United in Christ

            We have to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church and in the Southern Baptist Convention.  These are the largest Christian bodies in the United States, and both are scandalized by crimes of sexual assault committed by priests and pastors.  First and foremost, our prayers are for the victims who have been traumatized by men entrusted to lead them to God.  I say men because only men can be priests and in most SBC churches, only men can be pastors.  These victims, in the past silenced by institutional power structures (usually dominated by white men), have found their voice and it high time.  We Cooperative Baptists have to pray for our fellow Christians who have suffered. We also pray that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.   Perhaps through punishment and reparations the perpetrators can be saved from the evil lurking within them.

            We have to pray for our brothers and sisters in the United Methodist Church.  Adherents to traditional marriage in that world-wide religious body outvoted advocates of same-sex marriage and ordaining gay clergy 53-47% at their general conference special meeting in the final week of February.  That difference of 6% indicates a major denominational body facing a dangerous split that has the potential to hurt the wonderful work of Christ Methodists have carried out for decades.  We must pray for our Methodist friends, that God will continue working through them to bring the world to salvation.

            Finally, we must pray for ourselves.  Here at HillSong, we are in the midst of a conversation similar to the ones the Methodists had and are continuing to have.  God wants lost people in Carrboro and Chapel Hill saved, carried from the destruction of sin to new life in Christ.  Our mission is to bear witness to the salvation we have in Christ and to help people become his followers. 

Our enemy, the devil, thoroughly loves seeing us invest our emotional enemy in whether or not gay people can be married in our church or whether or not gay people can be ordained as elders in our church.  When is the last time you or I became deeply moved by emotion as we see our neighbors who are unchurched and who do not know the salvation Jesus gives?  Paul wished he could be cursed to Hell if it would mean the salvation of his fellow Jews who had rejected Jesus (Romans 9:3).  Jesus openly wept as he entered Jerusalem knowing the people had an opportunity to meet God in him and missed it (Luke 19:41).  How recently have you or I cared about the salvation of the lost people right in our town the way Paul and Jesus did? 

As a church, we have to decide a couple of things.  We have to decide, once and for all, will our church host same-sex weddings.  And we have to decide whether our church’s staff pastors can preside at same-sex weddings.  Whatever decision we make on these issues must be based on our reading of scripture.  Once the decisions are made, then we have to put our energy into sharing the message of Jesus’ salvation with the world around us.  That has to be what fills us with passion and emotion.  That has to be what drives us.

Clearly, within our membership, as among the Methodists, there are different readings of scripture as it relates to same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ-related matters.  We have to handle our differences with our goal in mind.  We want to lead people to Jesus.  And we have to be aware of the enemy’s strategy.  Satan wants us fighting about this issue instead doing the work of discipleship and evangelism.  Think about these things – God’s calling and Satan’s deceptions – when you feel your emotions arise over the side issue threatening to divide us.  A great opportunity stands before us.  As Jesus said, the fields are ready to be harvested (John 4:35), and like that woman at the well, the harvest is men and women who come to faith in Jesus. 

The American news media would have us believe this historical moment will be defined by sex scandals and a shift in sexual mores in our country.  That may be true from the perspective of world history.  Our greater concern, though, is salvation history.  If we can stay united and stay focused on God’s call, then this moment can be defined by how many people in Chapel Hill and Carrboro turn to Jesus.  Let’s join together in praying for that.  Let’s commit to uniting around the work God has for us and wants to do through us.