What are the key theological issues currently facing the church and society, and how do they shape your ministry?
Because it seems to be the most hotly debated issue in the current theological divide within the Presbyterian Church (USA), many of us consider the ordination of LGBT persons of faith to be the key theological debate within our denomination; but, I believe this debate around ordination is merely a symptom of a deeper divide among persons of faith.
It has occurred to me recently that there are people in the church with diametrically opposed views of what their role as Christians should be. In my mind I have named this the “yes/no divide.”
On the one side are what I think of as “No Christians,” who believe that their job as Christians is to find reasons to exclude people. Driven by a desire for doctrinal purity they go through life with a mental checklist, “does this person have the right Christology? Do they have the right view of biblical authority?” And so on until they get a “no” and then they have a reason to exclude someone.
On the other side are the “Yes Christians,” they too have a checklist, but when they meet someone they go down the list looking for even one “yes” and then they have a starting point to include someone.
I am unashamedly a “Yes Christian,” and my ministry is shaped by the radical Good News that we are all children of God, that Christ’s sacrifice was for all of us and that God loves all of us, no matter how many noes there are on our checklist.
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