Featured New Church Innovates, Shares the Love and Compassion

I want those things for my church, too. I want the unsaved to feel welcome. I want them to feel loved. To feel warm. To feel as though our church is a safe place.

But if I see them in sin and I don't confront them, that's the most UNloving thing I can do.

I was preaching in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago and a woman heckler said that I hated homosexuals. Now, my guess is that that was a guilty conscience, since I never mentioned homosexuals, but that's another story.

I asked her, if we hate homosexuals, why are we constantly telling them that God loves them and is offering them the opportunity to repent and come to Him? If we hated them, wouldn't we want them to go to Hell, rather than to be reconciled and adopted by God and spend eternity with Him in Heaven?

I can think of no more hateful act than to "love" somebody into Hell because you saw their sin but chose not to warn them for fear of appearing unloving.

I don't know this church, so I can't speak to them, specifically, but what you describe sounds like somebody who isn't interested in sparing somebody's feelings, but in protecting their own reputation as the "loving" church, even if's at the expense of an eternity in Hell for those they claim to love.

The world has right and wrong, good and evil, love and hate all mixed up.

A person who loves the homosexual will tell them the truth. Better they should hear the Gospel and walk out angry, never to return, than to not hear the Gospel.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

 

Wow, what a hero you are! There is a difference however between being an insulting jerk or a kind and compassionate Christian who delivers the gospel with love and compassion. Your own insulting posts tonight have convinced me you are the former and not the latter.

 

I don't know why EW&F hated the above so much. It puzzles me. I think you are right on the money here JohnDeerFan.

 

Brother TH, there is no need to apologize to me.... you are looking for truthful answers to very spiritual questions & you do it with both a humble & honest approach..... thats refreshing.

Sorry I cant answer that because Ive not found one yet. the closest I get are some Primitive Baptist and Old Regular Baptist churches down south.

Both

Yes

If you spoke the truth to me when I was not reborn/regenerated, I would not have listened to you. But if you then treated me as if I were a criminal because I didnt believe it (hook, line & sinker) then I would never listen to you.... I would label you a hypocrite & dismiss you. Have you ever listened to George Whitefield's sermon, "METHOD OF GRACE"..... Bottom line, Whitefield was persuasive & the Holy Spirit was right there to get me to understand that which I could not see....IE, that I was NOT a true believer.

Exactly, they wont. Consider our Lords pronouncement in Matthew.

Matthew 5:46-47 (NIV)

46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

 

Yes, I can be an insulting jerk. I can be prideful and arrogant. I can be sarcastic and angry.

I'm sorry if you've been a target of my sin and bad behavior.

Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

 

Thanks, Rippon.

 

What I think about the local church in turmoil is this:

Of course there is a difference between telling the truth in love and being a total jerk. That said, this particular group (glbt) finds in our area that there is no way to say their acting on their desires is sin that is not being an unloving jerk. Even reading the scripture passages that contain those verses as part of a much larger portion and preaching on the other portion is considered unloving.

So, trying to "be loving and yet tell the truth" is setting yourself up to fail. If you speak the truth, even privately, kindly, and with great sensitivity you will be considered a jerk.

Churches here have changed names so that community would not be repelled and would enter a stealth Baptist church.

Others have removed crosses and songs that reference the blood of Christ so as not to offend unbelievers unnecessarily.

For a time, one Baptist church wouldn't even speak the name Jesus if there was a way around it. I'm pleased to say they went through a revival time and are back on the right track.

So now, this one local church, that watered down things like try not to say "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" because it offends some women and people of both genders who had abusive dads and so are moving to "Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer" so as not to offend find themselves in a pickle.

The lesbian ladies say they will be offended if they cannot have their blessing ceremony.

And of course, being inoffensive is the greatest virtue around these days, right?

Now you know why I am not seeker sensitive.

 

I understand you're speaking "tongue in cheek," but I wanted to respond in order to point out I've spoken the truth in love, while expressing respect and admiration for personal attributes in the person I was speaking with, and they are still my friend, and continue to attend our church. They aren't convinced yet, but they are wavering. As long as they continue to come, then I'm not a jerk, and I've done my duty as a Christian man witnessing of Christ.

That is more often necessitated by the slander in the media and the LGBT community of what it means to be "Baptist." Both media and the LGBTs want to equate "Baptist" with "Westboro" which is, of course, a monumentally unfair comparison in all cases.

I was once clearly reprimanded by a Lutheran pastor (Wisconsin Synod) in the reception area of his church when I went into to talk to him about a men's ministry that we were trying to carry across denominational lines, when I said something to the effect that we are all under the shed blood of Christ. He pointedly said, "We don't talk like that around here." I left. That was 11 years ago.

Yes, praise God for that.

Yeah, me neither.

 

Are you living in SODOM or NINEVEH?

 

Don't worry about me JDF, I can be just as arrogant & prideful....we are men in this world after all right.

But what keeps running thru my head is Micah 6:8

"... and what does the lord require of us?
To act justly...
To love mercy...
To walk humbly with your God"

 

I'm beginning to think I live in Sodom.

And what I said about being thought a jerk if you so much as mention or read what the Scripture says about this issue?

It is what is said up front, before anyone addresses the issue. By that I mean it is taught in the local schools, shows up in the local paper from time to time, and seems to be the marching order mantra of the very well organized group.

And it is clear: say it is a sin to act on same gender desire=being a bigot. Doesn't matter how it is said, presented, whatever. To hold that view is to be considered bigoted.