Andy stanley on gays
Go and sin no more: Andy Stanley doubles down on his departure from Biblical Christianity
Christians should find no delight in addressing theological error, but passivity in the meet of serious error amounts to complicity. The Apostles warned the Church to be on guard against false gospels and teachings that contradict the faith “once for all delivered to the saints.” Clearly, that calls for attentive discernment and a necessary note of humility. This stewardship also requires attentive consideration of theological weight, Biblical substance, and ethical priority. A disagreement over eschatological timetables is not a first-order theological issue, but a subversion of the gospel is a first-order crisis.
On Sunday, Andy Stanley responded to my previous column about his departure from Biblical Christianity, speaking of my argument and noting, “Lots and lots of people saw it. That’s why we are talking about it today.” He did chat about it, and in both services at North Indicate Community Church in metro Atlanta. He said a wonderful deal, and he stated up front that he “never subscribed” to the Christianity I portray, so he has not departed from it. Stanley represented my understanding of Bibl
Plenty of folks are lamenting Andy Stanley’s decision to host a pro-gay conference this weekend at his North Aim mega-church.
Good. We all should grieve when influential pastors hug heresy. But this was predictable before it was lamentable.
What else could we expect from a pastor who rebuked a parishioner 11 years ago for being in a relationship with another man, not because it was homosexual, but because the other bloke was married? (See HERE) Or from one who recently preached a sermon extolling gay churchgoers, gushing “The men and women I know who are gay, their faith and their confidence in God dwarfs mine.”
But Stanley’s drift, obvious for over a decade on this and other key matters (see HERE and HERE for example) indicates problems with us as adequately
as him.
One of those problems is our habit of either winking at a leader’s thoughtful error, or reacting to it way too long after the fact. A heretical drift in leadership calls for 911.
“Who You Callin’ A Heretic?”
Stanley’s not alone in that drift. By hosting a pro-gay conference he joins the ranks of other teachers who gained influence then morphed from Gifted to Bad to Incorrect. (Think Rob Bell;Jen Hatmak
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) — Megachurch pastor Andy Stanley is being criticized for a recent sermon illustration involving a gay couple in which Stanley labeled adultery, but not homosexuality, a sin.
Stanley preached the sermon April 15 which had been discussed on a handful of blogs in subsequent days before gaining wider attention May 1 when Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. wrote about it on his website.
“The story was so good told and the note so well constructed that there can be minuscule doubt of its essence. Does this signal the normalization of homosexuality at North Point Community Church?” Mohler wrote of Stanley’s congregation, which is nondenominational and located in Alpharetta, Ga. “This hardly seems possible, but it appeared to be the implication of the message.”
Stanley’s sermon, titled “When Gracie Met Truthy,” focused on the tension Stanley said exists between Jesus’ teachings on grace and truth. The sermon was part five in a series on the meaning of “Christian.”
To illustrate that tension, Stanley — who has preached at the Southern Baptist Pastors
Andy Stanley's Church is NOT the "Safest Place in the World" for My Gay Teen
*Trigger warning: Suicide ideation*
In 2017, I watched my daughter, Kat, sit on stage ready to be baptized. A woman who was standing next to her said in front of the whole audience, “One of my favorite things about you is the energy and the light that you contain in you for the kids. You’re there every Sunday, worshipping and leading a small organization. It is my honor to baptize you today.”
I was so proud of my daughter that day. She was 15 and passionately devoted to God and her church. I was happy to be in a church where the senior pastor, Andy Stanley, once preached that the “church should be the safest place on the planet for gay teens.” I couldn’t own expected then what would occur a year later.
Last June, my daughter showed up to church to lead worship in the elementary environment. The same girl, Christy, who had baptized her told her that morning that because she had come out as gay on Instagram, she could no longer serve in leadership, meaning she could no longer be a worship commander or lead her second-grade minute group. She was, however, allowed to volunteer in other ways, su