Homosexuality in the Church

Many pastors and Christians hear the word homosexual and they immediately cringe. This issue is definitely a controversial issue in American culture, but it is also controversial in many of our churches. How should we deal with it, how should the church approach this topic?

Many of the people in my congregation work with or know in some context people who are gay. At the very least we all probably know people who are at least sympathetic to the cause. Ignoring the issue doesn't seem to be a reasonable course of action. Protesting does not seem to be an effective strategy either, so what should the church do?

This is a significant issue which needs to be addressed not because practicing homosexuality is some kind of unforgivable sin, but because it is not seen as sin for many Christians who attend evangelical, Bible believing churches on Sunday mornings. If you don't think anyone in your congregation believes this, then you are fooling yourself.

We must take this issue on directly. We are not a single issue church, we have other more important things we focus on most of the time. This is however an important issue. The problem for many of us is we think scripture speaks clearly. I agree, it does. Unfortunately educated people have begun to spin this issue and created misunderstanding in dealing with passages like Romans 1, Leviticus 18 & 20, and others. If you want to see what I mean, click here!

It is incumbent upon the church to create clarity for our congregates and to equip them to effectively minister to people for who this is a significant stumbling block. Ignoring this issue will not make it go away. This is a great opportunity to help people see how scripture can be manipulated and why we should all work to show ourselves approved and rightly handle God's word.

It is also incumbent upon the church to clearly express the message of the gospel, the ultimate expression of love towards all sinful people (that means everyone). For more information about responding to this issue click on the title of the blog.