Welcome to Dialogue: Discerning Church Membership, Part II
Booklet #6
Questions for Discussion/Reflection
Invitation to Dinner
- Do you hope that your pastor is open, like Jake, to the life story
of individuals like Cal? Why? Does your pastor know about your
support?
- How do you understand Jake's (the writer) deep feelings of: a)
acceptance for his son, on learning ?that he was gay?; b) regret
for not having walked with his son's childhood and adolescent sexual
feelings?
- For a person who has decided against sexual minorities?whose theology
is written?what values might emerge from further conversation?
Gays and Lesbians in the Mennonite Church
- Does Schmidt succeed in meeting the goal of his position paper?
(See first paragraph) What was your response to immediately knowing
his goal?
- Discuss the Why questions that Schmidt poses in the last paragraph
of the section titled: "Diversity in Practice . . ."
- Discuss Schmidt's last sentence in the first paragraph of the
section titled "The Church as a Redemptive Community."
- Discuss the questions that Schmidt raises about the case studies-third
paragraph of "Generalizations."
Envisioning the Future
- What other examples come to your mind of the Spirit as "untamed"
or free? How does realization that a believer belongs to God, not
that God belongs to a particular believer, affect attitudes toward
believers who also embody a sexual minority?
- If you wish for the church to "embrace the voice of healing and
transformation," how will "the test" presented by sexual minorities
affect your understandings and actions?
- Rempel acknowledges that seldom do critics of others' behavior
reject that behavior without also rejecting the person. Do you
agree or disagree? How might you encourage your congregation to
call individuals or groups to repent for the outcomes of such blurred
response?
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