Watermark Community Church in Dallas TX
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Watermark Community Church in Dallas (where my husband and I are members) was recently dragged into the media when a former member published a letter to the church on the one-year anniversary of his membership being revoked. After several years of fighting his unwanted same-sex attractions, the young man got weary of the battle and embraced a gay identity—and a boyfriend. The church pleaded with him to repent (turn 180 degrees) and submit to the Bible’s commands to sexual purity, but he would not. So the church sent him a letter which the young man made public.

Within hours, a firestorm erupted on social media, TV media, and print media.

Predictably, the church’s counter-cultural beliefs and stance were misrepresented out of people’s inability (or refusal) to understand biblical values and truths. It would be easy to come away with a very skewed perception of this situation, which is why it’s important to use discernment in reading or hearing anything about this controversial subject.

Recall the wisdom of Proverbs 18:17: “The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him.” It’s important to remember there’s another side of every story, and to hold judgment until one’s discernment kicks in.

It started when the former member’s Facebook post was picked up by the Dallas Morning News. His title was “Watermark Church Dismissed Me for Being Gay,” and the paper chose the title “Watermark Asks Homosexual Member to Leave Church.” It sure sounds like the church kicked him out, doesn’t it? But that’s not what happened. The church responded, “Watermark makes a distinction between attending our church [Sue’s note: which the former member was welcome to do] and being a formal member of our church. We don’t remove someone’s formal status as a member for struggling with sin—whether that sin is pride, materialism or sexual sin. Every member of Watermark needs God’s grace to stand firm in the midst of temptation and His forgiveness for the times we fall short.”

Jacqueline Floyd, a Dallas Morning News columnist, wrote a scathing column criticizing Watermark.

Ms. Floyd:
“A lot of people are upset that an institution that professes love for all its members would exile someone because of his sexual orientation.”

And they should be! But that’s not what happened. Pastor Todd Wagner’s response:

“Following the example of Jesus, Watermark loves and welcomes people of all backgrounds, economic statuses, ethnicities and sexual struggles. Also following his example, we encourage people to turn away from sin and to follow Jesus. We have many members and several staff who struggle with same-sex attraction or for whom same-sex sexual activity is a part of their past. We count it a privilege to labor with them in their desire to resist temptation, and we rejoice with them as they experience forgiveness and new life in Christ. Their stories are powerful and serve as beautiful testimonies to the transforming power of Jesus Christ.” [Emphasis his]

Ms. Floyd:
“He tried for years to conform to church requirements that he alter his essential nature, ‘repent’ his sexual orientation, undergo a form of ‘conversion therapy’ that research as well as mainstream psychology and counselors have denounced as harmful and pointless.”

This makes sense if you believe the culture’s sexual mythology that says being gay is one’s “essential nature,” as if a gay identity were the most important thing about an individual. (Consider how unbalanced it would be if we switched out the standard for how well someone can sing, declaring that one’s “essential nature” was one’s ability to carry a tune—or not. How awfully narrow and unnecessarily limiting that would be, as if every other aspect of one’s giftings and temperament, interests and abilities paled in comparison to their singing voice!)

The church does not require that anyone “alter their essential nature,” but it does align itself with scripture, acknowledging that we are all born sinful and broken, with a tendency to rebel and disobey against God:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.” (Romans 3:10b-12)

Our true “essential nature” is that we are both infinitely precious and valuable because we are made in God’s image, but also fallen and sinful. That “essential nature” can’t be altered by ourselves, but it can be transformed by God. That is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I don’t know if anyone at Watermark mistakenly urged this brother to repent of his sexual orientation as if he had chosen to be same-sex attracted, but we certainly do exhort everyone to renounce and repent of all sexual sin (which means anything outside of marriage between one man and one woman). Concerning “conversion therapy,” Watermark doesn’t have that. What we do have is a call to discipleship, asking people to be “all in” with Jesus, obeying His word and pursuing intimacy with Christ. That intimacy usually produces heart change, which means transformation from the inside out, where therapy is an attempt to bring about change from the outside in.

Ms. Floyd:
“Trying to ‘change’ someone’s sexual orientation is about as useful as trying turn a turtle into a duck. When this witch-doctor alchemy predictably failed to work, the church blamed him—and revoked his membership. Not in person. They mailed him a letter.”

Lots of people believe that sexual orientation is fixed and unchangeable. That’s because if a lie is repeated loud enough and long enough, people will accept it as truth. Change is possible, and feelings (because that’s what we’re talking about here) are fluid. We see change happening in the first-century church; 1 Corinthians 6:11 says to former homosexuals, “And such were some of you.” I have seen change happen before my own eyes, for 18 years of involvement at Living Hope Ministries. And if that’s not enough, google “Lisa Diamond Sexual Fluidity” for some intriguing academic research that cites that change happens.

But then it sure sounds cold to mail someone a letter revoking his membership. And it would be—if it had happened like that. The letter was just the final formal communication, the period at the end of a series of anguished, face-to-face conversations.

See why it’s so important to remember that “The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him”?

The letter from our own former member needs to be read with discernment as well:
“I spent years battling against my own homosexuality. When I wasn’t able to change, you turned your back on me.”

I’m sure there were some people mistakenly thinking and hoping that his same-sex attractions were a matter of choice that could be changed on demand. “Everstraights,” especially men, have a hard time imagining what it’s like to be drawn to the same sex, and can easily burden those who are, with unrealistic expectations.

Battling one’s homosexuality is incredibly difficult, and I can appreciate that many, many people pray hundreds of times, “God, I beg You, take this away!” That prayer is like mine growing up: “God, please! Heal me!” It’s like the apostle Paul’s prayer, recorded in 2 Corinthians 7b-9:

“I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Paul pleaded with God to remove his thorn in the flesh, but God had something better. I pleaded with God to remove my thorn in the flesh, but He had something better. My same-sex attracted brother, our former member, pleaded with God to remove his thorn in the flesh, and He had something better for him as well, but my brother decided to embrace his flesh instead. He wrote,

“I am who God made me to be. I cannot change my sexual orientation, and nor would I want to. I now have internal peace and happiness unlike ever before.”

No, God did not make anyone same-sex attracted. Based on the thousands of men who have come through Living Hope, I would say God probably made him to be sensitive, artistic, creative, relational, and gifted. But not gay.

It’s not surprising that he now senses “internal peace and happiness unlike ever before.” He quit battling his flesh, the part of us that lives independently from God. The relief that comes from giving into temptation can feel like peace and happiness, for a while. It can feel like freedom. But it comes at a cost. There is no true intimacy with Jesus when we are indulging our flesh. There can be a faux intimacy, the echoes of having walked with Him in obedience and abiding trust. But true intimacy can only happen in the light:

“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:5-7)

So I pray for my brother, and I pray for all of us to develop discernment as we process the war of worldviews about sexual ethics. It won’t be easy.

[Note: If you want a blessing and strong but grace-filled instruction about church discipline, please watch Todd Wagner’s response to this issue from the Watermark platform, “Why Good Leaders Have Always Written Letters to the Church They Love”: http://www.watermark.org/plano/message/4320]

 

This blog post originally appeared at blogs.bible.org/engage/sue_bohlin/when_a_church_tells_a_member_its_not_ok_to_be_gay
on October 18, 2016.

Sue Bohlin is an associate speaker/writer and webmistress for Probe Ministries. She attended the University of Illinois, and has been a Bible teacher and conference speaker for over 40 years. She is a speaker for MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) and Stonecroft Ministries (Christian Women's Connections), and serves on the board of Living Hope Ministries, a Christ-centered outreach to those dealing with unwanted homosexuality. Sue is on the Bible.org Women's Leadership Team and is a regular contributor to Bible.org's Engage Blog. In addition to being a professional calligrapher, she is the wife of Probe's Dr. Ray Bohlin and the mother of their two grown sons. Her personal website is suebohlin.com.

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9 Comments
  1. Will Sipling 7 years ago

    My wife and I are members there, too. So proud of the leadership there and all the the ministry that they do. That Proverbs 18 verse is definitely relevant in this situation!

  2. Christopher Cox 7 years ago

    Hmmm… I’m a liar, a thief, a hater, a hoodlum, an alcoholic. I hurt people around me and have hurt many. I am selfish, egotistical and depressed.

    I am a church-goer.
    I choose to follow Jesus Christ.
    I have hope that all the unchangeable things in me are very changeable by the Power of God.

    And God sees Jesus when he looks at me… He sees me as I will be and not as I am. And while there are times when I like to think “I know what is right”, I realize that I am made for His pleasure… and eventually I will be made like Him.

    The Spirit convicts me of sin, and of sin in general. Sin will be dealt with in an abosolute final manner. Until then, Lord, help me not to kick against your will. So.. cast aside this burden, this chain of sin that ensnares my temporal flesh… help me to see as you see and realize your will…. as you are doing, keep on doing this work in me.

  3. Matthew 7 years ago

    Hypocrites maybe? Self Righteous, ABSOLUTELY.

    Jesus chose to dine and interact with persons who the “Church” thought unworthy. Then called out the moneychangers and frauds in his fathers house for what they were. The only Judge is GOD. No one on this planet has the right to turn ANYONE out of God’s house but Him.

    Think about that, read scripture, pray, and if your heart is genuinely open to his word… Revisit this.

    • Author
      Sue Bohlin 7 years ago

      There is a huge misunderstanding about judging both outside and inside the church, and it comes from not knowing what the Bible teaches about judging. Everybody seems to stop with “Judge not, lest ye be judged” (Matthew 7:1). That is the Lord Jesus’ call not to judge hypocritically. But in John 7:24 He also calls us to judge rightly. And remember the passage about pulling the plank out of our own eye so we can see clearly to remove the speck from our brother’s eye (Matt. 7:5)? That’s about judging as well. The point there is about examining ourselves first before dealing with another’s sin, not to ignore other people’s behavior.

      But then there’s the “big daddy” passage of 1 Corinthians 5:9-13:

      I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

      What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

      This passage clearly says that we are to judge those inside the Body of Christ. Judging doesn’t mean condemning, though; in the case of an immoral believer, it would be a matter of comparing his/her behavior with what is right, and pointing out the dangers of their choices, the way we would want to warn someone in a burning building to get out, or urge someone headed toward a cliff to turn around.

    • DWP 6 years ago

      Matthew 18:15-17

  4. Matthew 7 years ago

    I’m sure you’ll not post this as it challenges what you teach your flock… But it seems that Jesus never once mentioned homosexuality, addressed it, or even implied it was against God’s plan. He called out everything else, erased many of the cruel laws in the Old Testament. Were you to abide by that Old Testament… as a female, you opinion wouldn’t be considered at BEST. You could be stoned to death for speaking in the house of God at worst.
    Please explain how you can cherry pick the parts of the Bible you agree with, and ignore others? I’m not asking to start a fight, but have never had anyone be able to answer that question without contradicting themselves, or out right lying.

    • Author
      Sue Bohlin 7 years ago

      Although the gospels don’t record Jesus addressing the topic of homosexuality, that doesn’t mean He didn’t. (John 21:23 assures us that Jesus did—and, of course we can assume said—many other things beside what has been recorded in the gospels.) Nonetheless, the Old Testament prohibitions against homosexual practice would have been included in Jesus’ endorsement of the law (“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” –Matthew 5:17). And when Jesus condemned porneia, any kind of sexual expression outside of marriage (which the Genesis creation accounts define as between a man and a woman), that would have included homosexual acts. We don’t have any record of Him mentioning incest or bestiality, sexual sins condemned in the same chapter as the prohibition against same-sex acts, but do people say those must be okay since Jesus didn’t address them specifically?

      You are right that the culture has shifted in how women are seen and heard. (But I’m not familiar with any OT command to stone a woman for speaking in the house of God. . . ) In fact, one of my favorite Probe articles is about the difference Christianity has made when it comes to women. (See Christianity: The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Women at https://www.probe.org/christianity-the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-women/) There are certain laws and demands in the Old Testament that were time-bound, in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, that are no longer binding on anyone. I think that one reason for things being different in the Old Testament is that it functioned as a set-up for the glory of a new type of grace in the New Testament. But I find it extremely important to note that not a single morality-based law was suspended or changed. It’s still wrong to murder, steal, and lie. All sexual sins condemned in the Old Testament are still sins today.

      It’s not cherry-picking to identify what parts of the Old Testament were restricted to a particular people group (Israel) and time (pre-Messiah), and which parts are timeless principles that, being rooted in the character of God, will never change. For example, our sons are now grown; for many years we haven’t invoked the rule that they had to finish their homework before watching TV, or the rule that they had to put their bicycles in the garage or risk losing them for a week, because those rules were time-bound. We’re not cherry-picking as parents, we are simply living by the truth that some rules have an expiration date. But the ones rooted in the holiness and character of God, which includes all sexual behaviors, will never be out of date. And that includes homosexuality.

  5. Maria 5 years ago

    Amen!!!!! Thank you so much for explaining this very well!!! Preach the Word of God!!!

    • Author
      Sue Bohlin 5 years ago

      Thank you, Maria! I’m grateful to be able to provide “the rest of the story.”

      Sue

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