Posted on 03/15/2015 6:03:02 PM PDT by massmike
The Elder Board of San Francisco's largest evangelical church, City Church, has announced that the megachurch will end its practice of preventing LGBT people from becoming members if they are unwilling or unable to practice lifelong celibacy.
"Our pastoral practice of demanding life-long 'celibacy,' by which we meant that for the rest of your life you would not engage your sexual orientation in any way, was causing obvious harm and has not led to human flourishing," Sr. Pastor Fred Harrell writes in a letter "on behalf of the Board and for the Gospel."
The pastor cites social science research, saying it points to "skyrocketing rates of depression, suicide and addiction" among the LGBT people. "The generally unintended consequence has been to leave many people feeling deeply damaged, distorted, unlovable, unacceptable, and perverted," he says.
"We believe the thrust and focus of the gospel is the breaking down of former boundaries of exclusion and the expanding of the welcome of Jesus to all," he goes on to say.
"If Jesus were the pastor of City Church, what would he say to the people who are asking if they can belong?" the pastor asks. "As we consider the life of Christ, his example of love, his call to embrace the outsider and cast down, and his patience with those earnestly seeking him, what is a Christ-like response?"
Ending the requirement for celibacy for gays "aligns with our existing core vision: the doors of this church are as wide as the arms of the Savior it proclaims," he adds.
"We will no longer discriminate based on sexual orientation and demand lifelong celibacy as a precondition for joining. For all members, regardless of sexual orientation, we will continue to expect chastity in singleness until marriage," Harrell concludes.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
And this is obviously caused by celibacy?
One more small-c church en route to perdition.
Watch for a mass exodus.
They’re done.
Obviously they think that scripture says to embrace and revel in sin, “go forth and sin some more” as it were.
verb: flourish; 3rd person present: flourishes; past tense: flourished; past participle: flourished; gerund or present participle: flourishing
1.(of a person, animal, or other living organism) grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly favorable environment.
Queers cannot "flourish".
Follow the money, most queer households consist of two professional incomes while lacking children, that’s a whole lot of tithing there cowboy! You don’t think creflo dollar is the only one who wants a new jet do you?
“.....it points to “skyrocketing rates of depression, suicide and addiction” among the LGBT people. “The generally unintended consequence has been to leave many people feeling deeply damaged, distorted, unlovable, unacceptable, and perverted,” he says.”
It being acting out the homosexual urge..I....suspect!!
Translation: Another "church" climbs aboard the gay "marriage" train!
Well the bible does call the practice an "abomination".
ping
Hmmmm.... so they are left feeling perverted, eh? Well guess what... did anyone ever thing that it might be because they ARE perverted? Pastor, you need to remember..... The first step of salvation is to identify what is sin, that you have sinned, you are a sinner and in need of a personal saviour. If you teach them that it isn’t really sin, that they aren’t really a sinner.... then it follows that they don’t need a saviour. And then that means that they will be permanently lost.
Yes, it's called mental illness, AKA liberalism AKA Godlessness.
“We exist to be a church for the city and for its renewal...City Church is a place for all people, regardless of where you might find yourself on your faith journey. If you are spiritually skeptical, curious about Christianity, or a committed follower of Jesus Christ, we make room for you wherever you are in your process. We aim to be a place that respects what it’s like not to believe so that no one has to feel alone and so that anyone who walks through our doors might encounter the work of the living God.
City Church has never been a church only for ourselves, just as San Francisco is not a place for us to simply enjoy or consume. The city is our home and we seek its peace and flourishing. Serving the city involves not only a change in our hearts, it requires a redirection of our hands and feet as we turn from being inward-focused to outward-looking. We see our service as sharing the renewal we are experiencing in Christ with our neighbors.”
http://www.citychurchsf.org/About/Our-Story
Doesn’t sound like an EVANGELICAL church to me. Sounds more like one that want to be part of the world, not:
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”
They have exchanged the “Good News” - which starts with repent - for the “Comfortable News” which leads to hell.
They previously had left their denomination so they could throw out the Bible and elect women elders. Just another step down the road that they started a while back.
I say let them attend, but then don’t neglect to remind them that sin is the road to hell. What good is a church if it paves the way?
The Pastor is not doing his “flock: any favors...and is in fact actually blocking their road to escape from their predicament.
He is clearly NOT the man for the job!
Oh, I don't know, a few things come to mind...
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?" (Matt. 19:4-5)
A little farther along:
For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” (Matt. 19:12)
Perhaps he'd say:
"[S]eek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness . . . (Matt. 6:33)
Or, maybe he'd say:
"[F]rom now on sin no more." (John 8:11)
In fact, this one also seems especially apropos:
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants[c] to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. (Rev. 2:20-23)
In fact, I rather doubt Jesus would have very nice things to say to anyone who practised flagrant sexual sin in his name.
“For all members, regardless of sexual orientation, we will continue to expect chastity in singleness until marriage,” Harrell concludes.
LOL! Apparently, he knows nothing about sodomites.
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