How Should the Church Love a Gay Couple (or anyone in sexual sin)?
Several weeks ago Pastor Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga. preached part of a sermon series entitled "Christian." To put it mildly, it generated quite a bit of controversy within the evangelical community. My colleague at The Christian Post, Stoyan Zaimov, described the chain of events in a recent article on the CP website (Pastor Andy Stanley Responds to Questions Over Homosexuality Stance). The sermon in question was delivered on April 15, titled "When Gracie Met Truthy." While preaching on the tension between grace and truth ("the truth is 'you're a sinner,' and the grace is 'I don't condemn you'"), Stanley told the story of a divorced couple who formerly attended North Point together. They separated after the woman's husband began a same-sex relationship with another man, who was still married to a woman. The man and his partner wanted to serve as volunteers at the church, but Stanley explained that the two men were committing adultery since one of them did not finalize his divorce yet and thus could not serve as volunteers. The "messy" story, as Stanley described it, ends with the gay couple, the first man's ex-wife and their child, as well as [...]