It amazes me all this emphasis now on reaching out to the gay COMMUNITY as if they constitute a legitimate community like Asians or Hispanics. This type of legitimizing from the church was just the beginning of sorrows. To those who invoke the all sin is the same blather, I’d like to know when you are going to start reaching out to the other communities Paul mentioned in I Corinthians 6:9-11, lifestyles he says will never enter the Kingdom?Wrongdoers, Sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, swindlers, slanderers, extortioners. Why no emphasis on reaching out to those communities? Why is the all sin is equal crowd exalting one group of sinners over another and legitimizing their community as one who is worthy of special outreach? Why do we never hear them defending the Christian extortioner? Oh brother Vinny here is a Christian extortioner who is growing and learning. Such nonsense would be laughed at. But that is EXACTLY what churches are doing with gays, and they are actually afraid to list gays with the rest of the sinners Paul listed because, I know gays who never steal, extort or get drunk. Wake up PASTORS!! This is not the church’s fault. It’s the fault of spineless PASTORS!________________
I came to Christ in 1981 because the Salvation Army reached out to the drunkard community that I was a part of.I thank God daily for the spineless Pastor who spent countless hours praying with me, counselling me and keeping believing me through my struggles and backslidings.I have also been privileged to minister in churches in Roma gypsy camps in Europe that were known as communities of thieves. On one occasion, while walking to the church with the pastor, he told me, If you were to try walking down this road on your own you would be mugged before you reached ten yards. The police only come here in groups of 7 or 8.As for greedy communities? Doesn’t that pretty well describe much of our consumerist society?I have made a commitment to God to continue sharing Jesus with sinners – and that includes drunkard communities who live in cardboard boxes under bridges, adulterous communities where over 50% of the population are divorced and remarried, thieves communities, greedy communities that would slam the door in the faces of refugees from ISIS, communities of idolators who are steeped in Hinduism, and even homosexual communities. And if that makes someone characterize me as spineless then I guess that’s something I’ll have to learn to live with________________Senior Pastor, Solid Rock Church, DroghedaNational Overseer, Church of God, IrelandExecutive Director, Evangelical Alliance Irelandeaiseanchai.wordpress.com/
The Bible does recognize or legitimize drunkard communities. You came to Christ as an individual because someone reached out to you as an individual regardless of what your particular sin was. I don’t hear the church saying, we need to recognize the good contribution the
Certainly people are anointed at times to reach a certain segment. That’s fine. But the goal is to get those people out of that segment, correct? Instead some in the church are subconsciously legitimizing those communities, or should I say, a particular community________________
You are wrong here RS.The gay community does excel at certain things. What is wrong with pointing out any good characteristic you can find?And..the drunkard, bar community excels at accepting you as you are. You can buld on that. You want to get someone open to your viewpoint – compliment what you can first. Why get them close minded before you ever present Jesus to them________________
There you go. You are legitimizing those committing sin that biblically keeps them out of heaven as a community that deserves to recognized as such. Then you are going to tell them they must leave that community to be saved. That sends mixed signals and is compromise.To be fair, you need to start an outreach to the mafia extortionist community in New York. Put up a sign that says, Jesus loves extortionists and so do we! Come fellowship with us in a non-confrontational atmosphere. After all, those extortionists have done a lot of good things do their community and should be recognized for that. Then when one of your members or staff is extorted by one his brethren, you can gently explain that we should not judge him because it takes awhile to grow and mature and overcome the extortionist lifestyle. ________________
I feel that all of this makes God cry. Just LOVE sinners, saints, are’s and aint’s. Quit drawing lines and live like you believe the heart of the Father. Be the Gospel________________Live an epiK life!Discover More…www.refocusing.orgA Mission in Formationwww.bluewaterinthekeys.com
Phil is right, just love are’s and aint’s. Any a yall reachin out to folk involved in beastiality?
I believe MOST folk who express that common statement, Reach out to a Community, are referring to Sinners, folk they know and love who may be or are/ or think they are homosexual. They are reaching out to SINNERS.An unpardonable sin is stated in scripture, but is hard to specifically define in today’s complicated world, but I do not think it is being GAY!I know gay folk and I do love them dearly. I cry for them I pray for them, they know my stand, but it is in love and they know that. We talk, joke, visit and have dinner together on occasion. We do not run in the same circles, but our paths cross. I STILL HOLD OUT HOPE, I never give up because I love them. I know Christ does. ________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/
Nah OT we just want to kill them and clear the air. Send them to Hell, it just takes one cap, and they are history. That is said in sick jest. I do know there are times I see no hope for the pedophile, but God is the judge of that. I also know at least one man who is listed as a pedophile who IS NOT! (I deleted the story and explanation________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/
Re: Jesus?
Whose doing that? But as to your point, if those that are sick refuse to admit they are sick, then how can they be cured? It seems now that proclaiming the diagnosis constitutes putting them down________________
What part of this didn’t you understand RS?Jesus is the answer.Don’t have them close minded to anything you say – before you get a chance to say it.How often does turn or burn work as a greeting to a sinner________________
What part of this didn’t you understand RS?Jesus is the answer.Don’t have them close minded to anything you say – before you get a chance to say it.How often does turn or burn work as a greeting to a sinner? I have no problem with that line of reasoning. I’m just against legitimizing their community. Though one might feel a unique call to evangelize gays, they should be witnessed to as any other individual sinners.And in the end they will have to told their sin is an affront to God, just like my sin was________________
Acknowledging some group as a community, per se, legitimizes the thing that they commune around in the first place. Rhetorically, that is RS’s point, I think. And, it puts the church to speaking from both sides of its mouth to use the legitimizing language of community only to then say this community must repent of what unites it or repent and follow Jesus away from this community. Is the church’s use of the word community in this way important? RS thinks it is, and I am not sure he is wrong. We do empower whatever collective the gays are when we use their own language to describe them. It is not merely passive talk. Groups choose words by usage to label themselves as they see themselves. They choose words that embolden their choices of how to live. Homosexuals especially use language this way, but by no means are they unique. We do not blink at their adoption of a word — community — that the church applies to itself! We ratify them, in fact. Now, not that we can or should stop them. But, to RS’s point, should we just approve it? Are we thinking not only of homosexuals but any other cultural conglomeration of sinners incorrectly? Are we short sighted in our effort to be winsome that we are not careful to distinguish who they are from our own ideas of who we are? Because, frankly, it seems they have won the day against the church in America and that we are bending over backwards to yield the language to them. It matters because words give the shape to our thoughts.I see his point. If he is wrong, then we owe the pedophile, necrophile, and wife-beating communities formal apologies and we need to send ambassadors to them to make peace immediately________________
Thank you for articulating my feelings in a away that I did not seem to able to________________