My Gay Church

You never know what someone is going to say at The Rock La Roca. The Board of Ordained Ministry came to visit the church back in November, to expose the future pastors and deacons to our madness. We are a “cautionary tale” of what happens when you jump out and trust God…

Anyhoo, they wanted some of our staff and members to talk about their perspectives on the Church. One of the lay people was Mona, a dedicated worker in evangelism and mission. Mona came to the church with a lot of baggage in her life; mental illness and chemical dependency. And she really came to the church in a strange way. She was in a gay bible study. She told the Board of Ordained Ministry that she had struggled with homosexuality for a while. The object of the Bible Study was to justify the homosexual lifestyle by re-interpreting Scripture. Mona said the best thing about the Bible study was that the teachers really took the Bible seriously, except at its condemnation of homosexuality. Mona felt that she could not accept one part and deny another, so she was really mixed up.

She had an experience with God’s grace—that is, that all people are sinners, but God has made His salvation available to all who repent and trust Jesus. Mona gives an excellent testimony to overcoming sin. So much so that she wanted God more than she wanted what the world says you ought to have. She wanted to sell out to God, and she let go of believing that her lifestyle was “ok.” Now that is costly discipleship indeed!

One of the fundamental problems facing churches today is an inability to say anything meaningful about homosexuality. Some churches don’t have the guts to come out and say they are in favor of homosexuality, and so what happens if a gay person who believes it to be sinful comes along, looking for help? They can’t get any help, because the church doesn’t believe it is a sin, but the struggler doesn’t know that because the church doesn’t have the guts to say what it believes, and there’s no help or worse, they get led astray by those who want to teach that a sin is ok.

Or other churches come out in favor of homosexuality and therefore go against God, and what future is there in that?

And then, other churches come out with nothing but judgment and condemnation, and therefore go against God, and what future is there in that?

Why not do what the Rock has done (and this was done before I came, I merely carry on this most Scriptural tradition), and declare that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian discipleship, but that all are welcome in God’s house to hear the saving message of transformation of hearts and lives?

A sad part of our problem to address homosexuality from the biblical point of view, independent of the culture and politics, is that we miss out on the experience of many who are struggling with sin. On the one hand, “liberal” churches don’t think there is a sin involved, and so there is no relief for those who know they need to change. And “conservative” churches can’t see that in people being transformed, the Gospel is realized.

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation in the house of a gay man I happened to visit. He asked me point-blank, what did I (not the church) think about his lifestyle. I told him that I didn’t suspect there was enough time between us for him to be able to hear me with goodwill. I said that I believed that the Scriptures were clear, homosexuality is not acceptable to God. But at the same time, sin is the very reason Jesus came. Christ came to us while we were powerless to do anything. No one comes to God with anything to offer, He freely transforms us, if we let Him. There was some silence and the fellow said, “I have never heard that before. Thank you.” How is it possible that he never heard that, growing up in church? Is what I said not the plain gospel? Are his choices to be condemned or to have a preacher, God forbid, tell him homosexuality is ok? As odd as it may seem, the Rock La Roca has quite a few gay worshippers. One church asked me if we were gay-friendly, looking for advice on how to be so. I think they were asking how to “condone” the lifestyle. I had to explain what I said above, that we welcome all who want to hear the word of salvation, but that we will not say that any sin is ok. Somehow, gay folks hear the word of grace and come. They know we love them, and because God has loved and saved us, we hope that He will save all who can hear (and bear) the message.

A few Sundays ago, one of our members, Christy, got up and talked about a conference she was going to be part of at UK. It was going to present the Scriptural standards that homosexuality is not an acceptable Christian lifestyle, but also that we try to reach out with the love and transforming power of Jesus. It’s not going to be easy, because a state college campus is not friendly to groups that will say homosexuality is wrong.

I was very proud of her, because I know how hard it was for her to get up and share her own transformation, and then also because she wanted to make sure that she would not back off the truth. She did a great job, and 9/10 of it was because when you give people straight talk, they can hear it. It’s when you start shucking and jiving that people smoke you out.