9I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”[

As I value my life and sanity, I refuse to go even within hailing distance of that…

Run away, run away!!!

They must be female.

Thank you.

To look at it in that way from the POV of the OP (my days with YWAM coming back to me with so many initials, LOL , if some people who were claiming to be Christians were reluctant to give up a lifestyle the Bible says is unacceptable, then really what choice did the churches have but to turn them away? Perhaps we could say the churches should have done it in a more caring way, but that doesn’t excuse those who want to both be considered respectable Christians while also living in blatant disregard of biblical morality.

David, would you mind being more specific re: your time at Grace. On a different note, you stated: The Shepherds’ Conference is a place for like minded people. Of course it is…to a degree–although, last year probably brought to the surface an issue that has largely been ignored/not discussed at previous conferences, i.e. JM’s opening message centered on his opinion that all Calvinists should be Premill. (Interesting he would make that statement with R.C. Sproul as one of the keynote speakers and knowing that a significant number of attendees lean toward an Amill view) Back to your statement, I would think the same to be true of a conference hosted by Rob Bell’s church.

If anything, Paul does seem to stress the sinful behavior of those who are fellow believers as being at times grounds for not fellowshiping with them. He tells the Thessalonians to not fellowship with those who were idle and busybodies, while not treating them as enemies. He tells the Corinthians to remove a sexually immoral man from their fellowship in the first letter, while in the second he says that as the man has repented he should be welcomed back.

The standard seems to be higher for believers then for nonbelievers.

Keith, my point is that most people are a lot nicer to agreeable and like minded people. I am that way too, and how I behave around those who share the same mindset as I do is a lousy indicator of my character.

I kind of think so.

I could never meet these nice fellows there. It seems like we further quantify the statement “friends of sinners” the more we delve.