By Hayley Beckett on 25th November 2019
A beautiful endeavour?
EBA recently hosted a day to enable church leaders to consider how they might enable a conversation in their church around issues relating to same sex relationships. The day (held four times across the EBA) was facilitated by Rev Steve Elmes, who has led his own church in having this conversation and written several books on the subject. The latest, A Beautiful Endeavour, is intended to be a resource for churches that are engaging in conversations on this sensitive subject and provided the focus for the second half of the day. The first part of the day was spent exploring some of the different cultural, scientific and biblical perspectives on same sex attraction and relationships. The day was intended to be a conversation starter and illustrate how a conversation could take place in local churches rather than being a teaching session on ‘what the Bible says about…’ The process that Steve described does not assume any particular starting point or end point for a church relating to their view of same sex relationships, but it does offer hope that a church might learn to ‘disagree well’ at the very least, recognising that in many churches there will be a range of views. We were pleased that feedback received afterwards has been generally positive about the approach taken and the model offered.
At the end of the day it was suggested that if a church wanted to engage in a Beautiful Endeavour style conversation it might be helpful for someone from outside to lead that. EBA would be willing to help you find someone who can do this and also offer this sort of preliminary day again to groups of churches, if requested. Do contact one of the Regional Team if you believe we can be of help.
Steve’s books are listed here: https://amazon.co.uk/Stephen-Elmes/e/B01MRHSEO5?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1574420002&sr=8-1
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