On the Homosexuality Issue...

For those of you who have heard me voice my opinion on the topic of homosexuality, you have heard me take the middle ground. The question is usually, "Is homosexuality a sin?" and the answer is usually, "I don't know."

I don't believe I can give an answer that someone fed me, if I don't know for myself. In other words, I can't tell people "Jesus is Lord" just because some pastor told me that He is. I need to know for myself if it is true or not.

I've struggled with this issue for over a year now. I studied research on both sides of the issue. I also looked at it biblically, biologically, sociologically, psychologically, and prayerfully. For this time of limbo, I have developed a "safe answer" of "We don't know if it is a sin or not, so let's not judge others."

Well, it is my pleasure to announce that I finally have a stance: Homosexuality is a sin.

How did I arrive at this conclusion? Well, it was a long (and believe me, it was LONG) process. The Holy Spirit brought to me great resources in the form of people, key scriptures, articles, and divine inspirations.

Let me begin by how I began struggling with this topic. I have a friend who came out of the closet. He was disgusted by the way the church talked about gays (he was a Christian), so when he could no longer hide passion for the same gender, he left the church (and eventually his faith). I heard a few weeks before this confrontation a "scholar" who said that all the verses in the Bible regarding this issue cannot be used to call homosexuality a sin. I studied all those verses and I had to agree. So I told my friend, "I don't know if it is a sin, but Jesus' blood can cover any multitude of sin," and that I would look into it. Thus began my journey.

This is what I learned.

• Although none of the verses can be used to say "Homosexuality is a sin," when homosexuality is mentioned in Scripture, it is never mentioned in a positive light.
• Because there is no specific verse that talks about this issue, I knew that I need to define the purpose of sexuality. Why did God make us sexual beings? It turns out that the man's pursuit of a woman is an image of God pursuing his people. This is why God doesn't permit affairs - God doesn't cheat on us. In Romans 1, Paul states that our resistance to God is represented in our sexual relations. In other words, man pursuing woman = God pursuing people. Anything else is a perversion of this pure relationship He desires to have with us.
• I once heard a television star say, "some animals have same-sex relations. It's natural." This is true, but if you live by this philosophy, then you have to go the extra mile. Some animals eat their spouse after having sex. Shall we do that too? It is NOT natural for animals to have same-sex tendencies. Otherwise, they will go extinct! Would God create a tendency that will wipe out an entire specie?

So, am I glad I spent nearly 2 years of my life researching this topic? Yes. It was very enriching. It taught me how to talk to people struggling with homosexuals. I learned that it is not my job to change the sexual orientation of my friend. My job is to remind him of the Gospel - that Jesus loves him regardless of his lifestyle. It is God's job to judge, the Holy Spirit's job to convict, and it is my job to love. God can change hearts, I can only trust in that.

We are saved by grace, not by orientation.

I also learned that some Christians (not all) are afraid of the unknown. Why is homosexuality treated as a bigger sin than divorce, lying, and lusting? I think people are afraid of things we don't understand.

Jesus calls us to love in revolutionary ways. How can we, as christians, see past the sin of homosexuality and love the person... in the same way Jesus never labeled a person a tax collector, prostitute, or a diseased person. Jesus said that his disciples are people who know how to love. I want to love people as every human being deserves to be loved.

People are not projects. People are people. Let us love them as Jesus loved us.

Successful Church

Earlier today I received an email asking me to think of a big vision for our church conference. I thought this would be a simple task. I mean, you just DREAM BIG, right? After I jotted down a few things (after a time of prayer, of course), I asked Val what she thought. We began talking about what constitutes a successful church. Some interesting thoughts were shared, and I thought I'd share it with you:

Can a church be successful? I read through Scripture and fail to find anywhere the idea of church being a success. Well, Revelation speaks of two churches that were successes, but we would not recognize them as "successful churches" if we were to measure them in today's standards.

I realized that the difficulty of finding a vision for our conference is not the "dreaming big" part. I didn't know how to dream big because I wasn't sure what a successful church was suppose to look like in the 21st century. I mean, if there's an image of what church should look like, I can dream big and say, "We want to look like the successful church described in the Bible!" But, there's no image of a successful church in the Bible.

When people ask me, "What is the great plan for our church?", I answer, "we'll be A, B, and C." There's always a person who says, "but that's not church. A church should be X, Y, and Z." Why didn't Jesus spend time teaching about the church? Combining all four Gospels, He only mentions "church" twice! No wonder there are denominations. Everyone disagrees on what a successful church looks like.

I think this happens because church is not an institution (at least its not supposed to be). It is a group of believers. It's a gathering. How can you fail at being a group? You can't. As long as two or more are gathered, you're a success. If you and your friend go camping, and you sit down in the middle of a forest and talk about what God is doing in your life, you're a successful church.

The problem (not sure if it really is a problem) is, we've made church into an institution. This means, we measure success and failure based on "institution standards." The bigger the more successful. The more income the better. The stronger the leader, the awesomer. When church is an institution, we've brought something (that wasn't meant to be measured) into a system that is all about comparison and analysis.

We can't deny it. Church is an institution now. And I'm a part of it. I can't change it either. Why? Because my employment is grounded in this system. Because there are laws in the country about religious groups (when Westlight was planted, we had to deal with the government a lot). Institutions are comfortable and are protected by the government. In the Western Culture, we've come to a point where Church has to be an institution.

Jesus was God clothed in flesh. Church is God's children clothed in institution.

So, when I am asked to come up with a vision for the church, my mind automatically goes to institutional ideas like, "bigger church, more people, stronger leaders!" and there's nothing wrong with this. But what I was asked to do is to come up with a vision for the church, not the institutionalized church.

hmmmm....