ChosenRebel's Blog

Tuesday is for Preaching

A pastor sought my counsel for a series of situations he had recently become aware of in his church.

• He has been powerfully converted. He is also living with his girlfriend and mother of his two children.
• She has been converted but continues to live with her boyfriend for financial reasons.
• He has been a Christian for many years. So has she. Now they are living together, are linked romantically and are not married.
• At the last Lord’s Supper service, she actively participated with her family. She is also experimenting with homosexuality.
• He has children with multiple women, is fighting his past and showing signs of interest in Christ.
• They are college age, romantically connected, and he recently was baptized and gave a glowing testimony of faith in Christ and repentance of sin. They have also moved in together, though they say they live in separate rooms.
• He is engaged; she is not a believer and has a drug problem; they had been sexually involved. Now he (the pastor) isn’t sure what is going on.

“We are living in a Corinthians age but we are preparing students for the Victorian age.”

—Prominent Counseling Professor at a  major seminary

This brother’s church isn’t that large and he is concerned that these stories might not be the end. He has reason to believe that pornography is a major problem in the youth ministry. Young men and women, following the culture around them, dress in provocative clothing, seemingly designed to excite sexual appetites.

Overall, my fellow pastor paints a picture of church with low sexual standards that looks more like the culture around it than a blameless bride of Christ. The church isn’t being transformed into the likeness of Christ. Large pockets of his church are stuck in the cesspool of the world.

My counsel fell into two categories: Downstream and Upstream.

In Downstream Counsel, I focused on how to lovingly deal with the particulars of each case. I’m not going to go into that here. It is different in each case and too involved for my 500 word limit in these blog posts. The design of Downstream Counsel is to deals with the reality of the moment. in a biblical way.

In Upstream Counsel, we talked about what to do, teach, model, practice in the church so as to educate and help believers toward a more biblical view of sex, trust in God, and living for the glory of God. Counsel that seeks to preserve a better future.

Question:  What would your Upstream Counsel  have been?