“Hi, I heard your radio ad and I was wondering if I can come to your church? You see, … I’m gay … but you seem like a church that might welcome everyone. Thanks, Annette”
We promoted our church’s opening day with radio ads on secular rock stations. I received that question from Annette, and I quickly found several e-mails in my Inbox asking the same question. This confused me a bit: I wanted to e-mail my own question to churches: Why is it that gay people need to ask this question?
A couple years later I received another e-mail. It was from a Christian magazine: Would I consider writing an article on our church’s “ministry to homosexuals.” I stared at the sentence. Again I was confused. It had never occurred to me that our church had a ministry to homosexuals.
Our church’s ministry is to be God incarnate. Jesus came as God in a body. He exactly represented who God is (Colossians 1:15). The church is to be Jesus in a body (1 Corinthians 12:27). We are to exactly represent who He is.
Jesus ministry was to seek and save the lost. People drawn to Jesus’ ministry were those deemed the most sinful by society. The church’s ministry is to seek and save the lost. Those drawn to our ministry should be those deemed the most sinful by society. In our culture, this will include homosexuals.
Why were the “sinners” drawn to Jesus? I think it’s because in Jesus they heard the truth they needed, but also experienced the love they longed for. When will the “sinners” of our society (including homosexuals) be drawn to us? When “speaking the truth in love” is not a cliché we talk about but a reality we live out.
So what did I say to Annette? And how has our church handled all this? I thought I’d do a short series on this. I am far from an expert on this topic, and our church is not the best I know of with this (if you’re looking for the church that may reach homosexual people the best, try http://www.ecclesiahouston.org/v2/index.php), but I can share a little. So next time I’ll pick this back up. Until then, rock the Kasbah.
- featured on newchurches.com
Monday, February 25, 2008
"Not That There's Anything Wrong With It" (1 of 4)
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7 comments:
This is perhaps your best post ever.
I'm kinda thrown by the title of this series but then again I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer
It's a play on the punch line from a very popular Seinfeld episode..................
oh cause I was wondering if it was Vince's stance un the topic
vince (from israel, flying home tomorrow!) and nope, not my stance, it is indeed a play on the punch line from a Seinfeld episode.
Hey Vince,
Praying for your safe flight home.
I am really interested in reading this series. My sister-in-law lives in Oregon and is gay. She and her partner were married last year. They are fun to be with and very knowledgeble and engaging. She knows I am a Christian because of conversations she has with her brother, my husband. I have never brought up the subject of sin with her yet; however, everytime we are together she "bates" me and tries to get me in an argument with her regarding Christianity and gays. I have known her for 3 years and really like her and have been trying to develope a friendship with her to no avail.
I hope to have you show us how to show truth in love to those we know that are gay.
Chris Sjolund
Why does it seem that "gay" is talked about more than lying, cheating, or gossip? It kills me that the "gay thing" seems to be in a class by itself. I wonder sometimes if we (christians) stop giving it so much attention that some of the sting will be taken off the topic. Everyone is broken but if you find out someone is a homosexual you somehow approach them different than if you hear they gossip or cheat on their taxes. A conversation a pastor told me about he once had with a homosexual person in the church just kills me. The pastor told this person how much they were loved by God and how welcome they were to attend the hhurch but could not be put into leadership at the church. Now not to say that is wrong but to look at the other side the pastor better take everyone else out of leadership including themselves because everyone has something going on that falls short of God's glory and I bet most are fulling aware of their shortcomings.
If you are sitting there reading this and saying well I have a repentant heart about the sin in my life and try to turn from it, and that person the pastor was talking to probably didn't then I think you may need to look at yourself a bit more closely.
I don't know if we should waste too much time categorizing sin. Maybe we should all realize that we are all always just as guilty as the next bloke and spend a bit more time seeking after God's heart.
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