Brian Jump, pastor of First Baptist Church in Clever, Missouri (near Springfield) recently told me about a young deacon at his church who ended up winning a seat on the local school board. Why?

It started when his daughter was introduced to a book in her school library — the kind of book that doesn’t belong in a school library.

The man was pretty upset, but he did the right thing — he went and talked directly with some of the school administration. He told them he wasn’t a crazy, book burning kind of person, but he wondered if they were even aware of the book’s presence in the library. And if so, what was their rationale?

“These are kids, not adults,” the man explained. “Their minds are still being formed. Part of your job is to help form my daughter’s mind, and I don’t want it to be formed like this book.”

Jump said the meeting didn’t go well. “It’s not that the administration was rude or angry. They just saw it differently.”

So Jump asked his friend and congregant: “Why don’t you just run for school board?” The man did, and he was elected to the board…

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