This week was awesome. We had Andrew Marin, founder of The Marin Foundation, speak to us on an incredibly important and thought-provoking subject: welcoming the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) community into the Church. This begins a new series at The Venue — over the next three weeks we are going to explore ways to welcome different communities into our churches.

Andrew began with his testimony, and how God brought him to a point where he felt called to reach out to a community that has been traditionally shunned or ignored by the Church. In addition to his testimony, Andrew laid out the historical groundwork for how the Church and society in general has evolved in its view of homosexuality. Andrew made several important points during his message, but three are main points I feel need to be addressed here:

Firstly, the Church does not seem to encourage a ‘come as you are’ environment for the GLBT community. All sin is equal (James 2), but some are more equal than others. Andrew stressed that we need to realize that when reaching out to those in the GLBT community, those who are not in that community can’t relate. We in the Church like to think of ourselves as being on a level playing field with others (we are all sinners, saved by Christ), but Andrew repeatedly stated that the playing field is not viewed as level with this sin in particular. He stressed this point, which is very pertinent to us as Christians as we reach out to those everywhere — especially within the GLBT community, we need to listen and work to understand where they are coming from before we try to tell them what we believe. As he said, “We have to earn the right to communicate the truth first.” Which leads to his second point:

Remember our works over our words. This reminds me of a pastor who related the story of a person in his congregation coming up to him and saying, “You preach so loudly with your works that I really don’t hear anything you’re saying.” We may be preaching the correct Gospel, but are we displaying the right Gospel? Within this point, Andrew, using the civil rights movement as a backdrop, mentioned that constructive tension is something we need to embrace within the Church, especially in this area. Jesus did not make everything run smoothly, but He did live the Truth and faithfully lived it to others. Things may get uncomfortable as we outreach to different communities that we are typically not a part of, but Jesus didn’t call us to be comfortable or typical…He called us to live out the Gospel.

Lastly, Andrew stressed the importance of creating practical bridges to the GLBT community. He mentioned that evangelism has become an answer to a felt need. This reminds me of the time that I was speaking with a witch, who worshiped Gaia within the belief system of Wicca. I asked her why she became a witch, and she said it was because Wicca answered a deep, felt need at a very dark time in her life. Truly, if you can answer a felt need, you immediately become a representative of whomever you live for. As followers of Jesus, how important to answer people’s felt needs, if just to represent Him faithfully to those around us.

He ended with a fantastic line: “The Kingdom of God comes through belief first, not behavior modification.” We need to be faithfully planting and watering. Only God can supply the increase which leads to eternal life.

-C. Migliore