Can Particular Sinners be Rightly Considered a Community for Evangelism?

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RBachman

Puritan Board Freshman
My denomination (PCA) has a ministry that posted a subpage describing the LGBT as a Community. On said site I could not find the word 'sin' anywhere, nor any language to that effect. Rather it is viewed as a community, a people-group. And the links and nonsense on it go right along with what the LGBT want: validation for their sin.

I am concerned that this is wrong, possibly heretical, and possibly deserving God's judgment (brimstone and lighting kind). But I am equally concerned that my understanding of Reformed Evangelism may be defective. I have recast this into other categories such as witches, adulterers, drunkards, gossips, pedophiles, murderers, etc. A colorable argument could be made in most of these cases that there is some kind of community or gathering specific to them and their behaviors. But it seems to me that all of these categories of sinful behavior are condemned in Scripture, and are not to be tolerated in the church (both in the OT and the NT). But what about in society at large?

But it gets harder to parse this out in the NT since we are to go into the world and preach the gospel. And Jesus did engage with some of the sinful folk (adulterers, prostitutes, etc.). So do we treat LGBT like the Mbuti Pygmies, just another people group to reached, or do we treat them like a false collective of sinners trying to foist their idols on the public?

Did the Puritans ever address this? I have tried to make the LGBT be another RC Church, but it just doesn't fit (not evil enough perhaps). Would the Church rightly have an outreach to the Wiccans that validated their standing as a legitimate belief system and community worthy of engaging for Christ?

To see what I am referring to go to this link on the PCA website: http://www.ministrytostate.org/lgbt/

I recognize that there are other members of the PCA on this forum. Know that I have asked my Session to look into the matter, and I have sent notes (so far unacknowledged) to the comment link with the ministry.

My main interest is in my own understanding of true evangelism and true outreach, versus faux outreach to faux folk.

NB: Editors, If this is too controversial, feel free to delete it without explanation.
 
I can only say there is too much there for my head to get around at the moment.

One thing that struck me as very odd: they were interviewing "Ms. G", a lapsed Roman Catholic, for guidance on how the church ought to act.

I don't know what the interviewers intend to do with the information, but that part demonstrated the hazard of asking sinners what they'd like the Gospel to do.

Cart---horse? Where do we put this yoke-thing, anyway?

As for identifying a community of sinners according to lifestyle or ideology, I don't have any problem with that. Getting to know members of that community, their inclinations and struggles, is not a hindrance to the Gospel any more than when Paul would observe and learn the customs of certain people he was ministering to.

But asking them for guidance? I have to say it is heartbreakingly inverted.
 
They are certainly not a distinct ethno-linguistic people-group no matter how hard it is to understand their silly abbreviations of lgbtxyz....etc.

Sounds like the evangelical "Homogenous Church Principle" rubbish which allows for cowboy churches and biker churches.
 
Randy,
One may not know the motivation or telos until the outreach actually takes place. Are ministers calling sinners to repent or are they having weekly meetings telling sinners how much benefit there is from non-repentent sinners in the PCA? At this stage, that seems to be a crap-shoot........
 
I do not know the motivation of the PCA leadership nor the ministers involved. My question really revolves around: does a group of people intentionally organized around a particular sin have, Biblically speaking, a right to be considered a community? In other words, should our evangelism target "groups" that only exist around a sin? This is, I think, important because I should always seek to evangelize lost individuals, no matter the particulars of their lostness. But should my Church: a) acknowledge/affirm the legitimacy of a group of people who identify themselves with a particular sin as the sole basis for their being a group; b) avoid calling out their sin as sin, so as not to offend them; c) change the gospel around to welcome them in, minister to them in their sin, and hope to love them into the Kingdom by showing them a loving savior who doesn't really take their sin that seriously?

LGBT is one of the most virulent and vicious enemies of Christians at this time in my view. It is shameless in its efforts to crush a true Christian witness. So, did the Puritans try and minister to the RC Church, as an organized community, acknowledging it as valid, in order to accommodate and win the community to Christ? Or did they try and minister to individuals in that community: to show them their individual sin, the apostasy of their community, the Savior who hates sin but died to save individual sinners, and thus see some won to Christ?

The PCA leadership will do what ever it wants. I want to know if I should support these efforts as Biblical, or condemn them and encourage them to repent.
 
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