Several years ago I spoke to 1,400 church-goers representing more than two dozen churches. Filling an auditorium to capacity and spilling into an overflow area equipped with closed circuit television, their motivation to hear me, a former homosexual, resulted from a series of pro-homosexual ads in their local newspaper.

They sang fervently, prayed passionately and then sat idly as I told what great things the Lord had done for me. And all the while I was painfully aware they wanted to hear what ghastly thing God had done to Sodom and Gomorrah – in part because the ads’ purchasers were present.

It was excruciatingly apparent they wanted a forceful denunciation of homosexuality. Indeed, when I stated God’s creative design – one man for one woman for life – the place erupted in faux applause.

Make no mistake, I believe the Bible calls homosexuality a sin and said so. But I did not believe I needed to repeat that belief for the duration of my message – though at least one pastor thought so. Standing before the goading crowd I was tempted to follow a well-trod preaching path, but I took the road less traveled and told them about a God who separates us from our sin as far as the east is from the west.

Over time I’ve discovered that when it comes to homosexuality, Christians show great passion in one of two areas. Either they are passionate about extinguishing the pro-gay movement or about expanding God’s movement by introducing them to His Son. The former objective has evidenced itself in a preaching approach that, as James S. Stewart said, “creates more heat than light.”

I contend that accomplishing the latter objective will have a direct and dramatic effect on the former objective, but not the other way around.

I prefer the term “person with same-sex attraction” because it does not imply – as does “homosexual” – that a person is sexually active or that they are part of a gay advocacy group. A person with same-sex attractions is a person first – before they are same-sex attracted. These distinctions are crucial.

Visible homosexuals – primarily celebrities – have led most evangelicals to mistakenly believe that everyone with such attractions is content; thus the Church’s sole duty is to counter the growing acceptance of homosexuality through public policy organizations which proliferate like kudzu. Unfortunately, concerted efforts to win homosexuals to Christ and make disciples of them are virtually non-existent.

What role, if any, does the preacher play in this conundrum?

Delivery Temptations

Preachers have their own set of temptations – a fact which can be illustrated from the life of John Bunyan. Having preached a commanding message, Bunyan was greeted by a layman who exclaimed “That was the most powerful sermon I have ever heard!” Bunyan replied with brut honesty, “Man, you need not tell me that. The devil whispered it to me before I was well out of the pulpit.”