As I sat amongst pastors, community leaders and community members in an informal “meeting of the minds,” a concept that I’ve been re-discovering for myself came up. Jesus’ mention of the “narrow road.” Matthew 7:13-14, ” 13″Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” As the message puts it, “”Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.”

Here is my first shot at getting this down on “paper.”

It seems that in the last several years, what was once regarded as revolutionary has become fairly comfortable and mundane. The revolt that removed the traditional, dogmatic approach to faith, that opened up the doors to the non-religious, that galvanized generations around a message of faith in something greater than what we could experience on earth… has become entrenched and comfortable along their path. Somewhere along the “narrow path,” our predecessors of faith decided they had journeyed far enough… simply sat down their packs, and dug a trench along the path that was big enough to engulf anyone attempting to go any further than they had already journeyed. There is nothing really revolutionary about the Church anymore. We reside in our comfortable, industrial warehouses that have been transformed into mega-churches. We have our own coffee shops and bookstores. We have our own christian shwag that broadcasts from our t-shirts and hats our comfortable faith. Our churches are either built on the Willow Creek model or the Saddleback Purpose Driven model. Our language is safe and familiar. Our pastors teach a gospel that creates a spiritual safety net for our comfortable lives.

The list could go on forever, but, in short, we’ve “arrived” in our version of the promised land of Christianity.

There are those that have fundamentally rejected this “promised land” and decided to take a different route. They believe in something they call the “early church,” or the “acts church.” They have moved into intentional communities and began growing their own sources of food and sustenance. They’ve championed words like, “emerging, organic, post-christian, and home church.” They too have created their own languages, their own networks, their own version of what it means to “live out” Christ within their communities. They have created co-ops, and websites and webzines that capture the essence of living in such a radical new Christianity. In stark contrast to their predecessors, their lives appear anything but comfortable… from their organically grown and harvested clothes to their intentional poverty. All of this in response to what they have deemed the “institutional church.”

Yet I wonder, if this response has only dug a new trench just across the path from the trenches of old. I wonder if this seemingly radical way of thought has only created a new comfortable theology that rejects anything that is institutional and instead replaces it with everything that is emerging (or new). From my perspective, it certainly seems to be the case. That this new trench along the road (however progressive it may seem) is only a new (emerging) trench. Stooped in it’s own belief and comfort of what is deemed to be a “right” way to live out Christianity and drawing its source of power from revolting against the established norm.

And what is even more interesting is that both sides seem to be competing for the souls and bodies of those that are journeying along their own narrow path. That once the explorer reaches the place along the road where these two camps have dug in, there is a choice that both sides seemingly force that person into. Are you going to join our trench, or are you going to join their trench?

Now, I run the risk of coming across as if I have this figured out… and I assure you, that I don’t. Instead I am simply offering up an observation about what seems to be taking place in the church right now. Part II is sure to come soon, but I will leave this post with a simple series of questions - What happened to the narrow path? What defines a narrow path anymore? How can we, as a collective, capital “C” Church continue walking down the center, inviting everyone to journey with us, without digging into another trench?

Are we travelers along this road, or are we campers?

What irritates me about your stance is the self-righteous tone that you take when discussing other people’s lives. I have held back my punches, but not anymore.

I have no idea what you hope to gain here. Nor do I honestly think that your “questions and concerns” come from a place of earnest inquiry, but instead from a place of righteous belief.

I HAVE done the research that you we have been talking about. And I have pointed you time and time again to listen to the podcasts that outline it in much better detail.. but lets take off the gloves and here we go. Granted these are quick, easy explanations, but at least they are substantive and set the framework for a healthy discussion.

1) Leviticus talks specifically about cultural rapes that were occurring at the time and homosexuality was listed amongst an extensive list of cultural “do’s and dont’s” for that specific people group. The hermeneutic I refer to (and most on your side do) is the hermeneutic proving whether or not the levitical laws are still applicable today. Generally, the argument states that in order for a levitical law to still be relevant, it must be affirmed in the New Testament. Under that line of logic, Paul affirms the Levitical laws of homosexuality, slavery and the silence of woman. Yet the only one that is still considered religiously relevant is homosexuality. Again, homosexuality is not the issue here, it is a cultural laundry list of unhealthy practices.

2) Romans 1:18-30. First, Paul is addressing the Roman practice of Temple Orgies. Second, the verses directly before and after anything to do with homosexuality outline a lifestyle of evil, idol worship, murder, insatiable lust, deceit, malice, etc. In fact, it even says that they “invent ways of doing evil.” Paul never addresses gay men and woman, but instead addresses straight men who had given up their woman for temple orgies and homosexual acts. These were not gay men, but instead straight men. Furthermore, the entire Romans text sets up Romans 2 (there were no chapters at the time) spending most of chapter 1 outline how “bad” others were, and then the the first verse in Romans 2 says, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” Homosexual men and woman are not the issue here again, instead it is dealing with straight men who were born straight, but chose to engage in temple orgies (which were customary at the time - Roman bathhouses as well).

3) 1 Corinthians 6. The first part of the chapter deals with disputes that are occurring in Corinth between “believers” at the time… Paul addresses this and then calls them out in verse 7-8 saying, “The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.” Paul then lays out a laundry list of the things that are being “done to the brothers” one of which includes homosexuality. Again, a cultural reference of wrongdoing toward someone else - specifically what Paul was talking about was sexual dominance of a brother who was weaker than you. It was cultural to sexually dominate someone (male to male) in order to show your power over that brother. Paul is calling out these actions toward eachother, and then challenges them toward healthiness, saying that, “No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.” Again, Paul isn’t calling out gays… but instead he is calling out the dominance (specifically sexually) of one over another. Not a loving, caring homosexual relationship.

4) Finally, Sodom and Gomorrah. My favorite anti-gay story. The story goes - a couple of Angels show up in Sodom and are greeted by Lot. They end up at Lot’s house and AN ANGRY MOB shows up at the doorstep and asks Lot for the two men so they can RAPE them. Instead, Lot offers his TWO VIRGIN DAUGHTERS to the mob to “do what they like” with. They don’t want that, because they want to DOMINATE the foreigners that have entered their land… on top of all of that, scripture NEVER says that homosexual acts actually took place in Sodom. In fact, the story about Sodom and specifically Gomorrah really rests in Genesis 13 and 14 with the wars that were fought and the dominance against their neighboring cities (bela, admah, and Zeboiim). So how does this story in any way deal with homosexuality… it really doesn’t. (Not to mention the Ezekiel argument).

5) To echo Doreen… Jesus never deals with it in any way, shape or form. He deals instead a whole lot with religious self-righteousness and issues on how we love one another.

So there is a shotgun attempt to bring substance to this conversation. Happy reading.

Matthew 3:1, 4
In those days, John the Baptist came into the desert of Judea. He wore clothing made from camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

Through this process the Church has obviously been a large forefront of thought for me. So I wanted to shoot some words down about what I believe about the Church. These are just shotgun attempts at getting words out that mean something to me about what we do as the Church. Please feel free to add as many words as you can think of…

Grace Centered
Dirty or not afraid of dealing with the dirt
Relational
Attractional
Missional
Reflective
Socially Unsettled
Authentic
Concerned with Justice
Moving toward one another
Uncontainable
Differing gently
No one left out
Building Up rather than Tearing Down
Healing
Safe Place
Ever-evolving
Concerned with the other and the outcast
Humble
Loving
Caring
Sharing

Oh broken soul of mine,
receive this grace divine
That comes to let you live and breathe again

The shadows all grow light in fields of grace,
And the winter turns to light with love’s embrace
So if you’re cold and night is turned,
Receive this love and be returned to grace…

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