The Rewards of Gospel-Shaped Giving
Mr. Thomas Gouge in a book he wrote in the 1850’s called such an idea - the surest and safest way of thriving. Before I list the rewards mentioned in Isaiah 58 a warning to keep us focused with gospel eyes.
Site Updates Today
I am continuing to roll out updates to the site throughout the rest of the week. I hope you can excuse the mess around here as some functions and links may not work correctly and some content will not display properly at times.
Two Questions You Need Answers to if You Are Going To Reach Young Generations
In class this week we were having a discussion about about tolerance. I told them that most young people determine the tolerance level of a church by how they answer the following two questions:
1. Do you consider other world religions to be valid paths to God/heaven?
2. What do you think about homosexuality?
These are the litmus test questions of emerging generations. The students pretty much validated that these questions are at the forefront of the minds of Spanish students as well.
Spain: The Gay’s Are Not Allowed
Today (Wednesday) we considered several situations which really got the students thinking hard about how they plan to setup their future ministry or how they plan to change their existing ministries.
Here are some of the questions we discussed/debated:
1. What would you do if you were interviewing a college student for a leadership position in your college ministry and he/she told you they were sexually active? Would still hire them?
2. What would you do if you hired the student and then 5 months later he/she told you that for the past month they had been having sex with their girlfriend/boyfriend?
3. Would you allow someone to be an elder if the following were true: (1) 45yr old, (2) left homosexuality 20yrs ago when he accepted Christ, (3) is only attracted to men, and (4) realizes that acting out his homosexual desires is a sin. Would you let this man be an elder?
These prompted lots of valuable discussion. But one scenario prompted the most discussion/debate. How would you respond if you were a pastor and received the following letter:
Hello. A friend of mine invited me to your church. I have to confess, church was the last place I ever wanted to go, but I have to be honest that your approach, the entire church’s approach has me hooked! Hooked on Christ! I really never thought I’d say that. I’m trying to do things to learn, to bring me closer to Christ and to be more open and less judgmental towards organized religion. But now I’m afraid. I want your church to be my church home, where I come for comfort, for guidance with my hopes and dreams, failures, everything. What initially got me to attend was the philosophy “Come as you are.” But you see, I’m a homosexual. I am in love with another man and we will spend the rest of our lives together. This may not seem like a big deal, but I have Christian family who oppose our relationship to the nth degree. So my question is: Are we welcome and supported within your church? I guess what I need is some assurance from you that I’m not going to hell because I’m in love with a man.
I took this letter from the book No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke. Homosexuality is something the students told me the church in Spain needs to have more discussions about because there is a lot they do not understand about it. In a culture that is becoming increasingly sexual I encouraged them to think carefully about how their church is going to create a culture of healing and acceptance while at the same time standing firm on their beliefs about the sinfulness of homosexuality.
As students began to answer how they would respond to this guy I got the impression that for a couple of them, they say their goal is to love the sinner and hate the sin, but in reality their actions leaned more towards hating the sin and the sinner.
In a lot of American churches it seems to me that we also hate the sin and the sinner even though we say we love the sinner and hate the sin. I think this is reflected in how we hold up “God hates fags!” signs. And how we spend more time fighting gay rights laws than we spend actually trying to build relationships with gays and befriending them. Maybe I am making an inappropriate generalization about the American church but it has been my experience that I have heard a lot of inappropriate comments about gay people among Christians. And some of these are coming from people who have never had gay friends or have never known anyone who was/is gay. It is my opinion that this attitude either subconsciously causes us to intentionally shy away from building relationships with gays, or we ignore them altogether.
Are you interested in knowing how I would answer the above letter? I’ll tell you but you have to tell me first how you would respond.
Spain – Can we be best friends with someone who is not a Christian?
A student disagreed with my story about my friend who was struggling with God sending “innocent” people to hell. The student said he did not think it was proper to be friends with someone who is not a Christian. Another student interjected and said, “My best friend is a Muslim.” This guy came from a Muslim background and his best friend is still Muslim. My question to you is, “Do you think it is acceptable to be friends with someone who is not a Christian? If so, is there a limit to how far the friendship can go?”
Spain: Communicating Theology With Love
Seminary was a transformative time for me. While many say their faith decreased during their seminary years, mine actually did the opposite.
I grew closer to God main in part to the godly men God placed in my life at the time my seminary career was starting who told me to never ever allow my studies to take away from my own personal study and devotions in God’s word. One even suggested that I turn my homework time into personal devotions. This had a profound effect on me and is one of the reasons I am where I am today.
Tuesday was the first class I taught at SEFOVAM, the name of the seminary where I am teaching in Madrid, Spain. The class was on how to reach emerging generations. Although there are major cultural differences between the US and Spain, one thing is for sure, a college student is a college student no matter where you place them.
I challenged them as they thought through their approaches to reaching emerging generations (18-24+) to consider five major struggles students face: trust, tolerance, brokeness, aloneness, and truth. Most of the content I am teaching on in this section comes from a book called No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke. The students in this class were very vocal about some of the topics I was presenting to them.
We opened up with a story about a girl who was sexually abused by her dad. I asked them how this experience would shape her view of God (both positively and negatively), her relationship with a future spouse, or even her relationship with other women. They immediately resonated with the story sharing some of their own experiences in dealing with people like this.
I told them that it is important that as we reach out to those in this generation, we have to realize that they have a hard time trusting people, and even God himself. I said that when talking with them about God it is important that we not sugar-coat the truth; that we give them the reality of who God is whether it is hard for them to accept or not.
The reason is because young people live in a world where everything is faked, performed, and unreal. They are searching for authenticity. Therefore it is critical to tell them the truth of who God is, the good and the bad (from their perspective at least).
I modified the situation with the girl who was sexually abused and I asked them to consider the situation where the girl is now a Christian and is no longer acting out promiscuously. I asked them to tell me what they would say to her.
One guy said that he would tell her, “The reason why all the bad stuff happened to you is because you were separated from God.” This allowed us to go a little deeper into the sovereignty of God. I then asked him, “Well what would you tell her, if she later meets a guy in your church who then rapes her?” Yes, this is seminary folks. We have to talk about reality no matter how difficult it is. At any rate I told them that we have to tell her up front that God loves her, cares deeply about her pain, but at the same time, he may not necessarily stop additional hurt and pain in her life.
Since God is sovereign and can do whatever he wants, when he wants, this sometimes means that he will allow some things that are pretty painful into our lives. This is where a lot of people have a hard time seeing God as being loving. I can understand that. But the truth is, regardless of whether we want to believe it or not, God is just as loving when he allows good as he is when he allows evil.
I challenged them to make sure they always communicate this basic fact even though their listeners may have a hard time with it. However, we should not just “communicate” it, we must communicate it in love.
I shared with them a personal story about a friend of mine who is not a Christian. He and I were having a conversation on day and he was stating his frustration about how God could allow “good” people to go to hell. I responded, “The reason Christians believe those people will go to hell is because Jesus said the only way to heaven is through him. And anyone who did not place their trust in him would ultimately go to hell. I know that is hard for you to accept and you may not agree with me on that but I hope it would not keep us from being friends. I know that I value my friendship with you and I hope you value your friendship with me.”
Even though we did not agree, he really appreciated the fact that I valued him as a person, that I talked to him as a human being and did not just preach “at” him.
I challenged the students to think carefully about what they say, communicate truth, but communicate it with love.
This class reminded me of my time in seminary when we would these kinds of difficult discussions about God. I always found them to be deeply challenging and ultimately life changing for me. I hope it is the same for these students as well.
We can only pray.
