Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Not so hot!!

Our church is in the middle of a new series: Hot...or not?. Sunday's topic was 'Till death do us part'. During the offering several probing questions where on the big screen. Questions dealing with same-sex relationships, living together without being married, acceptable reasons for divorce, etc. Difficult issues that you don't hear much about in church, while they are part of life both inside and outside the church. So the stage was set, "church marketing" had done it's work, I was there and ready for some wisdom in these areas....
Why was I not surprised when these topics where not even mentioned in the sermon...?
Let me start out by saying that what the pastor did talk about was great. He talked about pursuing each other in marriage, not just before marriage, to put God first in your relationship and that that would be the best basis for a lasting marriage. Great thoughts that are not new, but everyone needs to hear every once in a while. To top it off he was funny, reasonably direct and to the point.
He told us that the preaching team and the Sunday morning services team had decided not to focus on all topics but to spend some time at a later date to go deeper on this issue. That is promising, but will probably be an inner chamber discussion with a few interested people. They obviously had decided that this potato was too hot to handle. So 'Hot...or not?' became 'too hot', and they went with what they do best: preach to the choir.
I'm not gay, don't have a son who is dealing with homosexual feelings, I don't have a daughter who is living with a man outside of marriage, I'm not thinking about ways to get out of marriage, but I was still disappointed that these issues were not addressed. Why? Because I think they should be addressed in church. I understand that these are tough issues and taking a stance on the issues, one way or the other is going to pose a problem. But opening the floor for questions is great, but then ignoring them is worse than not asking for questions in the first place.
Stop trying to be cute, and relevant, if you are not ready to actually face the issues. Sorry, not face the issues, but face the people behind the issues. These are actual people we are talking about, people we talk to, live or work with and church with every week.
Equip the church to know what our attitude should be to our neighbors at home, at work and in the pew next to us. Teach that the answer is not judgment, not acceptance or tolerance, but love.