Does your church work with....?

Yes, the guy sitting behind me, the guy across the aisle, me, and pretty much everybody else in the congregation. I am only kidding a little bit, most of the rest of us might not have been "deep" enough into those sins to be labeled but what we were into was just as bad in God's eyes. We don't have any "programs" directed towards any specific groups of sinners, but we got plenty of room, so, come on down.

 

Last year instead of having a Vacation Bible School (VBS)for our kids [and surrounding chuch'ed kids] we went into Philadelphia and brought our class to an inter-city womens center that sponcers women in crisis and their kids.

We ended up bringing the gospel to kids that have NEVER had the opportunity to hear the gospel. Kids from all over the neighborhood came and brought their friends, their bros. and sisters.

We went once a week for two months, the group of kids that came constantly changed. Attention spans were very short. Kids talked alot and constantly asked questions off topic, in a variety of languages. Organized chaos with a purpose.

The highlight of the day was lunch, provided by us to be eatten at the center (many of the kids would try to bring it home...for various reasons). Probably 50 kids would wonder in around that time.

It was an eye opening experence for all of us. I'm sure the Lord was pleased!

 

Saggy, everyone is a sinner. Drug addicts and alcoholics suffer from a disease. Homosexuals (as you know) are not sinning by following their sexual orientation in my opinion. Prostitutes need a new line of work.

With all that said, as an in-town congregation we work with folks in all of those categories. We no longer host AA meetings, only because there are regular meetings nearby and ours were redundant.

Joshua

 

Rev. Joshua.. IF homosexuality were not a sin in itself... it would still be a sin to act on it outside of holy marriage... according to scripture!

However, homosexuality IS a sin as are the other sins listed which defile the temple of the Holy Spirit. There is no degree of sin.

1 Corinthians 6:13b-20 "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

YES... our church welcomes everyone and ministers to everyone. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God! I would not move to another aisle or hesitate to hug and greet a known homosexual or prostitute who chose to come into our service.

We catch 'em... HE cleans 'em!

Diane
Villa Rica, Ga.

 

We have a program for those who either use or have used drugs and alchol. I don't think we have any prostitutes in our little town,a dn don't know of any homosexuals.

oh yah, God gave His plan for sexual orentation in Genesis, but like everything else man has strayed from God's plan for them and his will, and called what is evil good, which God also warns against.

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhh Homosexuality is a sin! It is no worse a sin then any other but God does call it an abomination. It is a NO NO!
Our church welcomes anyone and we help as much as we can. If they cause any sort of major disruption due to their addictions, they are talked to by the Elders and either it changes or they will have to not attend Services. But they will still work to find them help and work with them as long as they can.
On the other hand, not too long ago there was a woman in our church who had a baby out of wedlock. She and her X Husband used to be mmembers there and when the divorced they both left. Him to another church, her not to any. When she was pregnant she started coming back, she was also living with the Father of her child. The Elders said we were not allowed to give her a Baby Shower on Church premises and they told her that if she did not marry him or stop living with him she was not allowed to place her membership again.
She was scared and lost and still is but as only come a few times since that talk in the last year. She has a lot of deep rooted problems and I feel like we turned her away. So I guess I just feel everyone should be welcomed and given a chance, but if they begin to pull others in the Church down with them, I guess it needs to be disscused if they should attend any longer.
Love in Christ, Angie

 

Yes, we work with any sinner that desires to repent and change from their sinful habits.

But, if they came to propogate their sin, then a resounding "NO!"

And homosexuality is an abomination/sin, and should not be treated any different from any other sinful act!

 

Oh yes...... all our churches are working with all us sinners..... (no degrees of sin) all have sinned......"

 

We may not have done any of the things on that list, but, you can be sure that we are all sinners!
Thank God for Jesus` redeeming blood.

 

Someone who used to be a friend of mine(her choice not mine that we aren't now, she didn't like that I was Baptist) was a member of a charismatic country church. She told me of this one owman who came a few times to their church, and right in the middle of preaching the pastor told her to leave. She wan't being disruptive doing anything like yelling(which by the way is the norm in their church), what did she do to be thrown out of a church? She was supose to be a witch, how did they know for sure? She sat there with her hand over her lower face, with her fingers spread open trying to 'block' the Holy Spirits conviction of the truth of the gospel.
Yep, you wouldn't want those sinners visiting your church, getting all saved and everything.

 

Our church is small and though as a congregation we don't have minstries directed at these areas there are good number of our people involved with these outside of the church and many have brought people to services who are struggling with drinking, drugs and who are homosexuals. All are welcome and several have turned and accepted salvation through Jesus.

 

The day churches stop working with sinners is the day the stop being churches.

 

If there was a known sin,our church would put into place our church discipline policy,which is Matt. 18. We follow that exactly. These sins could be anything known or brought to our church's attention from someone else. yes,we all sin,but we are no longer slaves to sin,so for a church to allow known sin is a terrible disservice to our Lord.