Gay, Celibate and Christian
Dear Pastors
Sam Allberry is a self-professing same sex attracted man, an Anglican Minister, a Global speaker for Ravi Zacharias Ministries and he has chosen a celibate lifestyle. He is an insightful Bible teacher, apologist and one very nice guy who likes Thai Curries.
I count it a privilege to host, “Is God Anti-Gay? National Tour” with Sam as the key note speaker in May this year.
He will be doing three keynotes and a Q & A session at each of the five venues. Here they are:-
- Understanding our culture on issues of sexuality.
- What the Bible teaches and how to communicate this.
- How the local church can be a place of grace and truth.
Sam is the author of numerous books including the bestselling, Is God Anti-Gay? And more recently, ‘7 Myths about Singleness’. All going to plan his next book, ‘Why Does God Care Who I sleep With” will be out in time for his NZ tour.
Can I encourage you to pause about now, open your diary and jump onto our website to find a location near you and make a commitment to come today. The investment is very reasonable and the value you will receive is priceless. You will also see a 30 minute podcast where Sam is interviewed about his life and ministry. Can I also ask you a favour? Please send this email to your youth leadership team, to 2-3 of your mates and why not to all your elders. They can still head back to work after the seminar for half a day if they needed to.
Sam will also be preaching at Greenlane Christian Centre (Auckland) in the morning and Elim Christian Centre (Auckland) at night on Sunday 24th May.
Here’s another reason for you to consider to come.
Today we pastors are dealing with a myriad of issues that people present with. Many are complex and the Bible may not always speak directly into those situations. Yet as Christian leaders we have a Biblical responsibility to offer a person the truth that may in fact run counter to where they are currently living and at the very same time offer them a loving, grace-filled pastoral response……kinda like Jesus did and would do today if He were Pastor Jesus at The Rock Church in North Taranaki or somewhere. And all the while do that in a non-judgemental way because as we saw last week, judgementalism is a massive barrier to entry to the Christian faith for non-Christians.
From my personal experience. In 1998 we started on a journey at Hamilton Central Baptist Church where I was the Senior Pastor to become more ‘seeker friendly’ as a church. The first thing I quickly realised was that as a church we were very judgemental. I was. So I decided to do two things. Read through the Gospel of Luke and study closely how Jesus conducted himself when He faced ‘sin’. And secondly I reached for my friend Jerry Cook’s little book-‘Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness’ and read it again and again and again. Then I preached a series called, guess what?.......10 out of 10 for originality, ‘Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness’(LAF).
I quickly realised how we (HCBC) needed this series. Oh how we needed it! It was fascinating to me how hard many folks found it to truly ‘accept’ people just as they are even though they tried hard to adopt a LAF posture. In my view churches with long conservative (traditional) roots still need this message today especially the Builder and Boomer age groups. There I’ve said it. It’s really easy to say that God loves all people just as they are, but it’s one whole other thing to accept this gay person, or violent person or addicted person or adulterous person standing in front of you on a Sunday morning. Yet that is the goal, surely? And then like Jesus interact in such a way that you can say at that moment or very soon thereafter…..”Go away my friend and sin no more. You Are Forgiven in Jesus Name!”
Back to Sam. This short seminar will help us think about other situations we have in our congregations and think about a teaching series perhaps where we will help our people to be filled with Grace and Truth (John 1:14). It may even force us to revisit our values as a church. Who know’s the effect but I believe it will help us to dig a bit deeper around these issues then we might have had time for previously.
So please register today.
Alan
Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.
