By Mike Goeke

Recently, I was talking with my young son about his behavior with a babysitter. He had done some things clearly against “babysitter protocol,” and rather than own his error, he said: “Dad, I’m not perfect.”  

He was using his innate imperfection as some form of justification for his poor behavior. The next day, I met with a young man dealing with difficult issues in his life and making questionable decisions. His primary defense to his behavior was his belief that he was only acting in concert with how he had been born. He, too, was using his innate imperfection as a form of justification for his poor behavior. Another friend claimed that his “personality” somehow invalidated God’s commands to us to love each other, forgive each other and live in community with each other. His response to challenge was: “That is just not how God made me.” Somehow, we seem to think that God’s Word only applies to us when it is easy, or when it feels natural. In our self-absorbed culture, we rationalize our behavior by blaming our biology.  

As a Christian, I believe that through original sin, we all enter the world with a sin nature and a propensity to do things that God calls sin. Sinning comes naturally. Few are taught to lie or to manipulate or to be selfish. Most people, and not just Christians, see “natural” parts of themselves that have the potential to be destructive in society or in relationships and they act to curb those tendencies. We see few people claiming the identity of “liar” even though many people are tempted on a daily basis to lie about something. We see few people claiming the identity of “adulterer” even though many people deal with lust, at some level, on a daily basis. We see few people claiming the identity of “gossiper” even though many people are tempted to gossip on a daily basis. Certainly no one would seek to justify stealing or murder based on some innate desire to steal or to murder.

Those of us who are Christians see biblical guidelines as being about more than just the betterment of society or personal relationships. As Christ followers, we see God’s Word as written for us and for a purpose that goes beyond the surface of our lives. But many times God’s Word calls us to something that seems unnatural. I know that I have struggled with many things for most of my life. I don’t know which of those things were part of me at my birth, and which were acquired by me as a result of the sinful world in which I grew up. But, in reality, I’m not sure it matters.

Years ago I left my wife to pursue homosexuality. I made this decision for several reasons, but one major reason was that I had come to believe that I had always been gay and I would always be gay. The feelings seemed to go way back, and nothing in my childhood seemed identifiable as the “cause” of the intense feelings with which I had struggled for so long. Without an intervening cause, I decided that I must have been born gay and, thus, I had a loophole in God’s instruction for behavior and sexuality (sexual identity and sexual expression).  

Even though I eventually returned home to my wife repentant and committed to allowing God to work in my life and sexuality, I continued to struggle with fears that some day there might actually be proof of a gay gene (a fear which has, as of today, not been realized). As I sought God’s Word, though, I realized that even if my same-sex attraction was somehow genetic, God’s Word still applied to me. And God’s Word did not give an “out” for genetic predispositions. I wasn’t told not to steal unless I just couldn’t help myself, or not to lie unless it felt really natural, or not to lust unless I had always felt the urge to lust. I was told simply to follow Christ no matter how I felt and no matter the depth of my struggles.

I also discovered that the call to follow Christ carried with it amazing promises. As a Christian, I was told that I was a new creation. I was promised abundant life. I was promised peace and joy and fulfillment. I was told that I would gain much more than I gave up. I saw in Paul that his lifelong struggles were allowed by God so that Paul would experience the sufficiency of God’s grace and the strength that comes in weakness.

I saw in the man born blind (John 9) that the man’s blindness was allowed so that God’s power might be displayed in him. I realized that to legitimize sinful feelings and behavior was to deny the reason Christ came in the first place. He came not to give me comfort in how I was, but to transform me and make me new. I may have been born one way, but he came to give me new life and new purpose and a new identity. Today, I am reborn completely new. My struggles may remain, but I am no longer a slave to them and am no longer controlled by them. More than anything, I am no longer defined by them.

I was born with lots of things, good and bad. And I was raised in a world full of other sinners and broken people. While sin came naturally to me, so did creativity and humor and friendship and many other things. Christ redeemed all of me, the good and the bad. He did not take away my positive traits or my negative traits, but he made them new. Today, I can see that my whole life is for one purpose—to bring him glory. No matter how I was born, I was reborn for so much more. To settle with what we were is to miss out on the magnitude of what God empowers us to become. Claim your new identity, and prepare to receive much more than you give up.

Mike Goeke is an associate pastor  at Stonegate Fellowship Church in Midland. He leads Cross Power Ministries, a work of Stonegate that ministers to people struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction. Learn more at stonegatefellowship.com/www2011/cpm.html. He can be reached at mikegoeke@stonegatefellowship.com.

ACADEMY—At First Baptist Church of Academy, it might be easy to believe that a small church in a small town in rural Texas can’t be involved in missions or have an impact on the world. But Pastor Brent Boatwright and his congregation of 120 isn’t letting its size or location interfere with the mission of spreading the gospel at home and abroad.
Growing up in a traditional Southern Baptist church, Boatwright recalled the lack of personal involvement in missions in his local church.  

“We had missionaries come in every year.  In all my 19 years growing up there, I never saw anyone leave, go do missions and then come back. It always seemed like you had to go to Africa and stay.”

As a result, Boatwright developed the belief that short-term missions could and should be done by every church—big or small.

“I always read articles about big churches doing missions,” Boatwright said. “Even though you don’t have a million dollar budget, you can still do missions. We can’t depend on missionaries to do it all.”

To help fill the gap, FBC Academy is doing ongoing mission projects with an unreached people group in Mali, West Africa, as well as ministering to Navajo Indians in New Mexico.

“Since 2004, we’ve sent at least one team each year to Mali, West Africa,” Boatwright said. In Mali, the church works with an IMB missionary from FBC Academy to evangelize the Samogho, an unreached people group.  

The Samogho people have no written language, so Boatwright and his team use storytelling to share the gospel. They’ve seen a few come to Christ and recently were able to extend their ministry into a neighboring Samogho village.

“He (the chief) is a new believer and he wants to see his village come to know Christ,” Boatwright said. The FBC Academy group was the first group of believers to ever spend a few days and nights in the village.

The work in Mali is challenging, Boatwright noted. The people practice animism and also have a Muslim influence. “It is hard for them to give up their sacrifices.” In addition, the villages are located in the bush and transporting teams there limits the mission teams to a maximum of six members.  

However, they continue to go. “We’ve got several who’ve been multiple times,” Boatwright said. “I’ve tried to encourage people to go multiple times to build relationships.”
Boatwright is excited about developing relationships with the Samogho men. The missionary is a woman so outreach to the men of the village is more challenging for her. “January is a good time to relate to the men,” Boatwright explained.  

In January, the villages are recovering from the rainy season and men are rebuilding their mud brick homes. Taking a group of men to the village in January opened doors to relate to the men as they worked together making bricks and rebuilding homes.

“Reaching the men is doable for our missionary, but it’s important for us as a team to go to encourage the men,” Boatwright said.  

In addition to its work in Mali, FBC Academy is also involved with ministry to the Navajo people in New Mexico. Working with North American Mission Board missionary Jim Turnbo, they have taken two mission trips to Nahodishgish Baptist Church, a new church start in the poorest community on the Navajo Reservation.  

In 2010, Boatwright took a group of 10 men and boys to work with Turnbo and his church. They built wood sheds and a wheelchair ramp and while they were there, the Lord gave them the desire to do more. “God burdened our hearts further to look toward other needs.”

That burden turned into a recent trip to the reservation to hold a diabetes foot care clinic and do roof repairs in the community.

“God did some awesome things.”

Boatwright said the church saw God’s provision in amazing ways as they prepared to work with the Navajo. Nurses from FBC Academy contacted pharmaceutical companies and these businesses donated medical supplies. When a local building supply company learned why the church wanted to buy tar paper for roofing, the company donated a pallet of roll roofing and a pallet of tar paper, enough to supply FBC Academy’s project and the next group coming to help at the reservation. “God really opened doors up.”

In addition to local businesses helping the church prepare for their Navajo ministry, the people of the church also stepped up. Boatwright divided the items needed by Sunday school class and each class collected their assigned items. For example, the third- and fourth-graders collected cotton balls and other classes collected bleach, alcohol, swabs, and other needed materials. “Every Sunday school class gave something,” Boatwright said.

Making missions a church-wide project has impacted FBC Academy in multiple ways.

From gathering missions supplies to sponsoring missions nights at the church in which scenes from the mission trips are recreated to help church members better understand life on the mission field, everyone has a stake in missions trips.

“I think to some extent it shows people that missions are doable,” said Boatwright, who added that these events help people who are contemplating a trip to Mali or New Mexico by showing them what it might be like.

In addition to raising awareness of the needs around the world, FBC Academy’s mission involvement has led to new ministries in the church as well.

“For sure, more people see the reality that they can do ministry,” Boatwright said. “We’ve seen new ministry opportunities come out of our mission trips. One lady came back from a mission trip and said, ‘I believe God is burdening my heart to do a jail ministry.’”

While she didn’t see herself as a teacher, within a few months she began working in a jail ministry. Now every Tuesday, six women from FBC Academy work at the Bell County jail, ministering to female inmates.

Another woman in the church discovered a new point of view on ministry after going on a mission trip. She came to Boatwright with a question, asking, “Why don’t we just adopt the youth of the community like we do the Samogho. Why not look at the youth as a mission field?

“People have discovered that God can use them in ministry,” Boatwright stated.  “God wants them hands-on in ministry. It doesn’t have to be Africa. It can be New Mexico or in the local community.”

As FBC Academy continues to reach out in Africa, in New Mexico and in their community, Boatwright challenges churches, especially small ones, to get involved in missions. “Time and time again, God has provided,” he said. “It’s a lie from the enemy to say a small church can’t go.”

Ben’s struggle with same-sex attraction and sexual addiction began in his early teens. His dad served in the ministry and his family was passionate about their faith, but it never connected with Ben.

He felt isolated by his struggle and disconnected with his father, who as a minister was “everyone’s dad.”

His turning point occurred in high school when a youth leader invested in Ben, who admitted his struggles.

“I told him, ‘I think I’m gay, and I don’t think I really want to be.’” It was that youth leader’s honesty and unconditional love that drew Ben to Jesus to help him deal with his struggles.

“My addictions were keeping me from accepting the love of others and the love of God. I realized that everything I wanted, I already have. I could worry less about how much everyone else loved me because the Lord of the universe wants me. He sacrificed for me and he’s the culmination of everything I need.”

…

Hope spent most of her adult life as a gay-rights activist. “I was a tough, hard-nosed, in-your-face, out-loud, proud, card-carrying lesbian. I thought I was strong and I thought I was independent.”

A car accident five years ago left her with a debilitating head injury and serious life questions. Physically and sexually abused by parents who told her she was supposed to be a boy, Hope’s confused and tumultuous childhood led her down a path searching for peace and acceptance wherever she could. But no matter where she looked, peace evaded her.

After a number of churches rejected her for her lifestyle, she tried Buddhism, shamanism and Judaism, but never found what she needed. After her accident, she lost everything—her job, life partner, even her identity since her injuries kept her from the activism that had defined her life. That was when a friend shared the hope of 1 Corinthians 6:11 with her. She prayed and accepted Christ.

“God began to speak truth into my heart and said, ‘I created you. Your mother and father may have rejected you, but I love you. I accept you.’”

Christian believers from the Dallas-Fort Worth area gathered at a banquet for Living Hope Ministries on a recent Saturday night to share their testimonies of God’s delivery from homosexuality. Oftentimes, it was the enduring faithfulness of a Christian friend or minister whom God used to begin the restoration process.

Three-fourths of Southern Baptist pastors have no specific training to minister to people such as Ben and Hope, and only 8 percent of other staff and laity is equipped to respond to this need. So when the Southern Baptist Convention developed a Task Force on Ministry to Homosexuals, messengers endorsed a response to what Jimmy Draper called the number one culture issue of the day.

In 2007 the SBC opened an office to provide resources and training for local churches to minister to those seeking help from same-sex attraction, but the number of requests from churches for assistance has been startlingly low.

LifeWay Christian Resources, the SBC Executive Committee, the North American Mission Board and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission provided the synergy to accomplish the task and called upon long-time Texas pastor Bob Stith of Southlake to serve as national strategist for gender issues.

ERLC administered a one-time grant from LifeWay intended to last three years, but with careful budgeting, Stith has managed to extend the effort to five years. With funding set to expire next June, Stith would like nothing more than to be run ragged with calls to equip church members, local congregations and Baptist associations with the tools to minister to homosexuals.

“Seventeen years ago I became burdened for this issue and began telling people that I believed this would be the watershed issue for the church in our generation,” he said, recalling how often his heart has broken as he listened to men and women as well as family members wounded by careless remarks and unwise counsel or simply ignored after sharing their pain.

Before accepting his new assignment, Stith pastored Carroll Baptist Church in Southlake for 37 years. He initially envisioned the gender issues office would coordinate Southern Baptist resources, ministries, guidance and training on such issues.

“What evolved is primarily a resource when a pastor or parent discovers a child who struggles. Occasionally a church or association will host training events, but those are rare,” Stith acknowledged.

Help for parents and training for churches are the most obvious needs he seeks to meet, but Christians also need to understand how to counter “gay apologetics” and provide “safe churches” for those struggling with homosexual inclination or behavior.

“Parents need understanding in raising gender-healthy children. They also need help in knowing what to do when a child exhibits gender non-conformity,” Stith told the TEXAN. “Many problems could be headed off if parents just had this training.” While it’s not his area of expertise, Stith can direct inquirers to qualified people.

“Training our people in the Scripture is imperative, but in today’s culture we had better have an understanding of how the activists are teaching their people those scriptures,” Stith warned.

One of the things Stith’s office tries to help parents understand is that if a child comes home, especially from college, and announces he is gay, parents must take notice how he responds. “I can almost guarantee that by that point gay friends have conditioned him or her on what to expect and how to respond.”

Church leaders also need to be trained to minister effectively to those who do struggle, he added. “I still talk to men and women almost weekly who have been hindered in their walk out of homosexuality by wrong counsel—even though well-intentioned.”

Oftentimes, he finds the “counseling” amounted only to quoting relevant scriptures on homosexuality, without offering biblical guidance on how to get out of a homosexual lifestyle. “They ask themselves, ‘Is this church, this pastor going to stigmatize me if I share my struggle?’”

Issuing a call to examine the concept of “safe churches,” Stith asked, “How do we stand firmly on the biblical standards while presenting an atmosphere where strugglers feel safe in sharing their struggles?” Instead, he often hears from strugglers who heard the pastor, Sunday school members or others tell “gay jokes” or make derogatory remarks about homosexuals. “I’ve heard parents tell of how this wounded them when they heard these things.”

Churches also need to equip Christians to not only know what the Bible says, but learn the various cultural claims regarding homosexuality.

“We don’t realize the incredible rise in gay apologetics,” Stith said, adding that some of the arguments appear very convincing to an untrained ear.

“The subtlety is that they don’t always just deny what the Bible says, they argue that we’ve misunderstood what it really means.” That approach becomes a powerful argument to a parent desperately wanting to believe his son or daughter is OK.

Discussion along this line should consider the allegation that science has proven that homosexuality is genetic. “It’s not enough to simply say, “I don’t believe that. What does science actually show? Is there a genetic component that could lead to predisposition? What do the biological findings have to do with biblical truth?”

Stith recommends the type of one-day training seminar offered by Living Hope Ministries which is available to churches at a minimal cost. Through the ERLC Gender Issues office, Stith can accept invitations to speak at churches and associations at no cost to the host, addressing homosexuality as it relates to the Bible, culture and the church, while equipping participants in a redemptive approach.

The task force brochure “Dare to Care” features stories of people who found the help they needed when the church did what the church was meant to do, he added. “They practiced loving discipleship.”

Some of the same people who heard Stith’s prediction that homosexuality would become the cultural watershed issue said they didn’t understand his concern at the time. “Now they fully understand,” he said. “We can’t read a newspaper, listen to what are kids are hearing, watch television or movies without seeing the impact.”

Citing surveys that indicate 3 percent of the population struggles with same-sex attraction, Stith recognized that would only amount to about 9 million people. “But if you factor in mothers, fathers, siblings, close relatives, family friends, you’re suddenly looking at a minimum of almost half of the population who are directly impacted by this struggle,” he concluded.

“We absolutely have to have some positive, redemptive answers for these people.”

Churches are often reluctant to deal with the issue, Stith said, describing it as uncomfortable and controversial. “We can easily allow ourselves to think that in covering the fact that the Bible says it is sin, we have covered the issue.”

“The task before our convention—reclaiming a biblical view of sexuality—is overwhelming, and it will require awareness and commitment from individual Southern Baptists as well as our churches and institutions if we’re to begin to turn the tide on this struggle.”

Stith believes Christians must be driven by a passion for men and women to be made whole in Christ and not simply a passion to defeat the homosexual agenda. “It is time for the prophets to speak—not the prophets of fire but brokenhearted prophets who can identify with the brokenness of their people.”

Michelle Covington contributed to this report and portions of Stith’s comments were drawn from Baptist Press. To contact Stith, email him at bstith@sbcthewayout.com or call 817-424-9121. He will also be available at the upcoming annual meeting of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention at the Irving Convention Center, Nov. 14-15.

FORT WORTH—The essential message of the church in the debate over homosexuality and gender identity must echo the apostle Paul’s: Homosexuality can be overcome through Christ’s redemptive power, stated Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary ethics professor Evan Lenow in a recent conference at the Fort Worth campus.

Homosexuality in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is among the vices practiced by people who will not inherit God’s kingdom, Lenow noted. But Paul’s hopeful remedy is, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

“May we work toward seeing those trapped in this lifestyle come to Christ and be restored to God’s design for gender and sexuality,” he said.

During the conference on scriptural gender roles, Lenow explained how homosexual orientation and homosexual behavior run counter to the complementary nature of sex, subvert the complementary nature of marriage and undermine the complementary nature of the Christ-church relationship.

Complementarians believe that men and women are ontologically equal,” he noted, “yet functionally distinct—with men primarily characterized by servant leadership and women primarily characterized by gracious submission.”

Lenow quoted Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary ethics professor Daniel Heimbach to describe the complementary nature of sex.

“’Sex unites beings made for each other. Men and women are human and neither is more or less human than the other. But our equal humanity does not mean we are perfectly identical. As sexual creatures, men and women are different in ways that complement each other, and the value of complementary relationship in sex is so positive that any denial or attempt to erase it is immoral.’”

In contrast, Lenow said, “Homosexuality rejects the complementary nature of sex through the union of two identical partners,” violating the biblical purposes of sex for procreation, one-flesh unity and sexual purity.

Citing the Creator’s intention for his created beings to reproduce, as found in Genesis 1:28, Lenow added, “God takes the complementary nature of the sexual act so seriously that he calls any deviation from his designed plan an abomination,” forbidding incest, adultery, bestiality and homosexuality in Leviticus 18.

“One reason that these perversions of God’s design for sex receive such strong condemnation is that they inherently violate the command to procreate,” Lenow said. While not all heterosexual sex is procreative in nature, the biological possibility among heterosexual couples is not prevented by the act of intercourse, he later explained to the TEXAN. “Biological sameness prevents every homosexual couple from being able to reproduce the couple’s own biological offspring.”

Homosexuals are also incapable of experiencing the intimate union as described in Genesis 2:24 between a man and his wife. Instead, homosexuality distorts the God-designed complementarity of marriage and condones the sexual act between two members of the same sex.

“As a husband and wife engage in a sexual relationship, they satisfy their individual sexual desires within the covenant of their marriage. This outlet of sexual fulfillment then serves as a mechanism for purity,” Lenow said in speaking to the Southwestern audience, noting the third purpose of the sexual relationship between marriage partners.

Even with six states recognizing same-sex marriage, homosexual union does not fit the criteria of a biblically sanctioned marriage of one woman and one man, Lenow noted. Furthermore, homosexual marriages typically are not monogamous, he said, citing a 2010 San Francisco State University study which reported half of gay couples openly participate in sex outside of marriage.

In addition to distorting the complementary nature of sex, homosexuality subverts the complementary nature of marriage.

“We believe that men and women are ontologically equal,” Lenow said, referring to their being, personhood and value, “but God has established different roles for them to exhibit based upon their constitutional gender.”

Husbands are asked to love their wives as Christ loved the church, he recalled, a role characterized through “sacrificing, sanctifying, cleansing, cherishing and nourishing” based on Ephesians 5:25-29. Wives, he added, submit themselves to the leadership of their husbands just as the church submits to Christ, showing respect and seeking counsel on spiritual matters.

“As complementarians, we believe these gender roles were instituted at creation,” he said, pointing back to Genesis 2:18, 20, “and are reaffirmed after the fall,” citing Genesis 3:16-29.

The growing call to erase gender distinctions has escalated to the point that prepubescent children as young as 10 are trying to change their gender identity, he said, citing a recent ABC News report.

“In essence, they are saying that physical, biological gender has nothing to do with who they are. They can choose to be something else by simply denying the distinction with which they were born,” he stated.

“Whether it is through the denial that gender distinctions exist or the expression of gender distinctions within same-sex relationships, homosexuality creates a challenge for the acceptance of complementary gender roles in marriage and society.”

Turning to Ephesians 5:22-33 to connect marriage to the Christ-church relationship, Lenow said the final step of proponents of homosexuality in denying God-ordained gender roles is the undermining of the nature of the Christ-church relationship.

“The homosexual couple is incapable of loving as Christ and submitting as the church because they are identical without distinction. The members of a same-sex couple cannot stand in selfless headship nor respectful submission as Christ and the church,” he argued.

“Anything that undermines the intent of that analogy must be looked upon with suspicion,” Lenow concluded.

Acceptance of homosexuality within the church not only destroys the significance of marriage, it corrupts an understanding of how God relates to his people, Lenow said. “The challenge is so great that proponents of homosexuality, knowingly or unknowingly, place mankind on the same plane as God and require by analogy that Christ submit to the church.”

Reminding the audience of the warning of Romans 1:26-27, Lenow challenged the church to stand alongside Scripture and declare that homosexuality is against nature and the result of God giving people over to their degrading passions.
 

Austin television station KVUE featured Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers doing clean-up work following the wildfires in Bastrop.

SBC Today: What do you think are the greatest challenges confronting the SBC?

Dr. Richards: Other than a spiritual awakening, perhaps one major challenge to the SBC is cooperation. The monolithic structure of the Southern Baptist Convention is long gone. We no longer have the stack poles of uniform Sunday school literature, hymnody, or Training Union. As we made huge strides in diversifying to reach people for Christ we changed some aspects of our convention. This is not necessarily bad. However, we must find commonalities to share in order to stay together.

Read the rest of the interview at SBC Today

Ya se aproxima la fecha de nuestra Convención de los Bautistas del Sur de Texas (SBTC), que se llevará a cabo los días 14 y 15 de noviembre en Irving.  El domingo, día 13 de noviembre tendremos nuestra Sesión en Español a las 6:00 PM en el Grand Ball Room en la cuarta planta del Centro de Convenciones de Irving localizado en 500 West Las Colinas Blvd, Irving. Yo os animo que canceléis vuestro culto de la tarde para que podáis asistir y apoyar este gran evento.

El lema de nuestra sesión será: “Orando y Enviando” La Escritura clave está basada en Hechos 13:2-3. Tendremos dos mensajes de inspiración. El primero será por el Rev. Armando Vera de la Iglesia Cristiana Alianza de Pharr que estará compartiendo sobre el tema: “Orando”.  Y el segundo mensaje será por el Rev. Gilberto Corredera de Prestonwood Baptist Church en Español de Plano que nos exhortará con el tema: “Enviando”.  El grupo de alabanza será guiado por el Hermano Rubén Martínez de la Iglesia Bautista Central de Terrell.

También, os queremos anunciar los eventos evangelísticos del “Crossover” que la SBTC ofrecerá el día sábado, 12 de noviembre de 2011. Tendremos la participación de tres iglesias Hispanas que ofrecerán un block party para su comunidad.

• La Primera Iglesia Bautista de Irving de 10:00 AM a 1:00 PM • 934 Oakland Drive, Irving
• La Primer Iglesia Bautista de Grand Prairie de 1:00 PM a 4:00 PM • 201 Freetown Road, Grand Prairie
• La Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida de Irving de 5:00 PM a 8:00 PM • 1548 E. Shady Grove Road, Irving

Recordad que siempre deseamos que cada iglesia bautista participe en el Programa Cooperativo de nuestra convención así juntos podemos compartir el mensaje de Cristo aquí en Texas, en Estados Unidos y alrededor del mundo.