Flap over gays in church directory festers

Wonderful words.

 

Bible Boy...
Why was this warning attached to my post which has nothing to do with specifics of "homosexual practice"??

 

People do it all the time. Some choose to be rude and obnoxious. Some choose to lie and gossip about others. Some choose to manipulate and abuse others. All these things are sin and makes them hated by many. Why do they do it? I really don't know except they love the darkness more than the light.

 

Because your post was driving off-topic from the OP and the questions you asked have the potential to drive the thread further off topic and into the specifics regarding homosexuality that are not allowed in the open public fora on the BB.

 

I found that article confusing. I don't have a clue where the church stands. I doesn't sound to me like the membership knows where the church as a body stands.

 

So now the potential of what someone else might do warrants a warning?

 

I don't see how hard it is to not imagine a kid growing up looking at nothing other than his/her own gender...children can be prone to murder and crime on many levels but not be prone to sexual sin? Didn't the book of Job show that the devil has no barriers?

 

This isn't the issue, even though I believe it is a choice, no matter how prone a person may be toward any preference. The issue is whether or not this church has mixed up their priorities and purpose SO much that they can't see the obvious problems.

 

Of course the other major issue here is about the whole business of membership in a church. Who can be a member of your church? Anyone? What are the requirements for membership?

For the past several decades many churches across differing denominations held a loose system when it came to membership. Anyone can join, all can join, just come down front and give us your name and address, then we'll send you envelopes and never see you again. That membership model has failed. Part of the reason is that you can get anyone to join your church but no accountability or review for those who do join.

We must ask people when they seek to join our church: what is your testimony about your salvation? If they are unregenerate they don't need to be members of a local church. Have you been baptized according to our beliefs on the matter? If they haven't identified with Christ and the rest of the Church through baptism than we need to address that. What happens when a couple come to join that are living at the same address, aren't married, and are clearly involved in an inappropriate relationship? If these people are involved in open sin they sully the name of Jesus Christ, they need to renounce their sin and take steps to move away from it. What if a homosexual couple/person comes to join your church? If they are living a sinful lifestyle they need to renounce it, take steps to move away from it, get counseling, work hard at staying out of the sin because if they openly sin in this area they mock the name of Jesus Christ.

Most churches don't ask these questions. They are difficult questions too. Particularly in a society where "don't ask, don't tell" is the dominant philosophy we fly in its face. Yet our churches, at least our memberships, must be closely watched for our flocks are too precious to do otherwise.

If you don't have standards for membership and intentionality behind it you will get these kinds of issues brought up time and time again.

 

Yes, our problem is that we want numbers, and if you enforce discipline, you don't get numbers.

Just last night at the church where I serve as interim pastor, the deacons (finally) have begun to wrestle with the issue of the number of people on the church roll who have become inactive. But the discussion took a sad turn when one deacon waxed eloquent about how when people do not attend, they do not give, and that hurts the budget. Well, yes, but isn't our primary concern their spiritual condition?

The Church of the Saviour, here in Washington, has never had more than about 125 members, because they do have a covenant that has teeth in it, and they ask people either to renew or withdraw. Membership means something there.

I agree, in the Broadway case, that if these folks were accepted into membership just as they are, they ought to be portrayed, just as I suspect some heterosexual cohabiting couple will be portrayed, or some embezzler, or some you-name-it. Unrepentant sinners are all over the map in many of our churches, and we really cannot treat homosexual behavior as worse than other sins, if we think that's what it is. But I am guessing that there is a significant fraction of church members who do not think of that as sin at all, just a preference or a lifestyle. We need ample study on all the aspects of this all over the churches today.

I am afraid Broadway is in rather a no-win situation.

 

Yes. It is not a question of potential. You asked some very specific questions. The answers to those specific questions would drive the discussion off topic and into a discussion that is not allowed in an open public forum here on the BB. Therefore, I was heading off trouble before it got started. I'm moderating the thread by directing the discussion to stay on topic and avoid drifting into a discussion that violates the BB rules. The warning, while made in your post, was not directed solely at you. The warning was to everyone participating in this thread. Don't take it personally. And now let's get back on topic...

 

Not trying to be ugly regarding Broadway, but they have been on a severe decline in membership for years. Most of the congregation is over well over 50. I firmly believe that their decline is in large part to way the church has embraced fuzzy theology over the past 30 years and refuses to ask much of their membership.

I am going to respectfully disagree. This is an opportunity for them to clarify their position. If they embrace the "welcoming but not affirming" position, I think they have an opportunity to repair their relationship with other churches in the Fort Worth region. They will likely lose some members, but the truth is often not popular and the church exists to speak and act truthfully so that God's Kingdom can be strengthened and expanded.

If they choose to fully affirm homosexual relationships, they will also lose quite a few members, and completely alienate themselves from most other churches in the region, and from 2000 years of Christian teaching.