11 Oct Coming Out: Why Jesus Delights in LGBT+ Stories

I'm in the process of reading an excellent book called Redeeming Singleness by Barry Danylak. While it can be a bit dense at times, I'm finding it to be incredibly helpful in developing a theological defense of the unmarried life as better suited for the kingdom of...
Churches that seek to be faithful to the traditional sexual ethic face a tough reality. For better or worse, most people find love through marriage. It's not the way things ought to be, but it's the way things are. And if that's the way things are, we've got a problem. Just how exactly are gay Christians supposed to experience love if they can't get married to the people they love?
Christian community must provide a viable path for expressing love outside of marriage. Without it, we’re just as “anti-love" as all the caricatures portray. Unfortunately, despite everything the Bible has to say about love, evangelical theology remains woefully inadequate on the topic. This means that love outside of marriage is difficult if not close to impossible for people to find, carrying huge ramifications for celibate gay Christians. So it's time to change.Learning the language and ways of the people you’re trying to reach is one of the most fundamental laws of missionary work. Ignore this law, and you might find yourself etched into the margins of The Poisonwood Bible one day. But follow it, and you’ll be joining a 2,000-year-long history of imitating the example of Christ. Christ remains the single greatest missionary of all time, our ultimate example of delivering God’s truth to the world. He did it by giving up his divine power and becoming like one of us. By speaking our language and using our words. By choosing to identify with a broken race. With you and with me. And he calls the Christian to do the same. He calls us to identify with everyday people using their everyday language. Everyday people like gays and lesbians.“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, and being born in the likeness of men.” - Phil. 2:5-8