Noise.

For much of my adult life, I have lived around noise. As an Army chaplain, I served six combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. During those years I spent more than my fair share of time aboard military aircraft.

Few environments are noisier than the inside of a C-130 preparing for an airborne operation. The engines roar. Equipment rattles. Soldiers exchange last-minute instructions. Jumpmasters communicate through shouted commands and hand signals because normal conversation is impossible.

I experienced that noise many times while waiting to jump from an aircraft. Later, as a jumpmaster myself, I learned to shout commands as loudly as possible while making deliberate hand signals to ensure every paratrooper understood what to do.

Then came the moment of exit.

After stepping from the aircraft and feeling the parachute open overhead, everything changed. The noise disappeared. Suspended beneath a canopy, floating toward the earth, there was an unexpected stillness. The contrast between the chaos inside the aircraft and the quiet of the descent was remarkable. In the stillness, it became easier to think clearly and pay attention to what mattered most.

Noise makes it difficult to concentrate. It becomes hard to distinguish what matters from what does not. In an aircraft preparing for an airborne operation, that challenge can affect safety. In our present cultural moment, I believe it affects something just as important: our ability to think and respond biblically.

The United States is experiencing a period of deep political and cultural division. Distrust is growing, public rhetoric is increasingly hostile, and many people feel pressure to choose sides.

Christians are not immune to these pressures.

Some believers have chosen to withdraw completely from public life, hoping to avoid the controversy. Others have become entangled in partisan politics, viewing political victory as the primary path to cultural renewal. Still others are searching for a way to engage governing authorities that remains faithful to Scripture and centered on the gospel.

The result is noise—constant, unrelenting noise.

And that noise creates a problem. It becomes increasingly difficult for Christians and churches to discern how they should faithfully interact with governing authorities. Many believers know what they are against, but fewer are confident about what they are for. Some retreat from public life altogether. Others become so identified with political causes that their gospel witness is overshadowed. In the midst of the noise, many Christians are simply unsure how to proceed.

Churches feel pressure to take sides. Christians are often told that if they are not fully committed to one political camp, they must not care. Faithful believers can face criticism regardless of what position they take or what actions they pursue.

Many people long for the quietness of that parachute descent. They would prefer to escape the noise altogether.

But we do not have that option.

God has placed us in this moment, among these challenges, and among the people who need the hope of the gospel. The question is not whether Christians should engage the world around them. The question is how.

Excerpt from the Preface of Leading Through the Noise: A Biblical Path for Churches in a Polarized Age by David Beauchamp.

© 2026 by David R. Beauchamp. All rights reserved.

To learn more about the book, visit the Leading Through the Noise page on Temporary Ministries.