Just a couple of things I want to share with you today. First, please pray for the General Assembly today as it will be a long day (we are scheduled to meet until midnight tonight) and we are addressing a number of weighty (and potentially controvesial) matters. Secondly yesterday the Overtures Committee that I am serving on was called to reconvene to reconsider Overture 23. This overture deals with men who identify as “gay Christians”, “same sex attracted Christians”, etc. We had already spent 3-5 hours the day before discussing this overture and came out of the meeting very divided. The result being that we had a majority report and a minority report to submit to the General Assembly. However, after this initial meeting on this matter, a group of brothers who held opposing views on the matter began to talk and inquire into what it was exactly that they disagreed on. As a result of this conversation they came up with a response to the overture that they felt that all might agree upon. So the Overtures Committee met yesterday to reconsider our decision on overture 23 using what our brothers crafted. Long story short, after 3 more hours of deliberation yesterday (and the wheels of the bus almost falling off a number of times) we passed a new response to overture 23 that is even better than our earlier one! And the good news is that it brought us closer together as brothers in Christ, simply because a few brothers inquired, listened and spoke honestly in love. What a great reminder for us all!!! (Needless to say, we closed the Overtures Committee with a song of praise.)
