Cascade Community Church
Our Pastor
Pastor Karl Selman has 40 plus years of experience in active Christian ministry. He was ordained in 1968, was the Associate Pastor of two churches and Pastor of a third church prior to accepting the call to Pastor our church in 1981.
A
Word from Our Pastor
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I pray that each of you have had a wonderful summer and fall filled with lots of outdoor activities and fun in the sun here in our fair but now quite chilly city of Akron, Ohio. I know most of us took time out to give thanks to God for all our wonderful blessings this Thanksgiving Day. Now once again it is time to prepare for winter and sort through all our Christmas decorations as we begin to prepare for the Christmas season. Many of us will be out shopping and buying gifts for those special people in our lives. As we make all these efforts and preparations let's always remember that our main focus should always be to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My prayer is that this season will also be a time of blessing and renewal for each of us as we remember and celebrate all that this Season means to us and to the world of which we are a part. May our God richly bless each and every one of you.
Over that past few years we have seen a dramatic increase in harassment and violence directed at members of the GLBT community and even many times against someone who is suspected of being GLBT or just different. There have been so many young people who have decided to end their lives rather than continuing to be harassed every day by some of their peers. As a person who had to endure that type of harassment growing up, I really know what they are going through. My family discovered that I was might be gay when I was about 13. I remember the shame and embarrassment which followed. My Mother had a hard time looking at me for a long time and my Father told me that he was not going to have a queer for a son. He gave me an ultimatum that either I change or he would have me institutionalized, possibly for the rest of my life. My Mother went on to contact the Mothers of some of my best friends so that they could question them as well to find out where I could have possibly learned this behavior. As you can guess the next couple years for me were not very pleasant. It seemed like everyone knew and everyone was judging me and many harassed and made fun of me. I was able to make it through those years by turning to God and with His help and direction in my life, I eventually made it through those difficult years. For those of you going through that type of harassment today, you have so many places to turn for help and support. When I was young there wasn't anyone to help other than God. Now there are many support groups, counselors, the internet, and yes many churches who have become enlightened on the subject and are more than ready and willing to give you the love and support you need to get through those difficult years. IT DOES GET BETTER!!!!!
Many of you may be surprised that I would turn to God since most of us had been taught that God doesn't love us or that God loves the sinner but hates the sin nonsense. Well, for me I am very glad I turned to God. In the beginning I wanted to be like everyone else, so I turned to God asking to be changed or healed. I began a journey which has brought me to where I am today. I would spend plenty of time praying and asking God to change me. Some nights I would fall asleep with the Bible on my head begging God for deliverance. I prayed, I fasted, I got in so many prayer lines hoping to be healed but nothing about my orientation ever changed. I used to argue with God and beg Him to help me understand why I was different. I felt as though I was being punished but I couldn't understand why. I would say God, "I'm too young to have done anything bad enough for this kind of punishment." I remember one night in desperation I prayed and said to God, "I know You have the power to change me and tonight I am praying that You will make that change for me or I will accept that this is the way you wanted me to be all along." In the morning when I awoke, I was still gay. I said to God, "why am I not healed?" and God spoke to me and said, "Karl, you are exactly the way I made you." I became very bitter and angry with God. I really did want to be like everyone else. I did not want to be gay. It is not easy to be different than most everyone else that you know and associate with. These people who keep saying people choose to be gay really have to be delusional. I said to God, "fine with me, I don't want anything more to do with You or the church." I decided to leave it all behind and go out into the world and have a good old time; no God, no church, and no religion. What I didn't realize at the time was that God was not going to leave me. You can run away from God but God will never leave you or forsake you no matter what you do or where you go.
I remember not long after that I was in a gay club having a drink one evening and a very handsome guy walked in and set down next to me. To my amazement, he began talking to me about God and telling me that he too used to be gay and how God had delivered him from homosexuality. After going through that experience for ten years I could not believe what I was hearing. I told him that I too had prayed and fasted for many years and that nothing in my life had ever changed. I just could not understand why God was dealing differently with him than He did with me. So I asked him, "are you are telling me that you are no longer gay?" He said yes, that he was not gay any more. So I said, "you are actually telling me that you are no longer attracted to men?" He then began to him-haw around and he then told me that to be totally honest he was still attracted to men but whenever the urge to act on those feelings became too strong he would pray and God would help him overcome his urges. I looked at him like he was loony and I said the obvious, "YOU ARE STILL GAY." Everything he had just told me was only wishful thinking on his part. This event was definitely the first of many confirmations for me that all these people going around pretending to be changed are ALL just like me an we are ALL just fine because we are ALL exactly the way God intended for us to be. Later on after returning to God and joining Cascade Community Church, I would meet a woman minister who spent many years involved in an ex-gay ministry out in California. She also told me that in all her years of working in that ministry, she never actually saw one person ever have their orientation changed by God or by any of the so called reparative therapies that they tried to use to help GLBT folks attempt to change. She went on to write four books about her experiences and has since went on to her reward. Thank God, some people are open minded enough to see the truth and realize that God has a plan for all of our lives and that we are not all meant to be carbon copies of one another. Some day the church will have to repent for their poor judgment and conduct towards God's GLBT children.
This year my Christmas message for all who read this letter is that life not only does "Gets Better" no matter what the circumstances may be, but also, if you place your trust in God who loves ALL of us unconditionally, God will help you through the rough times and will always be your best friend and guide to be enable you to become the person He intends for you to be. You will have to stop listening to all those people who may be or may not be well intentioned, but are there to cause you harm and/or confusion. God is not the author of confusion but of love, peace and a sound mind. God has provided a place for all His children to come and sit at his table. He welcomes every one who will heed his invitation to "Come unto Me ALL of you who are burdened and I will give you rest" and "Whosoever will, let them come and partake of the Water of Life freely." Always remember the story of the Samaritan women at the well. When Jesus walked up and asked her for a drink of water she was surprised that He was even talking to her. She asked if He knew who she was and his reply to her was, "If you only knew who I am, it would be you asking me for a drink and I would giving you living water." In her day she was considered to be someone no descent person of God would associate with but Jesus demonstrated to the world that God does not discriminate or look down on anyone. He loves us ALL without condition and is more than willing to embrace ALL who will open their hearts to His love. This Christmas Season let us all make the choice to follow and worship Jesus Christ and allow Him to embrace us with His love, His grace, and His mercy. Let each of us become all that we can be for Him and for His church.
May our God and our Savior richly bless you and your family throughout this Season of Advent as we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And let us always remember that God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others. May you and yours have a very Blessed Christmas!!!
Your
Pastor and Friend,
Karl