I’ve had all kinds of comments, complaints & questions from a variety of angles about “THE CALL”. The call is a prayer gathering supported by churches from all over California & especially here in San Diego.
If you read the comments to the posts you know there have been complaints about Lou Engle who has been critical in putting these things together – some of his theology. You can google him yourself & read the criticisms.
I have had complaints about the politicizing of the Church. This complaint revolves around The Calls relationship to efforts to pass Prop 8. Some people at Journey have said something along these lines: I thought we are staying out of the political fray, the Call is all about the political fray, why are we promoting it.
I have had people that are disappointed that we have not been more involved in the political fray & haven’t been more involved in with the churches & pastors that have spearheaded this effort.
I have my own concerns & questions about the event. I’m sure there will be somethings that I would do differently, some that make me uncomfortable & some with which I will disagree.
So in short, Ed’s taking it in the shorts from multiple directions. No worries. Most of the comments have been of good spirit & sincere concern to do the best we can as a Church.
Without re-preaching my messages on gay marriage that I did in July (you can get them free off the podcast – see an earlier post on how to do this) or without rewriting the earlier blog posts about Journey’s approach, let me tell you why we promote The Call & why I’m increasingly glad that we have.
PRAYER – The Call is a call to pray. This is critical to all that the church is about. I’m anxious to pray with people from all over SD, CA & the entire country.
KAIROS – This is a Kairos moment for our nation. It is a crossroad time. How can we not see this with the structure of our economy melting down, a nation split down the middle like never before, tons of precarious issues to sort through.
UNITY – This is a rare thing for us to come together. It would be great if we were coming together to pray under different circumstances, but come together we should. Nothing is perfect. Part of the reason I am glad we are supporting The Call is the respect that it is showing to other churches, pastors & spiritual leaders in San Diego.
MARRIAGE – Because we have not made the political battle over marriage our focus does not mean that we don’t desire marriage between a man & a woman to be the norm in our culture & the foundation of our understanding of the family. We may have differing opinions about political solutions & how we as people who’s 1st loyalty is to Jesus’ power under Kingdom should function in the power over world of politics, but all Biblically informed people should desire Plan A to be held up as Plan A.
Is The Call perfect? Is it exactly what I or you would design? No! Will the media mis-report & misconstrue it! Surly! But pray we should! We must!
