Director of Cross Ministry (www.CrossMinistry.org) in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
A young preacher, speaking to Spurgeon, lamented that few people responded when he preached. Asked Spurgeon, “Do you really expect people to make decisions for Christ every time you preach?” The preacher said “well, no – not every time.” Spurgeon replied, “And that’s precisely why they don’t.” But our dilemma may be more fundamental than that; it seems that not only do we not
expect homosexuals to come to Christ, we, like Jonah, don’t
want them to come to Christ.
As first time visitors in a Sunday School class where my testimony was not known, my wife and I listened to a discussion about a Christian couple, in another state, who declined to give a landscaping estimate to a gay couple. The teacher said he would have given the estimate because it would have provided an opportunity to minister to them. I was enthralled with his reply, but appalled at a class member’s retort, “unless God did not want those homosexuals ministered to” – a belief which could not be more foreign to Scripture (
2 Pet. 3:9,
1 Tim. 2:4).
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Imagine you’re preaching to several thousand homosexuals who eagerly want to hear you. They sincerely desire to know what biblical insight you may offer. Precisely what are you going to tell them?
Before you answer, examine your motivations and goals. What do you want to happen in the lives of these individuals? Remember, no one has ever been argued out of homosexuality or into God’s Kingdom.
Will you exhort them to “convert to heterosexuality?” Many preachers peddle heterosexuality like it’s “another gospel” (
Gal. 1:6). Conversion is to Christ who, in turn, transforms us into His image. Jesus did not say “Go and make heterosexuals,” but “Go and make disciples” (
Matt. 28:19). Similarly, why don’t we try to convert alcoholics to sobriety?
Heterosexuality and homosexuality are not equals (a belief maintained by most evangelicals) but neither are they two opposites, a truth apparently unknown to the “People of the Book.” Homosexuality, like all forms of sexual immorality, is a counterfeit to God’s creative design – not the opposite.
Will you propose they date persons of the opposite sex? To encourage a lesbian to “date more guys, you haven’t met the right one” misses the point entirely. Such advice is as effective as firing a machine gun at a tidal wave. What good does it do to tell an anorexic she needs to eat more food and more frequently?