I have noted, in various blogs ments, the value and importance of the Acton Institute for several years. I have been a blogger for Acton, attended a number of their events as a guest, and assisted them in several ways in public ventures. In general I have been an open supporter of Acton’s vision of freedom and virtue in public theology. Acton provides a unique partnership for ACT 3 since it is a think tank that includes wide religious participation (Catholic/Protestant/Orthodox/Jewish) while it embraces what I call missional-ecumenism as one of its core values. The specific mission of Acton Institute is “to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.”

Now I have personally been given an opportunity to work with Acton. On April 1 I became a Senior Advisor, with particular emphasis on reaching the Protestant munity. I work very closely with Dr. Stephen Grabill, an plished scholar and wonderful brother in Christ. A Christian foundation recently gave Acton a generous gift to expand its work among evangelicals. This project makes it possible for me to serve even more effectively with Acton. I will be an active participant in conversations, planning and development with certain members of the Acton staff in order to shape content, tools, programming and messaging for the munity. I will also recruit evangelical leadership from seminaries, universities, denominations and local churches who will e Acton participants. In this role I will find and network leaders, especially younger leaders, for participation in special Acton events and one-day seminars. I will also use email and other social means to converse with these leaders and future leaders.

One of the truly ponents of this new Acton evangelical initiative is the translation of the remaining (un-translated) written work of the famous Dutch minster, theologian and public servant, Abraham Kuyper. His work mon grace, so important for Protestant thought, will soon be available in English because of this Acton initiative. Another good friend, Dr. Nelson Kloosterman, is doing the translation. This will prove to be a huge resource for recovering a robust and orthodox Protestant social theology.

In April I represented Acton at the Mission America Coalition in the affinity track on marketplace theology and mission. God willing, I will do more of the same in similar contexts. The really neat thing about this special partnership is that I am already ministering in these contexts thus adding Acton to my missional network is both logical and plicated. I will still do the same ACT 3 work that I’ve been doing for nearly twenty years but now I will do it as a defined partner with Acton Institute. I will cultivate relationships, develop institutional networks and strategically expand the missional-ecumenical vision by equipping leaders for unity in Christ’s church, a unity that has at its core both orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

I hope you will e more familiar with Acton Institute in ing months. I will be saying more about my partners and more about my work with them as ACT 3 and Acton forge a new relationship for better serving the whole Christian church.

I will be a teacher at the Acton University June 14-17. I teach a class titled: “Introduction to Protestant Social Thought.” I call this public theology and I believe one of the greatest needs of our time is a deep, thoughtful and contextually rigorous social (public) theology. My generation was raised on a thoughtless, partisan political theology without a solid foundation and the next generation has rightly reacted against this ideological mix. I will attempt to show, on June 16, a better way to understand Protestant contributions to this debate. Check out the Acton site for information on the Acton University. I hope some of you will attend in June. (If you qualify then check out the scholarships available, but first be sure to make formal application.) I would love to see some of you in Grand Rapids. This is a wonderful event and the people you will meet are wonderfully diverse e from all over the world.