a slice of what?

well, it is not secret that i am the lead pastor at connection church in hickory, nc - and i might add that i love it :) i got a email from a bud, bob hyatt over at evergreen at the other side of the world [in portland] letting me know that "ingrid" was dogging connection church again - because we have a picture of a girl sitting between two guys on the front page - she thinks it has "sexual over tones." well, i did post a comment on her blog, and i guess we will see if she posts it [she approves all "first time comments" to her blog]

but now here is the dilemma i find myself in. with a new lead guy [me] and a new building, we are developing a new site - and that picture is not in the mix - but if we keep it off the mix, will she then claim it was her voice that changed our minds? do you see what i mean? do we do as we were doing, and just be who we are? for us, the picture expresses community and relationship - nothing sexual at all. then, if we do not use that picture do we look at every picture we then desire to use and think "could this be sexual?" - man, this can be a mind-blowing and weird experience. what is a off centered, connective, relational, loving, accepting, forgiving community of faith to do?

i know, while we encourage her to have her own thought, we accept the fact that her thoughts do not drive us as a community of faith. we will design the site as we desire, and use the pictures we believe best express our community. if we worry about what every person will or will not like we will be placed in fear and never move forward. we encourage her to continue to express her voice, but we also stand that we do not have to agree with her - or allow her to determine the path of connection church -