Spencer Burke interviews Andrew Marin about what he’s learned about ministry, and about Jesus, in the center of Chicago’s gay community. This is terrific stuff from TheOOZE.TV.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Andrew has written a book called Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community
I think this may be one of the biggest missional challenges of our day. How we approach it affects not only our interaction with the LGBT community, but also our credibility with postmodern straights.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. (But like we were taught in kindergarten, remember to play nice.) Spencer does a great job of elevating the issues beyond “progressive” and “conservative.” Can we?
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That was great!! Are you going to post part 2?
never mind!!! It is right in front of me!
David,
Heh, I can see how that caught you, since the “Continue reading” link on my home page is rather subtle. I just moved the “Part 2″ heading to make it clearer — thanks!
To keep my home page from being too long, many of my posts are split into two parts: the beginning (shown on the home page) and a continuation (shown if you click to continue reading). If you subscribe to blog one another, you will see each post in its entirety in your news reader or delivered by email. If that interests you, here is more information on subscribing.
Jon,
I finally got around to listening to these… thanks for posting. I appreciate his perspective, and it’s helpful as I’ve taken up helping with a food pantry sponsored by a secular gay organization. It’s certainly been a cross-cultural education for me!
Maria,
You must be having interesting experiences, and learning to encounter Jesus in unlikely people (which is just like Jesus, isn’t it). I hope you get a chance to blog something about it.
This is twice in one weekend for me; the other being an announcement I received that New Direction ministry in Canada has just released a DVD curriculum called “Bridging the Gap” and then I think the subtitle is similar to your post. As you said, the need for this is huge. I may borrow your line, “I think this may be one of the biggest missional challenges of our day;” in future.
You can find the Canadian DVD link on my blog’s link collection for 7/24.
Paul, I look forward to reading your thoughts on “Bridging the Gap”. And borrow away!
I love the quote “Love the sinner and hate the sin that yet remains in our own hearts…”
Too often we come across as “if you’d just be more moral, God would accept you”, and that is toward everyone, let alone identifiable groups.
We can’t say that homosexuality isn’t a sin. But what we can confess is that we’re sinners, and we are no better than anyone else – and then live & love like its true (in God’s strength). Thank God He looks at us and sees His Son instead of our sin.
Dana, you bring up an interesting point about “identifiable groups.” Perhaps because of its Puritan roots, American culture has a fixation with sexuality, consequently elevating anything considered “sexual sin” above other sins. Thus any group so identified is treated as a disease, instead of as people.
By contrast, look at the “seven deadly sins” of Catholic teaching: pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth. Man, what a list!