Monday, August 31, 2009

Should The Church Play It Safe?

I'm glad I go to a church that doesn't, but I'm speaking here of The Church in a Biblical sense as Christ did, as His bride.

My church has been doing a series on sex, the rationale being that everyone else is talking about it; why shouldn't we? Topics were GodSex, MarriedSex, SingleSex, UnfaithfulSex, and SameSex.

That's right, we actually talked about homosexuality in church.

My church has a large homosexual population. We're a seeker church, modeled after Willow Creek (both original pastors came from there), and a lot of people who have been burned by church or who never set foot in church feel very comfortable there. The flip side is that we end up with a lot of messiness. [Tongue in cheek] I'm sure Jesus never had that problem Himself. [/Tongue in cheek]

For years, this has been the elephant in the room. It's a topic that's easy to mess up. You can alienate the gay population, or you can alienate people who see themselves as believing in Biblical truth. I would not have wanted to be in the shoes of my pastor yesterday. He restricted himself to a 15 minute talk, then interviewed three people from our congregation who struggle with same sex attration (two women and a man). Unfortunately, I can't embed the video, but you can click here to see it.

One of the staff members sent out an email asking people to wear a white t-shirt if they would commit to pray for these folks as they courageously agreed to be interviewed. She said she would be on the front row praying through all three services. I joined her on the front row for the last service. Hearing what these folks went through brought tears to my eyes. There was a lot of emotion in the room, even for the normally emotionless last service.

How does your church handle tough topics? Do you talk about them head on or shy away from them?

2 comments:

christa elyce said...

interesting topic for your blog post! gives me something to think about. i would have to say that my church shy's away more so...they deal with the serious issues behind closed doors.

but...aside from that i wanted to say Thanks for the compliments on WATF blog post! I had a great time shooting such a wonderful family! I really enjoy your blog post! And you have such a gorgeous blog layout too! You can always check in with my site or blog to see if there are specials on photo session for your family or photography tips if you're an inspiring photographer yourself. Anyways, thanks again for the kind words!

Love,

Christa Sherrard
http://www.jemappelles-christa.blogspot.com

http://www.sherrardphotography.com

Goin' Dutch said...

I would have love to have been there for that. Thanks for sharing!!!