What about ministering to LGBTQ+?
The New Creation Lens
Hot potato issues, like everything else in life, must be handled with the gospel “mitt.” We want to be ministers of hope to individuals rather than culture warriors. Having been forgiven much, we want to love much. Having received the abundance of grace, we want to let grace flow. How can our churches amplify our ministry to the LGBQT+ community?
Mark Yarhouse offers three lenses through which Christians have tried to navigate LGBTQ+ issues in a changing culture. The Integrity Lens stresses faithfulness to the sexual norms intended by God from creation. This approach defends the integrity of marriage and male and female distinctions by focusing on repentance over “sexual immorality” (the biblical phrase that describes all sexual behavior outside of marriage). The Disability Lens views everything in life as being touched by brokenness. By being kind and gentle, this approach believes empathy will facilitate healing. The Diversity Lens views the male/female binary as oppressive and cruel. People need to be free to take steps toward self-realization. So, the spectrum of gender identities is something to embrace, fight for, and celebrate.
We can add a fourth: the New Creation Lens. Knowing that Jesus is making “all things new” (Rev 21:5), this approach focuses on what God is calling us to be and become. So, what do people need? Let’s unpack this one. Because the terms and definitions within the LGBTQ+ constantly evolve, it can feel overwhelming and confusing. Why would the New Creation lens amplify our ministry efforts to those who struggle with their identity? Humans are God’s image-bearers. “In the image of God, he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). “Image” reminds us that our dignity is derivative.
Unfortunately, all sin, that is, we “miss the mark” of reflecting God’s image (Rom 3:23). When we suppress the truth about God and ourselves, we become “futile in our thinking” and exchange the truth (God’s word as our authority) for another authority. By elevating our inner self to divine status, it becomes an intuitive, authoritative force (Rom 1:18-27). Driven by the quest to “find our true self,” we end up “worshipping and serving the creature (ourselves) rather than the Creator” (Rom 1:25). It follows that, to be authentic, this intuitive force must be outwardly expressed and applauded (Rom 1:28-32). However, the result of forming any identity outside of God is idolatry.
The New Creation Lens begins with an invitation. Jesus invites us to come as we are but not to stay as we are. He has given us HIS identity. We are IN Christ. Our identity is no longer self-generated—nor is it found in marital or social status, gender or sexuality, ethnicity or political tribe (Gal 3:28; Col 3:11). We are now IN the risen New Creation (2 Cor 5:17). We are part of his Body!
God calls us to grow into our new identity in Christ, to conform to his image, to reflect his character, will, and purpose (Rom 8:29). The New Creation Lens approach to ministry is not spiritual formation; it is Christ-formation, Christ forming in you (Gal 4:19). “The Spirit will never prompt our conscience to conclusions that are at odds with the Scriptures that He has inspired” (ECO Essential Tenets). Transformation from confusion to clarity about our identity will occur through the renewal of our mind (Rom 12:2).
The New Creation Lens is also a forward-thinking ministry. Because Jesus is making “all things new” (Rev 21:5), we must learn to live anticipating the Age to Come. John describes it this way: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are… What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:1-3). The New Creation Lens is not about condemnation, but about hope. Paul’s main point in listing a few sins in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is to accentuate the hope that all of us have of being “washed and sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” The New Creation Lens opens the way to live in the presence of the future.
What a relief to have Jesus lift the burden of defining ourselves! He’s the only one who can. We are much more than our sexuality.
*I’m grateful for the great clarity that “Gender, Sexuality, and the Kingdom” has provided for me (ECO Theology Series).