Well for those who are Presbyterians, or if you aren't, there is a new movement forming. It is called the New Church Revolution. This group is not asking for permission to be the church or be in the church, they are being the church and changing it.
They know that an overwhelming majority of those people under 35 believe that the church should be a welcoming place to ALL people, so basically the world is going to change. People can get on the bandwagon now or continue to fight the change.
Check it out: http://www.tamfs.org/ and look for the new revolution
So along this line, there was a big deal today in my church, a group of people voted 40-11 to removed G6.0106b. This is momentous. Ordination will not be limited potentially by whether or not you are in a church approved relationship, instead the other changes allow ordination to be about a person's willingness to commit to the church. While it is not perfect, it is a big deal. I love this quote from Tom Long, a professor down the street at Emory...
"The issue before the church is not whether persons of this or that sexual orientation can be ordained to ministry. They are already ordained to ministry by virtue of baptism...The real question is one of stewardship of gifts...What we are truly summoned to decide is not who among the baptized receives these spiritual gifts or who is entitled exercise them. The Holy Spirit decides that. We are summoned, rather, to receive these gifts with joy and gratitude and to be the kind of church that orders its life in such a way that these gifts are honored, exercised and nourished to the glory of God and the blessing of the world."
I want all people to have the opportunity to live in a church "that orders its life in such a way that all people's gifts are honored, exercised and nourished to the glory of God and the blessing of the world."
So let us all join the revolution and start being the church, with or without the rules.
Viva la revolution!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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2 comments:
Thanks for the quote Heather. I need all the help I can explaining this to my conservative congregation.
Thanks for the note. I am interested to see how the assembly's actions are taken by the congregations. Change is slow.
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