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Interview with Dick Foth

Dick Foth

Jennifer Gale, associate pastor at Evangel Temple in Springfield, Missouri, recently visited with Dick Foth, an Assemblies of God minister, about his life and work in the Washington, DC area.

You work in and minister in Washington DC in a unique way. Tell us a little about what you are doing there.

Ruth and I came to Washington DC 11 years ago to work under the umbrella of the House and Senate breakfast groups in the National Prayer Breakfast each year. That simply means that I work one-on-one and in small groups behind the scenes with persons in places of leadership either in the local, national, or international community to encourage them in their personal and spiritual lives.

Washington DC is a city with a local, national, and international component, and leaders within each of these find themselves faced with tremendous challenges. Our function is to befriend and walk with them individually so as to encourage and help give perspective relationally and in decision-making. Ruth describes what I do as “pastoring without ever calling the congregation together.” It is very much person- centered as opposed to place-centered. I go to them (local, national, and international leaders); they don’t come to me.

How did your interest in this kind of ministry develop?

I had an interest in Washington DC for many years, but that interest had not yet taken shape. When we left the presidency of Bethany College in 1992 after 14 years of service, we took a 1-year sabbatical to decide what to do with the next half of our lives. During that sabbatical, we were contacted by folks in DC who asked us if we wanted to come and talk. Out of that came this particular role within the city.

Interestingly, as a pastor and a college president, I did not take a great deal of interest in civic affairs or civic leadership. Looking back, I see that as a lack of perspective on my part. By not looking more closely at that arena, I did not take advantage of potential influence within the cities where I served. I frame it this way: If I were to pastor again, I would ask a different question. As a young pastor, I asked, “How can I build this church?” If I were to pastor again, I would ask, “How can our church bless this city?” If you bless the city, the church grows on the backstroke.

What is the minister’s relationship to civic leaders?

The key is that you must understand who you are as a pastor or who you are as a spiritual leader. My experience is that pastors and leaders tend to see themselves primarily in relationship to “the flock.” That is a vertical relationship. They see themselves as a leader to the congregation; they don’t always see themselves as a leader in the city. In reality, they have a constituency, like the mayor has a constituency. The congregation represents its city or community because it is made up of professionals, doctors, schoolteachers, students, laborers, merchants, etc. Leaders tend so see congregations as merely “votes” when they are really representatives of the community. How the pastor or leader speaks about civic life influences what the congregation thinks about it.

If I think of myself as a colleague to the people on the city council as opposed to just someone working in a different arena, it changes how I view them. For example, what we tend to do is to be confrontational with people on a school board or city council who have views on issues with which we don’t agree. In reality, these civic leaders desire to do good for our children or for our city, just as we do. The school board wants our children to be educated, to be drug-free, to not be promiscuous, etc. We often get upset and confront publicly when a particular decision is made, not realizing there are reasons a person made that decision. They are doing the best they can do. Instead of a public confrontation, take that person to lunch and get to know them. Find out why they made the decision they made. Get to know them, and in the process, you may help to give them perspective. If I view civil leaders as colleagues, then I see them as someone I can work with, not against, to serve our community.

How can ministers assist or support local civic leaders?

First, we are commanded in 1Timothy to “pray for those in authority.” The first thing is to pray. My observation is that we tend not to pray as hard for people whose policies we don’t like. But Paul wrote 1Timothy when Caesar was in control. We tend to pray against people we don’t like, but that’s not what the text says. So, we need to pray, to mention them to the Creator of the universe.

The second is to get to know one of them, not everyone, but one. We can get to know many in a shallow way, or we can get to know one or two deeply. A shallow relationship doesn’t get someone very far, and it doesn’t get you very far. We’re talking about true friendship. To befriend someone is to be a real gift to him or her.

People in civic, state or national leadership have a problem—the people who befriend them usually want something from them. So the higher you go in leadership in any arena of society, the more acquaintances you have, and the fewer true friends. The question for a pastor or leader must then be, “How can I be a true friend?”

What happens oftentimes in local congregations is that the only time the city council sees someone from a church is when they want a zoning change, or when they are upset with some social policy. So they tend to see us at our worst. But we are at our best when we are walking one on one with people in the spirit of Jesus. I think we have to ask ourselves the question, “Do I really want to be this person’s friend, or do I see him or her as just an evangelistic target?” If we want people to have the good news, then we need to become their friends. If Jesus is in you, then when they get you they get Jesus in some way.

When you work with people in leadership, they are always wary for the aforementioned reasons. When I met years ago with Richard Halverson then Chaplain of the Senate, I asked him, “How do you work with senators?” He said, “Years ago I realized two things when ministering to professionals. First, I had to go where they were, and second, I had to respect their time because time is money.” Halverson continued, “I made a determination to meet a man anywhere at any time under any circumstance at his convenience without any agenda except his.” I said, “Yeah, you’ve got an agenda—you want them to come to Jesus!” But Halverson answered, “No, that’s not my agenda, that’s my life.” My thinking on this is that if you only see someone on occasion, now and again, all they can sense is an agenda. But if you spend time, then over time, they will sense your life. That’s when they begin to feel Jesus and not just hear words.

What can we do to connect with civic leaders? Where do we start?

The easy thing is to do is to introduce yourself to a mayor or any city council member, saying that as someone who is a part of the city, you want to help that person achieve his or her goals. They are leading the city, but often what happens is that we go to our leaders and tend to try to get them to achieve our goals. We need to be aware of this tendency.

When you make an appointment to introduce yourself to a civic leader, ask them, “What do you see as some of your greatest challenges?” Then tell them sincerely, “We’d like to help with those challenges by employing your people and resources to help in any way you can. We’d like to help you be the best leader you can be. But if we help, you can’t identify us or promote us publicly. We just want to help you and help our community and do it behind the scenes.”

Ministers, as leaders of believers, may be concerned about ‘crossing the line’ in terms of political involvement. What are some of the boundaries ministers should set in their public support of civic leaders?

I think Jesus is our model. And if you look at Him, you’ll be hard pressed to find where he set boundaries. Other people wanted Hm to have boundaries, but the redemptive part of His nature apparently wouldn’t allow it. Lloyd Ogilvie said, “There is a separation between church and state, but not between God and country.” We’re not talking about the church relating to city government, but the pastor (or leader) relating to the mayor, and ultimately, about Mary relating to Sally. We’re talking about a relationship. So I think if a person needs to feel a boundary, it needs to come from the Spirit. It is not something prescribed.

Often we see someone as “good” or “bad.” We may be afraid to connect with a person because they may go down in scandal. But that is precisely why we need to befriend someone. If they don’t go down, that’s good, and if they do, then we’re there for them.

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