Jesus announced to his hometown that he was their long-awaited messiah. The people were excited and proud. That was until Jesus announced he was also messiah to the Gentiles. The Jews, having no desire to associate with Gentiles, were outraged.…
Film Testimony on Homosexuality and Christianity Earlier this month, a video testimony was released online featuring my friend Colby Adams. The film project, called ‘Hear Me,’ was recorded by a few Moody college students, where Colby also attends. The piece centers around Colby’s journey with same-sex attractions, and his struggle with finding acceptance within the church.…
I braced myself to hear whatever came out of her mouth next. “Here’s the problem,” she began. “I want to serve and have a lot to offer. I just have some strong opinions about a few things that I won’t budge on and sense would cause problems here.”…
Below is excerpt of an email one mom sent to another. Both mom’s are walking the journey of raising a gay child. I thought what my friend shared with this particular mom was info more moms and dads need to read.…
I had a lot of great conversations around my last post. If you didn’t get to read it, here it is. I had a few conversations about the fact that a lot of the struggle is at the one-on-one level. And the question “What should I do if a student comes and says they are struggling with same sex attraction?”…
I was just at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference and sat through a workshop by Shawn Harrison, the author of Ministering To Gay Teenagers. I would definitely grab his book, it’s a great resource. The workshop was great also, but revealed that the silence of the church on this topic has placed us at a disadvantage in many ways.…
So… your mind is “made up” about homosexuality. So is mine. Can we just admit that? I will, even if you won’t. You may consider yourself open-minded. Still, where you are today is “made up” of several deep questions, ideas and experiences you’ve gleaned over time regarding the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.…
A few weeks ago, I shared some of my experiences as a gay teen in high school. I followed up that post with a plea to see gay teens beyond their sexual orientation. Both posts have sparked some great discussions online and offline, and that’s what I was aiming for.…
Last week I shared some perspectives from my story as a gay teen. This week, I would like to continue offering some perspectives that I hope help youth workers understand how most gay teens feel inside church settings. As an “out” gay teen, I was never invited to youth group or church.…
We can easily fall into the trap of only thinking about our position. It’s much tougher to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and process through what they are thinking or feeling. In hopes of helping us do that in one of the more sensitive areas of our culture, here are 6 questions I believe gay students are asking about us and our ministries: How is it possible for me to relate to Christians in a church context?…
