the pulpit from the man on the political campaign trail anymore than you can disconnect the doctor in the operating room from his daily life if he sees an emergency taking place,” Brad Atkins, head of the ARP’s South Carolina branch, says. “The oath he took as a physician will guide him, and it will lead him to action just as the men and women who enter into politics will be led by their covenant with their maker.” Apart from training pastors, the American Renewal Project is also seeking to influence the political debate through more traditional routes. The group hosted an an [Iowa event](http://time.com/3708119/david-lane-republican-iowa-cruz/) in February this year for Republican National Committee members to hear conservative presidential candidates lecture on God’s role in politics, and it took a group of RNC members on a [free trip to Israel](http://time.com/3616292/republican-israel-trip-american-renewal/) that same month. Not all attendees at the Issachar Training harbor political ambitions, but they see the training as a step toward “reclaiming American Exceptionalism.” “I haven’t really gotten that call yet,” Mike Gonzalez, executive director of the South Carolina Pastors Alliance, says. “But if I do go into politics, I want to have campaigning under my belt.” **Correction:** _This post initially gave the incorrect name for Brad Atkins and incorrectly identified the role of the South Carolina Baptist Convention in the Response prayer rally._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3919862/american-renewal-project-pastors/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3919862/american-renewal-project-pastors/"},"headline":"Evangelical Group Training Pastors to Run for Elected Office","datePublished":"2015-06-12T21:06:20.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T06:53:29.000Z","description":"An effort to recruit 1,000 pastors to run for political office in 2016 hopes to sign them up during a campaign training in South Carolina.","url":"https://time.com/3919862/american-renewal-project-pastors/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Bobby Jindal"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt252e7d326840bcc0/69885461e20a87248da8bd24/voting-midterm-elections.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aisha Bhoori","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aisha-bhoori/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt252e7d326840bcc0/69885461e20a87248da8bd24/voting-midterm-elections.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Voters line up outside a polling station to cast their ballots within US mid-term elections in Rockville, Maryland, United States on November 4, 2014.","caption":"Voters line up outside a polling station to cast their ballots within US mid-term elections in Rockville, Maryland, United States on November 4, 2014.","creditText":"Anadolu Agency—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3919862/american-renewal-project-pastors/","name":"Evangelical Group Training Pastors to Run for Elected Office"}}]}] ```