The "Gay Accepting Church"

At The Bridge Community Church, we are now broadcasting our services live on the internet, and then rebroadcast on demand all week on livestream.com. This is amazing as we have invested no money into this at all. A couple of cameras and techie items from E-Bay and the little ole Bridge is running with big dogs. Livestream is completely free for us because we allow them to run Google ads across the bottom our broadcast 24 hours a day. This gets interesting sometimes as Livestream is not a Christian organization. You can check this out at www.bridgelife360.com.

For 12 hours last week, Google's ad at the bottom of our broadcast read, "Gay Accepting Church." Anyone who came across that unaware of how Livestream works would have thought that this ad pertained to our church, and I wondered how people perceived that. Let me start by saying that this writing is not going to focus much on the homosexual issue (the ad could have said 'Heroin Accepting Church' or 'Extortion Accepting Church' or 'Premarital Sex Accepting Church' and the conversation would be the same). Someone watching could have had many thoughts. If they thought to the extreme -- this church believes that a person can be a practicing homosexual and go to heaven; as a matter of fact, the pastor or priest could be gay and be ordained. Or the observer could have thought -- they believe that homosexuality is not a sin and they are actively recruiting people who believe the same. Or they could have thought -- this church is a 'hospital for all sinners' and the homosexual would be welcomed in their midst understanding that he/she must repent, turn from his/her sin, and believe the Gospel. There are many other possible scenarios, but of the three, the latter most accurately describes The Bridge. Quite honestly, we go to the Bible for our stance.

First of all, homosexuality is a sin. Abusing our body with heroin is a sin. Extortion is a sin. Premarital sex is a sin. All of these things separate us from a perfectly holy God and are incredibly offensive to Him. Nobody should lead in God's church while actively practicing any of these sins as though they are not an offense to God. They are an offense to God. However, all sinners are welcome at The Bridge!!! Anyone who is practicing sins that could harm our people or especially our children would not be allowed to attend our public celebrations, but we would find somewhere safe for violent or dangerous folks to hear the Gospel. But, all others will find tremendous hospitality and love as they hopefully seek the truth of the Gospel. And the Gospel message is clear that sinners can be forgiven if they repent (turn from their sin; stop sinning) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the repentant, forgiven child of God, who still slips up and sins on occasion, can lead at a healthy, well-balanced church like The Bridge.

I can sum this up in a story of a test I received within just a few weeks of becoming the lead pastor at The Bridge. We had two young ladies (one of them with a small child) who began attending our church and they communicated on their Connect Card that they were gay and wanted to visit with me about my feelings about that. We met after church one Sunday and I told them that I loved them very much and I hoped that they had felt welcomed at The Bridge because I hoped that they would continue seeking God at our church. They very gently, but boldly, asked my opinion about their relationship. I, lovingly but directly, told them that I would have the same answer for them if they were a man and a women living in a sexual relationship outside of God's plan for His people and that answer was that they were practicing sin and they would have to repent to be forgiven by God. I told them that my job was not to judge them (except about their roles in our church), but that my job was to love them and proclaim the Gospel to them. I explained that I hoped that they would stay and experience Christ with us for a long time to come, but they would have to truly become convinced of a need for change before they would be allowed to join the church. However, they were looking for a different kind of "Gay Accepting Church" than the one I described. Very respectfully, they explained to me that they had gone to Bible college and that the Bible did not teach that homosexuality was a sin and that a good church would agree with them. I knew at that point that I would not see them again, but I was not angry and I hoped that I would and I still hope to see them this Sunday listening to the teaching on the Sermon on the Mount that requires us to set aside our human pride and with humility accept God's plan for life.

Summer on the Mount

Whew! I have the first sermon written from Matthew 5 as we are going to delve into the SOTM throughout the whole summer. This is going to be really challenging because I do not think that there is a stronger example of God's teaching that OUR ways are not HIS ways. Every week is going to be this brutal awakening that we actually have been taught by the human race to live far from the way God thinks. The question is: will we be willing to change?

What I thought I would do as I study to present this challenging text is to blog some of things I learn that there will be no time to present. So, this morning's topic is the Talmudic law. As Jesus begins speaking on the hillside that morning, one set of his listeners was the Pharisees. They had created the Talmudic law because as they became more and more self-righteous, or depending on their abilities to keep law, instead of a dependence on God, they realized what a miserable failure they were. As a result, they started whittling down the law into manageable traditions. Instead of putting their whole weight on God (Commandments 1 & 2), they became RELIGIOUS with the legalistic following of some man-made fence laws that were much easier to show off with their 'outside-of-the-cup' efforts. As they scream about protecting God's law to Jesus, what they are really wanting to protect is their peripherial efforts that looked good to the public while actually they were terrorizing God's true law. We don't do that today, do we?

Yes!
God's #1 command is to love him constantly by being obedient. We lessen that immediately by claiming that we don't steal (but we covet), don't lie (that's a lie), don't commit adultery (never lust?) while we spend large portions of our day setting aside the Gospel, setting aside the cross, setting aside Christ and doing life in thought, word, and action on our own. You know what that is called? IDOLATRY, and it makes us no different than those who killed Jesus three short years after having their world first challenged on the side of that hillside. We have whittled down what is acceptable to God from, "Do, think, and say everything from a wellspring of the Gospel" to "I am a law abiding person most of the time." The American church has developed its own Talmudic law because we don't like the difficulties of Scripture. We must repent and believe the Gospel. Only God can empower such change from the wicked deception that we have been taught.

I Apologize...

...for not having written anything in a while. My life is always on the accelerator. I am always in overdrive. I have really enjoyed my job at MAC this past year -- relationships have been developed and I have really been trying to do my job there "as to the Lord." But it has taken away from some of my teaching opportunities such as writing to you on this blog. I am not going to teach much today either. I am blind in one eye and I have not been able to study much recently. However, I have been reading At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry by Steve Gallagher. This book is worth getting simply to experience the forward which is written by the late Ed Cole ("The only scriptures that you believe are the ones that you obey"). But today, I am just going to share with you a letter. Meg Reiner wrote the forward to this magnificent letter, "The Bridge Community Church has received a special letter from one of our friends at the CSC. We began our relationship with Scott last December, and he has become a part of our lives. His neatly penned letter was given to us on his birthday. Thank you, Scott - we love you too!"

Dear Bridge Members,

You may not see the progress that I’ve made throughout the last few months, but you have all made an impact on my life, which means the world to me. The little things that you all continue to do has helped me change my outlook completely. I know that God is working in my life through you. I had given up all hope and was ready to die when I started attending the Bridge months ago. Nothing seemed to matter to me but everyone, and I mean everyone, offered their love and God’s unconditional love to me, even the wreck that I am. You have shown me hope and helped me in ways that my family wouldn’t help any more because they had given up on me. At times I felt worthless, but even through my dark times you stood beside me and loved me as God would want and I want to thank you all for everything that you’ve all done. Every one of you has helped save my life and I love you all for it. May God Bless you all.

Thanks and love you
Scott Joseph

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