When We Don’t Talk about YOU KNOW WHAT!

I’ve written in various places about dealing with tough issues.  If a church isn’t willing to talk about tough issues it will miss the point.  The point being that the church must be relevant in our world.  A church that pretends that tough issues do not exist or fails to deal with them will lose credibility and opportunity in our world today.

The biggest ‘you know what’ tends to be in the area of sexuality.  Yet the issues of the day are greater than sex.  I believe that Christian ethics is often neglected in the contemporary church and this is to our own loss.

The two extremes we see are obvious.  On one hand there are those who ignore or refuse to even mention ‘hot topics.’  On the other hand are those who regularly do so but in sound bites and controversial statements.  Somewhere we need to meet in the middle.

Sermons are not the best place to deal with the hottest topics.   As a pastor I realize that the sermon is often one sided.  I get to present the topic and there is no room for all views to be shared.  The best place would be a format that allows conversation/dialogue.  Yet a church that is willing to tackle tough issues in such a way is opening itself up for possible conflict.  Much church health must be established for a church to be able and willing to talk rationally about tough issues.

The reality is not every issue can be faced by every church.  Yet there are always ‘hot topics’ churches are ready to discuss.

And the truth is that behind the obvious- abortion, homosexuality, war, capital punishment, etc we need to deal with the theological issues that are expressed in those outward issues.  Orthopraxy flows from orthodoxy.  What we do flows fromwhat we believe.  So what do we believe about holiness, life, justice, spirituality, faith, humanity, etc?  Those will shape how we live in our world and the ‘hot issues’ of our day.

Christian ethics is not for the faint at heart.  But I would argue that we will deal with hot topics whether we want to or not.  Usually it happens when an issue bubbles to the service in the life and work of the church.  Wouldn’t it be better to deal with it long before that?

Blessings,
Derik