I think the third thing is that we cannot shy away from apologetical preaching. I mean that in a technical sense. You always preach from a standpoint of giving a reason for the hope that lies within you. It's not unreasonable to believe in God. It's unreasonable to not believe in God. It's not unreasonable to be a person of faith. It's unreasonable to be a totally secular person. But you show why that is true.

Preaching: You're in an suburban area of Atlanta that can no longer be called the Bible-belt. These affluent suburbs are filled with secular professionals, corporate types, and I'm sure that you have an interesting mix of folks every Sunday. Are you adapting your style in order to communicate the gospel with these folks that may be different than what you did twenty years ago?

Merritt: Let me preface by saying I don't compromise truth in doing that and I don't compromise the preaching of the word of God but I think in everything . . . For example, years ago I would have never dreamed of seeing people come to church in a t-shirt, pair of shorts and tennis shoes. That would have floored me twenty years ago. Where I believe we need to come to today is you can either get up and harangue people for dressing a certain way when they come to church and you can get up and preach on short skirts if you will or what have you — and you can make a point and lose the very person that you're trying to reach. I still preach on sin — absolutely. Do I still call right, right and wrong, wrong? Absolutely. But the key to it all is to communicate what we say in love and in such a way that we're trying to build bridges and tear down barriers.

You can't remove the offence of the gospel. The gospel is an offensive message. You can't remove the exclusivity of the claims of Christ. Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes unto the Father but through me." You cannot remove the biblical condemnation of that which is wrong and the biblical affirmation of that which is right. Therefore you have to speak up against the sin of homosexuality and you have to speak in favor of heterosexual marriage. But at the same time you do it in such a way where: a. you make people realize this is not the unpardonable sin; b. we're going to love you whether you are homosexual or heterosexual; and c. we're going to love you enough to preach the truth to you.

I'll give you a practical, real-life illustration. I had two ladies come see me in this building. These ladies were former lesbians who started coming to Snellville — they give me permission, by the way, to share this testimony so I'm not talking out of school here. When they first visited Snellville it was very obvious who they were and what they were. I immediately got a hold of the right people in our staff and said, "Do not give the names of these people to anybody but me. I want these names." The average layperson is not equipped to deal with them; the average layperson either wouldn't know what to say or could easily say the wrong thing and they could misrepresent our church in some way. I didn't want any of those things to happen. I took it.