A Living Hermeneutic

My wife says I need a prayer filter. You see, I pray that God sends us messy people and He always seems to answer and often it is uncomfortable. Sometimes God sends us new people on Sunday mornings whose lives are messy and are looking for hope that the world cannot offer. Sometimes it is from within our church family… we finally are honest with our own mess and we allow the good news of Jesus to penetrate those closed off areas.

Messiness = Gospel Opportunities

In our earliest days as a church, we wrestled with the question, “What does the church look like when it is being faithful to the Gospel?” We wondered and continue to wonder two years into this life together with that question.

What does it look like when the people of God are continually transformed by the Gospel and truly live into it?

What happens when we are deeply affected by the live giving power of the Gospel? Do we hoard it? Do we share it?

How does it affect our free time? Our relationships? Our world view? Our relationships with our neighbors? Our use of our time? Our finances?

How does it affect how we love and care for those who are deeply wounded by the Fall (Genesis 3) and have not given their life to Jesus Christ?

Even our mission statement reiterates our longing to Missio Dei Church “to be a church with passionate faith in Jesus Christ that sacrificially loves, serves those in need, and draws people into an ever-deepening relationship with God.”

So, how do we practically do this? Who are those in need? Well, how about considering this for starters? This week, I took the opportunity to attend the Exodus International’s Freedom Conference which was held on Wheaton College’s campus. Exodus International is known for its gospel ministry to the gay and lesbian community.

Hmmm… gospel ministry to the gay and lesbian community. Where are you bringing us Paul? Trust me, I can read some of your minds! Some of your hearts have started to race, palms are sweating, and you want to run for the hills. I need you to hear from me, as your pastor, that I understand. Even today, as I was interviewed by Julie Roys from WMBI Radio, I publically admitted that in my heart I was homophobic and am continuing God to transform my heart and mind.

Where those fears come from, I don’t know, but I believe that God is calling us as a church to be faithful. God has given us (corporately and individually) the Gospel and it is a tremendous gift. Are we willing to live into the gospel in such away that we share it with those who are struggling with homosexuality?

Graham Cole, Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, lead a workshop at The Gospel Coalition called “Homosexuality and the Bible: Texts, Hermeneutics, and Pastoral Wisdom.” In the question and answer session, he said something that has stuck with me:

Gay and lesbian folk will, humanly speaking, will have a hard time seeing the good news of the Gospel unless they meet Christians who are actually a living hermeneutic of that Gospel by the way in which they model care, forgiveness, new creation and so on.

Am I, as a follower of Jesus Christ, a “living hermeneutic of that Gospel” by the way that I live? Are we as followers of Jesus Christ living hermeneutics? As we gather and scatter, are we sharing and modeling the power of the Gospel? I’m not so sure. Don’t get me wrong. I think that some of us are really living and breathing hermeneutics of the Gospel. We offer love, forgiveness, and share how Jesus has rescued us. We look beyond the outer shell of a person and see the pain beneath. We offer our hand of friendship and walk with people towards Jesus. Yet, there are others of us who like playing it safe. We prefer to keep our hands clean and our homes locked up tight to keep our families, time, finances, relationships, etc. safe and secure.

But here’s the reality, this isn’t just about ministering to those who struggle with homosexuality. It is much bigger than that! We can take that same quote from Graham Cole, remove the phrase “Gay and lesbian folk” and we can insert any phrase in its place and it will still be true and the need is just as great!

______________will, humanly speaking, will have a hard time seeing the good news of the Gospel unless they meet Christians who are actually a living hermeneutic of that Gospel by the way in which they model care, forgiveness, new creation and so on.

As I listen to stories here at the Freedom Conference, my prayer for Missio Dei Church is that we can confess with the Apostle Paul, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16). I pray that we will all (and that includes you) become a “living hermeneutic” that God will use to minister to all who are lost (heterosexual and homosexual, old and young, wealthy and poor, educated and uneducated, married and single etc.) so that God will be glorified and that the body of Christ may be more complete.

As David Livingstone once said, "If we wait till we run no risk, the gospel will never be introduced into the interior." Are you willing to take every God-given opportunity and make the most of it?

My wife says I need a prayer filter. You see, I pray that God sends us messy people and He always seems to answer and often it is uncomfortable. Sometimes God sends us new people on Sunday mornings whose lives are messy and are looking for hope that the world cannot offer. Sometimes it is from within our church family… we finally are honest with our own mess and we allow the good news of Jesus to penetrate those closed off areas.

Messiness = Gospel Opportunities

In our earliest days as a church, we wrestled with the question, “What does the church look like when it is being faithful to the Gospel?” We wondered and continue to wonder two years into this life together with that question.

What does it look like when the people of God are continually transformed by the Gospel and truly live into it?
What happens when we are deeply affected by the live giving power of the Gospel? Do we hoard it? Do we share it?
How does it affect our free time? Our relationships? Our world view? Our relationships with our neighbors? Our use of our time? Our finances?
How does it affect how we love and care for those who are deeply wounded by the Fall (Genesis 3) and have not given their life to Jesus Christ?

Even our mission statement reiterates our longing to Missio Dei Church “to be a church with passionate faith in Jesus Christ that sacrificially loves, serves those in need, and draws people into an ever-deepening relationship with God.”

So, how do we practically do this? Who are those in need? Well, how about considering this for starters? This week, I took the opportunity to attend the Exodus International’s Freedom Conference which was held on Wheaton College’s campus. Exodus International is known for its gospel ministry to the gay and lesbian community.

Hmmm… gospel ministry to the gay and lesbian community. Where are you bringing us Paul? Trust me, I can read some of your minds! Some of your hearts have started to race, palms are sweating, and you want to run for the hills. I need you to hear from me, as your pastor, that I understand. Even today, as I was interviewed by Julie Roys from WMBI Radio, I publically admitted that in my heart I was homophobic and am continuing God to transform my heart and mind.

Where those fears come from, I don’t know, but I believe that God is calling us as a church to be faithful. God has given us (corporately and individually) the Gospel and it is a tremendous gift. Are we willing to live into the gospel in such away that we share it with those who are struggling with homosexuality?

Graham Cole, Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, lead a workshop at The Gospel Coalition called “Homosexuality and the Bible: Texts, Hermeneutics, and Pastoral Wisdom.” In the question and answer session, he said something that has stuck with me:

Gay and lesbian folk will, humanly speaking, will have a hard time seeing the good news of the Gospel unless they meet Christians who are actually a living hermeneutic of that Gospel by the way in which they model care, forgiveness, new creation and so on.

Am I, as a follower of Jesus Christ, a “living hermeneutic of that Gospel” by the way that I live? Are we as followers of Jesus Christ living hermeneutics? As we gather and scatter, are we sharing and modeling the power of the Gospel? I’m not so sure. Don’t get me wrong. I think that some of us are really living and breathing hermeneutics of the Gospel. We offer love, forgiveness, and share how Jesus has rescued us. We look beyond the outer shell of a person and see the pain beneath. We offer our hand of friendship and walk with people towards Jesus. Yet, there are others of us who like playing it safe. We prefer to keep our hands clean and our homes locked up tight to keep our families, time, finances, relationships, etc. safe and secure.

But here’s the reality, this isn’t just about ministering to those who struggle with homosexuality. It is much bigger than that! We can take that same quote from Graham Cole, remove the phrase “Gay and lesbian folk” and we can insert any phrase in its place and it will still be true and the need is just as great!

______________will, humanly speaking, will have a hard time seeing the good news of the Gospel unless they meet Christians who are actually a living hermeneutic of that Gospel by the way in which they model care, forgiveness, new creation and so on.

As I listen to stories here at the Freedom Conference, my prayer for Missio Dei Church is that we can confess with the Apostle Paul, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16). I pray that we will all (and that includes you) become a “living hermeneutic” that God will use to minister to all who are lost (heterosexual and homosexual, old and young, wealthy and poor, educated and uneducated, married and single etc.) so that God will be glorified and that the body of Christ may be more complete.

As David Livingstone once said, "If we wait till we run no risk, the gospel will never be introduced into the interior." Are you willing to take every God-given opportunity and make the most of it?

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