In our recent Homophobia post, we had a fascinating discussion on the subject of homosexuality and Christianity.

In the comments, the question of homosexuality seemed to turn on whether homosexuals are born gay or whether they choose homosexuality. Coincidentally, another Evangelical pastor just confessed to practicing homosexuality. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel church in Colorado with a congregation of 2,100, recently stepped down from his position as head pastor.

Here's part of his confession:

 “I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy. I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away.”

As a genuine question, why would someone in a marriage and pastor of a church choose to be gay? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Grace Chapel Associate Pastor, Dave Palmer, offered this thought:

Had the church been more of an environment of grace and had Paul been able to share his struggles in that environment of grace early on in his ministry experience, then I think it would have lessened the probability of his falling.

Update: Here's a good NY Times article discussing Gay Evangelicals.

Given recent developments, I have to come to the belief that Wendell Smith of the City Church in Kirkland, Washington is not a very good pastor. To recap:

• Via MFI, he tried to bully a local church into keeping their abusive pastor, offering veiled threats if they failed to do so.
• When that local church stood up to Wendell, he cut off their food program, taking his anger out on the poor in that region.
• Wendell decided to start a church in Washington DC. However, unable to find an available pastor, he took the pastors of a local church in Northern Virginia.

Not a very good track-record. However, since I haven't listened to many of Wendell Smith's sermons, I thought I would listen to the one he preached this Sunday. Just to get a better feel for his pastoral abilities.

To quickly summarize the sermon, Wendell preached that God answers prayers in his own time, and sometimes he answers them in a way that you might not have expected.  Hmmm… I'm pretty sure Garth Brooks preached the same thing in his song Unanswered Prayers. And I think it only took Garth 4 minutes to get his message across.

I'll give Wendell credit for actually using the Bible in his message, which is something a certain Bible Church in North Portland often forgets.  But as someone who grew up in the church, I've heard this message probably fifty times.

I still remember Sunday School when I was five years old, and I made Traffic Lights out of cardboard paper. The Red Light stood for God saying "No" to your Prayer. The Yellow Light meant "God Wants you to wait for an answer to prayer" and Green meant God saying "Yes."

There was nothing really wrong with Wendell's sermon. It was alright. But it wasn't particularly challenging or insightful.

I have a lot of friends who are 20-somethings like myself, who grew up in the church. And who attend church only sporadically. They all say the same thing, "I've heard that sermon twenty times." And it's true. There is a reason they call Mega-Churches doctrine-light. It's because they aren't really saying anything meaningful. They don't treat you as an intelligent thinking human being with real questions about Faith. They treat you like a five year old cutting out traffic lights.

Wendell, ended the sermon telling us that God would answer our prayer no matter how many mistakes we have made in our lives. And being an extremely flawed human being, I took his advice and said a quick prayer.

"Dear God, please show Wendell Smith your divine love and grace, and please show him that taking his anger out on the poor in Gray's Harbor is not honoring Christ. In your name, Amen."

For anyone who thinks I was joking about Catalyst and his beer, I spotted this on Yahoo . While there is NO concrete evidence it was our Catalyst in the story below, whoever did it, left his calling card: 

___ 

PLAISTOW, N.H. - A homeowner said Friday that whoever stole the baby Jesus from his manger scene was disrespectful by replacing it with an empty beer can. Bob Chooljain said that the Jesus figure was stolen from the manger scene on Wednesday night.

Chooljain said that he made the nativity scene more than three decades ago with his children.

"It's something we kind of did together," he said.

"You just wonder, what was in the person's mind that actually did that? What was the reason for it? Why leave the beer can? What's the connection?" said Chooljain, doesn't want to press charges.

Wooden cutouts of sheep and cows remain; only two of the three wise men stand on either side of the manger. Chooljain said the third was stolen eight years ago.

Chooljain said he will replace the illuminated figure with another doll for the time being.

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So sad. Sam 

"The first service that one owes to others in community consists in listening to them. Just as love for God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives His Word but also lends us His ear … Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and, in the end, there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words," - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together.

(Thanks Andrew)

Couv Operator sends in a great blog post. Or as Chris put it Best. Blog. Ever.

Below is my favorite. But check out the whole blog; all the posts are great.

There is a sickness in the American Church and that sickness is SELF. I was recently reading the story of The Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46) and it suddenly struck me… this is what God would have us do.

Help Others.

I mean, REALLY help others. Not just around the holidays, not just by giving some money, or donating old items to Good Will, but daily, through relationships.

It's a difficult teaching to receive, but one that is all too important. It hurts when you realize that you are a GOAT and hurts worse when you realize that you go to a GOAT church and live in a GOAT country.

Here is what I think the Christian Church looks like to the outside world:

A dark, empty, house.

We think the prettier our house is the more we will be able to help people. So we raise all kinds of money to make things look nice. Then we go and unlock the door and consider that "evangelism". Of course, whenever we see someone walking down the street towards us, we quickly shut out the lights and go hide in the basement.

Sure, we all want to help people, right? All they have to do is come into our home, turn on our lights, walk down to our basement, and find us. Should anyone be willing to do those things then by all means, we are going to help them. Praise God.

And the church wants to think the world hates Christians, but quite frankly, I don't really think they do. I think they find us to be complete hypocrites, who aren't worth hating. I'll bet the world barely knows we exist. In fact the only time they seem to notice us is around elections…AND THEY THINK WE ARE ALL REPUBLICANS.

We waste so much time at the church helping people in the church, preparing them to face the world?  Cell Groups, Bible Studies, Interest Groups, Leadership Training, Membership Classes… Blah, blah, blah, it's all a waste of time.

IF WE AREN'T OUT HELPING THOSE IN NEED IT IS ALL A HUGE WASTE OF TIME.

We need to spend more (a lot more) time working on living out Matthew 25. I would love to see a church known for feeding the hungry, clothing and sheltering the homeless, caring for the sick, reaching out to those in prison, but where do most churches end up spending their time? IN CHURCH.

Jesus said "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance". He came to save the lost, not to set up a study group for every Tuesday night. "Sinners" aren't likely to come find you hiding in the basement, you need to go find them and guess what??? Some of them might be living with AIDS or worse yet some might actually be living a homosexual lifestyle? OMG.

Remember when Jesus got in trouble with the religious leaders for going to dinner with the homosexual? You don't… oh, that's because back then homosexuals were called "tax collectors".

Can you imagine a world where Christians were calling out to each other saying "You need to stop spending so much time helping others and get back into church for some Bible teaching"? How would that world look? Pretty damn nice, I'd say.

Christ died to give us everything and we want to make it all about ourselves.

Shame on us. Shame on me.

A long time reader sent in a comment from a revival forum. (Evidently, I'm not the only person with no life, who spends all day in front of the computer.)

Here's the comment:

The strangest thing happened last Sunday. The head pastor at church had a sermon on how it was your Christian duty to make sure the church was provided for in your will. He even had a lawyer there that could help set up endowments. "You should give to God first in your life and first when you die– before you provide for your family." (The church wants to hire three more staff members and wants endowments set up to pay for them) It just floored us because never had we heard anyone go as far as saying that or bringing a lawyer for the purpose. It was so unusual.

Coincidentally, I recently read an article in the Washington Post discussing this current movement in giving. Churches are going after endowments.

 Churches have begun setting up foundations or have started turning to denominational officials to help them prepare for the moment when generous members name them in a will.

"It's almost like it's a new discovery, but it's simply about stewardship," said Barry Bledsoe, president of the Baptist Foundation of Alabama, whose foundation administers more than $200 million from about 2,000 church gifts and endowments.

Wouldn't Christ be thrilled. He comes to earth, preaches a message of sacrifice and love, and subsequent ly dies on the cross for our sins, only for us to take away the message of Stewardship. 

David Mackin leaves an interesting comment discussing Homophobia. The comment is specifically about Bible Temple, but it likely applies to other churches, as well.

Homophobia in Bible Temple:
Around 1984 while still on staff at PBC, I met a brother named James (name changed). James was a Christian brother who had struggled with homosexuality for many years. James told me that he went to Dick Iverson, the sr. pastor of Bible Temple, and asked him if the local church would sponsor a support group for Christian men who struggled with sexual attraction to other men. James told me that Dick Iverson said that there was no way that Bible Temple would sponsor such a group. According to James, Dick said that he would not want a bunch of men who were struggling with homosexuality to be in the same room with each other lest they start lusting after each other. This decision by Dick so hurt and disappointed James that he left Bible Temple, and, as far as I know, went back to his homosexuality.

A Support Group that Heals Homosexuals:
Just the other day, a Christian psychologist (whom I will call Dr. Tom) told me that he used to lead a Christian men’s group composed of both homosexually-struggling and heterosexual men. He explained that such a mixed group was highly unusual because the male attendees would normally feel threatened, but not in this group. Dr. Tom shared how he encouraged all of the men to hug one another whether they were struggling with their heterosexual identity or not. When I asked him why, Dr. Tom said that those who were struggling so much with homosexual tendencies needed to have other men give them sincere, affectionate but non-sexual hugs since they were only used to the touches of other men being of a sexual nature. Dr. Tom shared that this group saw many, many men turn away from homosexuality, get married and lead normal family lives.

How Bible Temple’s Controlling Spirit Hurt its own Struggling Church Members:
About the same time as meeting James (above), I was visiting with Phil Hobizal, former director of the Portland Fellowship, an Exodus International, Inc. ministry which counsels struggling homosexuals and lesbians. Phil told me that Bible Temple (now City Bible Church) had some church members who were struggling with homosexual issues, but that they would not refer them to the Portland Fellowship for counseling unless Bible Temple leadership had full access to each one of their church members’ counseling files! Phil had to tell them that he could not do that because it was unethical (and probably illegal). As a result, Bible Temple leaders would not refer their own sexually struggling members to a place that specialized in the healing of homosexuals.

Jesus Rebukes the Over-controlling, Uncaring Spirit of Religion:
In my view, we have a doubly sad and abusive state of affairs here: not only would Bible Temple not host a support group for its own church members who were struggling with homosexuality, they also refused to refer their members out to the Portland Fellowship because its director would not violate the privacy of his counselees by giving Bible Temple full access to their church members’ files! Such a situation reminds me of the words that Jesus says to the pastors of His day: “”Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering” (Luke 11:52, NIV). The spirit of “control-over” is a familiar part of the demonics behind human Relgion. Such leaders, when they see that they will not be in total control, would rather allow hurting people to continue in their wounded ways than to assist them in getting the genuine help they need. I don’t think such actions reflect those of Jesus. (I would be curious as to whether the church’s policy has changed under Frank’s administration…)