Shame On You Granger Community Church
In case you have missed it—the media has taken the ball and ran with this one…there is a church in Indiana called Granger Community Church that has raised the eyebrows in the religious community.
You see—they started a new series of messages called mylamesexlife.com AND to make things worse…they have billboards all over town with www.mylamesexlife.com on them…and when you go to this site it is an advertisement for the series.
People are going bonkers! There are people on both sides of the argument…and so I decided to weigh in on the melee that is happening and give my two cents.
Granger—I am ashamed of you! How could you do something so outrageous? How dare you try to meet people where they are! Seriously—no one in America EVER thinks about sex—so just who do you think you are connecting with?
Don’t you know that people don’t need practical help with their lives? What they need is large doses of theology—you know, stuff that confuses the heck out of them. And when they don’t understand—just point out how stupid they are and then they will repent. Tell them stuff that will REALLY help them—like how much the Ark of the Covenant weighed OR have an hour long discussion on the peccability/impeccability issue—that will DRAW them in!
And how DARE you use the Bible to talk about sex! Let Hollywood define morality for us all—and then when people begin to dive into immoral practices on the subject just yell at them and tell them they are going to hell—that works, don’t you guys know this?
Seriously—God is silent on sex isn’t He? Look at Genesis—wait, uh, well, according to Genesis chapter two it was His idea—yep, there it is—one man, one woman, in the bonds of marriage, commited for life. But don’t tell people that—just scream at them about pagan lifestyles and practices!
Ok, that’s just one instance. Let’s look at the Song of Solomon, oh my! Is that stuff really in the Bible? I am sure that book has nothing to do with sex, yeah—uh, it is actually some type of metaphor of Christ and His love for the church. Right?
And the Apostle Paul had nothing to say about sex—just read his letters…no, wait—uh, well, there’s something about the subject in just about every one of them.
I admit we tried something like this before. We did a billboard campaign and series entitled ihatemymarriage.com
It was awful! Why? Because our church grew…people actually received Christ…marriages were actually restored…God moved in an awesome way!!! I am so ashamed that we did this. How dare we be concerned about being practical! How dare we actually show people far away from God how relevant Scripture is!
How dare you actually think you are following God! I mean just look at the Bible—He never asked people to do things that seemed “wild” just to get people’s attention. No, wait—there was that deal where He asked Isaiah to walk around in his birthday suit for a few years…but that is an exception, right?
Don’t you guys know that you are supposed to not attempt to be unique—but rather be uniform. You should NOT talk about sex…but rather direct your people in the “deeper” meanings of the word and make sure they spend a lot of time on websites that quote Spurgeon more than Jesus and hate Rick Warren more than they hate the devil!
Jesus NEVER did anything like this! He never tried to reach people where they were…no, wait, it says here that He fed 5,000 men with five loaves and two fish…and after He had their attention He challenged them…uh, well…
Once again—SHAME on you guys—shame on you for actually having a plan to reach those who are far away from God. Haven’t you guys been reading on the anti Rick Warren websites…numbers do not matter—God wants to keep His work small…and He does not want the world to know what His word says. He would be so happy if you guys would simply just tell your community to go to hell and NOT make any efforts to do whatever it takes to reach them.
OK—that was fun! On a serious note—yeah God…and yeah Granger. I am proud of you guys, you are following through on what Christ has called you to do…and there is no way I would be so cocky and arrogant here as to tell you that you haven’t heard from the Lord.
And for those who are attacking them and then reading this site—folks—we are all on the same team! And what does it matter to you—you may think churches like Granger and NewSpring are foolish…but wasn’t it Paul that said that He didn’t care HOW Christ was preached…and long as Christ was preached? Didn’t Jesus rebuke His disciples when they told Him they stopped someone from driving out demons because he wasn’t doing it “the right way?”
Guys—I believe if you would spend the time that you invest tearing other brothers and sisters down into actually reaching people for Christ—then the Gospel would be forcefully advancing!
Thanks Granger, once again, for being obedient and making a bold move…I pray that the harvest will be plentiful. I don’t know a ton about you all—but the thing I have seen out of the ones that I do know is a passionate love for Jesus—a passionate love for people—and a passionate love for His church. Keep it up…and may God bless you!