Lyle Shelton has resigned his position as managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby to pursue a job in federal politics.
Mr Shelton has served with the ACL for more than 10 years, for nearly five of which he served as managing director. He is now expected to stand as a candidate for federal Parliament at the next election.
In a video statement released on Saturday, Mr Shelton said he will be leaving Canberra and moving back to his home state of Queensland and would make a further announcement about the specifics of his next steps “in the next day or two”.
“I do believe politics needs Christian influence from the inside and political parties need good people from the inside,” he said. “But I want everyone to be very clear that I’m not leaving the battle for the values that you and I hold dear, just simply going to a different part of the battlefield.”
He thanked those who had supported him and the ACL.
ACL chairman Jim Wallace said Mr Shelton had done an “exceptional” job in the role.
Martyn Iles, a former chief-of-staff at the ACL and more recently head of the organisation’s legal initiative, the Human Rights Law Alliance, takes up the role of managing director at the ACL. Thanking the board for his appointment, Mr Iles said there had “never been more pressure on people of faith and on the church, simply for living out our timeless convictions.”
“And therefore there’s never been a more crucial time in history in Australia for the church and for Christian people to continue to engage with law and with politics and with culture,” he said.
