Why write a response?
In August of 2014 the Vineyard USA Executive Team released a ninety page position paper entitled Pastoring LGBT Persons. In the introduction the Vineyard Executive Team laid out their reasons for publishing only the sixth position paper in the history of Vineyard USA.[i] The team cited two reasons: the public context with the changing morality of Western Democracies, and the Vineyard context with the publication of Ken Wilson’s A Letter to my Congregation.[ii] The Vineyard executive team said that for these reason this issue “had greatness thrust upon it,” and deserved a position paper. [iii] Having been in the Vineyard movement for 20 years with fifteen of those years in pastoral work, my primary reason for writing a response to Pastoring LGBT Persons involves people. The people I know and love within the LGBT community, who have long lived with the pastoring laid out in Pastoring LGBT persons. I’m writing for anyone who may not be convinced that the only faithful way to pastor and live is laid out in Pastoring LGBT persons. For me this is not simply an issue with “greatness thrust upon it” that needs to be dealt with, but rather about pastoring actual people within the LGBT community – and not incidentally - recognizing that people within the LGBT community have pastoral gifts themselves, and probably should be a primary voice in the discussions of pastoring. So for this reason, I am writing a series of comparatively very brief responses to the most problematic aspects of Pastoring LGBT persons.[iv]
Pastoring
The most glaring weakness of Pastoring LGBT Persons, is that it actually has very little to do with pastoring. The actual counsel on pastoring does not occur until 55 pages into the paper, and then is treated in four pages. In these four pages the executive team treats pastoring narrowly as the administration of ordinances and rites, and the question of who can lead in a Vineyard. According to the Vineyard Executive Team the "pastoring" LGBT persons are to be given is as follows: Communion? Yes! Baptism? Maybe, after a firm discussion, (use the analogy about opening every room of your house). Child dedication? Vineyard pastors have some flexibility. Marriage? Absolutely not. Ordination? Absolutely not if the LGBT person is in covenanted marriage to a person of the same sex. Can a person in a same-sex marriage lead in a local Vineyard? Well certainly not in an ordained position, but possibly in other positions. In this respect, the Vineyard is like baseball.[v] There are clear foul lines: don’t perform a same-sex ceremony (third-base line?), and don’t ordain a person in a same-sex relationship (first-base line?). So perhaps a person in a same-sex marriage could teach Sunday school or usher. In sum, this position paper on Pastoring LGBT Persons devotes four pages out of ninety to actually pastoring LGBT persons, roughly about 4.4% of the paper, or just slightly more space than the Executive Team spends on accusing third-way proponents of being guilty of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism.[vi]
That the paper is not about pastoring is evident in the opening paragraph, since the Executive Team regrets that actual LGBT persons might read this paper on how they, LGBT persons are to be pastored. The Executive Team wants to make it very that the paper was not written for actual LGBT Persons: “We realize that this paper will likely end up in the hands of those for whom it is not intended.”[vii] It may not be the best, when your advice on pastoring a group of people, is not meant to be read by the actual people who are going to be on the receiving end of your pastoring. It is not hard to imagine how a community of people who have not historically been treated/pastored that well by the church (as the paper acknowledges), might be nervous about pastoral advice that the Executive Team laments ending up in their hands. This seems to underscore that the paper is at best only indirectly about pastoring, because I would hope that in general, counsel on pastoring would not need to be hidden from the recipients of the pastoring. If I were a cardiac patient and came across a paper in the waiting room of my Cardiologists office entitled The care of Cardiac Patients, that lamented in the opening paragraph that it might fall into the hands of an actual cardiac patient, I might be nervous about entrusting myself to the care of that Cardiologist.
In short, Pastoring LGBT Persons is not ultimately about pastoring. Instead, Pastoring LGBT Persons is demonstrably about making it clear that Vineyard pastors cannot perform same-sex marriage ceremonies, and that Vineyards cannot ordain people who are in same-sex marriages.
As a Vineyard pastor for close to 14 years, and lead pastor for 7, I was dissatisfied with the foul lines chalked by the Executive team. (Vineyard USA didn’t have a formal policy on this issue until the paper was released). And I was extremely disappointed in the defense of the foul lines articulated in Pastoring LGBT Persons. I was distressed that my denomination put out a ninety page paper entitled Pastoring LGBT Persons which was not about pastoring. I asked my overseers within the Vineyard for an open discussion of the paper and the foul lines. My Regional Leader responded that he believed, “Vineyard's paper is an excellent piece of work, solid and satisfying in its arguments and footnoted explanations,” so there would be little benefit to a discussion. In my upcoming responses I hope to lay out a few areas where I found Pastoring LGBT Persons to be significantly less than an excellent piece of work, and why I found many of the arguments less than solid or satisfying. These will be responses to the reasons that the Executive Team gives for chalking the foul lines. I hope to show that the arguments are actually rather weak. But, for now let me reiterate on last time, that the biggest weakness of Pastoring LGBT persons is that it is not about pastoring.
Finally, I hope it is obvious, but in case it is not, I want to say here that I hope LGBT persons will read this. I would like LGBT persons to know that there were people within the Vineyard who thought differently, from the Executive Team. I hope this small effort will demonstrate that some people saw Pastoring LGBT Persons as something less than an excellent piece of work. Something less than solid and satisfying. Anyone else is welcomed to read as well – there really are no hands for which this is not intended.
[i] Pastoring LGBT Persons p. 10. In footnote 23 the Executive team lists the first five position papers of Vineyard USA which are all a defense of spiritual gifts. “In historical order they are: John Wimber, Why I Respond to Criticism (answering anti-charismatic criticism from
cessationist evangelicals); Jack Deere, The Vineyard’s Response To ‘The Briefing’ (a similar subject); Wayne Grudem,The Vineyard’s Response To ‘The Standard’; Wayne Grudem, Power And Truth: A Response To ‘Power Religion’; and Rich Nathan, A Response To ‘Charismatic Chaos’ (as the previous ones, but the particular book by John MacArthur).These are Position Papers of Vineyard USA.”
[ii] Pastoring LGBT Persons. P. 7-8.
[iii]Ibid. P. 7. The Executive team goes on to talk about how they might talk or write to actual LGBT persons. "If we were speaking directly to the LGBT community, we would address different questions and would prioritize the conversation about what it means to know and follow Jesus as a member of the LGBT community. This paper addresses the hermeneutics used to interpret important biblical texts and also considers the pastoral implications of those texts. If you are not actively following Jesus, or are from the LGBT community, it will be easy for you to misunderstand the thrust of our arguments as they are intended for a different audience.” I actually think the pastoring the Executive team lays out is fairly easy to understand. The chalked foul lines are clear. What is exactly is there to misunderstand? This strikes me as a little condescending towards LGBT persons - "It's hermeneutics - you won't understand." I think actually that LGBT persons, will have no trouble understanding the pastoring that the Executive team offers – it will be quite familiar.
[iv] And I do think there are significant problems as I hope to make clear, in my responses. A hugely frustrating part for me as a Vineyard pastor was how different this process felt from the path that led to the opening of all levels of leadership within the Vineyard to women. In the opening of all levels of leadership to women there was call for input from all across the Vineyard and many pastors wrote papers that were publicly available laying out their cases on either side of the argument as best as they could. Within the Great Lakes region there was a public debate that featured two pastors of the region presenting their cases on stage during the regional conference - it was a featured part of the conference. In short that process felt much more open than this process. It felt from my perspective as if there was a fear of pubic dialogue.
[v] Ibid. p. 59. Here is the baseball metaphor: “To use a baseball analogy, Vineyard USA has two clear foul lines regarding our corporate life together: one foul line concerns marriage and the other foul line concerns licensing and ordination. The baseball field that we play on is huge. We permit Vineyard churchesto be positioned on the field in different places. We will not all agree on where those positions are, but we are committed to practice generosity toward one another, so long aswe are on the field of play.
[vi] Ibid. p. 55-59. And by all means read these pages for yourself. If you do, I believe that you will find I have given a fair summary of the pastoring LGBT persons will receive in the Vineyard.
[vii] Ibid. P.6.
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