Friday, May 09, 2008
There’s a church in our area that is known for having their parking team “size visitors up” as soon as they exit from their car and radio in to their ushers the specific make-up of the people visiting.
New family with small kids? By the time that new family hits the front door greeters from the children’s ministry with small children in hand are there to welcome them and personally escort them to their classes.
In some respects I guess I applaud their commitment to make people feel welcome by having a similar type of person meet them at the door.
Unfortunately too many people have told me that when they visited this church there weren’t any…
…black people to welcome them…
…or single moms…
…or those who had been divorced…
I often wonder what would happen if two openly gay people visited their church.
In Second Guessing God I talked about how a few years ago our church in Philadelphia went through our first crisis: French-kissing homosexuals in the worship service.
One day after services a man in our church’s band approached me and said, “Dude, I just saw my first homosexual kiss!” I said, “Where?” He pointed to the auditorium and said they had been French kissing during the worship service.
I said, “Really? I didn’t see them.” I looked for other staff members, but they said they hadn’t witnessed it either. The next Sunday three people came up to me and said they had seen the same thing. This went on for weeks. It was like the homosexual version of “Where’s Waldo?” During the sermon I would slowly scan the audience looking for lip-locking visitors, but to no avail.
Eventually, for reasons I could never discover, our frisky friends left, but not before I received a nasty e-mail from a woman visiting from another church that saw the couple making out [the same church known for “sizing people up” and radioing in their “type” to their ushers]. She asked, “Is your church the kind of church that welcomes homosexuals?” That was a loaded question.
I e-mailed back and outlined our church’s belief that homosexuality, like all other sins, goes against what is clearly taught in the Bible. I also explained that we would welcome anyone, regardless of their background, to be a part of our church service, jokingly adding that we had a very strict policy against all French kissing during the service—homosexual or heterosexual.
I concluded my e-mail by saying, “I have to be honest; I was glad to hear that two homosexuals felt comfortable enough to attend our church services and weren’t scared away by the adulterers, pornographers, tax cheats, liars and other messed-up people in the seats around them.”
Since day one it’s been my prayer that CCV would be the kind of church that anyone could attend.
Gay. Straight. Young. Old. Poor. Rich. Married. Divorced. Black. White.
Everyone for whom Christ died – and I mean everyone – is welcome to come and hear the good news that God loves us…
…in spite of their sin
…in spite of their sexual orientation
…in spite of their addictions
…in spite of their skin color
…in spite of the size of their wallet
…in spite of anything that people judge other people by on the surface to keep them from hearing the life-changing message of Jesus.
Read all the posts in this series:
Questions About Homosexuality
What If We’re Misinterpreting The Bible?
My Greatest Struggle Right Now
Should An Openly Homosexual Person Be Baptized?
Gay First Impressions Ministry?
Are Homosexuals Born That Way?
Gay First Impressions Ministry? – Questions About Homosexuality (Part 4)
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10 comments:
Your comments in this post is just part of the reason why I choose to continue attending church at CCV.
Thanks for not being a jerk! ;)
Well said ... I really appreciated this series of blogs!
Thank you Brian for your openness on this topic. Question, when does 1 Cor. 5 take effect? How and when is anyone ever "put out" or "expelled"?
When talking about the church that "sizes up," I was unfortunately reminded of Steve Martin's movie, Leap of Faith.
Great post.
However, I would add that I'd like to see that model of church go far beyond what you're doing at your church. I'd like to see that phenomenon spread throughout the western Christian culture. Into my church. Into your church. Perserving biblical truth and, at the same (yes it's possible), loving God's people.
Hi Eric,
Funny you should ask. I'm teaching on that exact passage this Sunday (which was part of the reason I did these posts this week).
Let me think on that one.
Brian
"Come unto me all ye who are heavy laden, and weary".
Jesus calls us all to repentance and faith. God commands now that all need to repent in the book of Acts.
Repentance is the the Word of God that is essential to know, and understand.
For if we lack understanding here, then Satan surely will scheme and lie, and weave his half truths into a persons heart, so that they in fact do not come to Jesus, but to a false religion. It can be a licentious religion, or a legalistic religion.
Don't forget Satan is a roaring lion walking about to see whom he can devour.
And also remember as Martin Luther said, "The devil is God's devil".
Have a blessed evening.
Here's an article I wrote a while back if anyone is interested, about my brother who died of AIDS.
SharperIron » Reaching Out to Homosexuals
You may have to click around a few times to find it. I'm very computer dumb. But I'm learning.
Excellent post Brian!! The Church should be a welcoming place for all... hope you understood that from my previous posts! Baptism is a final commitment to the Lord (preceded by repentance)... coming into Church... well, that's for everybody!! (One beggar showing another where the bread is).
I have a lesbian sister that has cried with me because she has convinced herself that God can't love her; this goes pretty deep. She gets as far the church parking lot but will not enter the building. It's hard enough to enter a new church; but I can't imagine how hard it would be to be gay in the church.
I see this issue preventing people from open and genuine relationship with other members. Whether it's about one�s self, child, spouse, etc, there is so much shame associated to this that it tends to be hidden and not acknowledged out of fear of judgment from other members. How can we be a healthy church family if we can�t be honest and open about our lives?
va
Dear va,
I think your sister needs to understand is that Jesus died for all the sins that have ever been committed, or ever will ever be committed, by all of the people who have ever lived on this earth, and all the people who will ever live on this earth. 1 John: 2:2.
She needs to understand that what Jesus died for includes all of her past, present and future sins, too. What she needs to do is ask God to forgive her of her sins and she will be forgiven.
1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." All of our unrighteous is cleansed, not just some of it. All of it is cleased including the sin of homosexuality and all of your sister's other sins, too.
Your sister does not even need to enter any church to be forgiven. She just needs to talk to God with a repentant heart, and tell God that she that she believes with all of her heart that Jesus died for all of her sins, that she is sorry for her sins, and ask God to forgive her of her sins. She will be forgiven.
God will not deny her. He is willing and able to forgive us of all our sins. There are no sins that are excluded, including homosexuality.
After she does this, she should ask God what He wants her to do next. My bet is that God will tell her to be baptized.
Ed
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