The theme of the second week of Advent is Peace. Peace can be an elusive feeling for those of us who are LGBTQ+ Christians and are in the midst of processing our sexuality and gender identity. It is often a long journey toward peace with ourselves, peace with God, peace with church, and peace with our…
This month, we’ll be posting some thoughts from members of our community on the four themes of Advent: hope, peace, joy, and love. This week, we’ll be focusing on HOPE. Hope can be a loaded word for LGBTQ+ Christians. Many of us have spent our lives hoping and praying that God would make us straight and cisgender, and now realize…
In my introductory post, I reminded us that we all have LGBTQ+ youth in our midst whether we are aware of them specifically or not. Now we are beginning to look at how to prepare our ministries to approach and respond to particular situations that may arise, and since this past Saturday was National Coming Out Day, I think it’s…
Regardless of how long you’ve been in youth ministry, you’ve likely had some questions about how to navigate the topics of gender and sexuality with youth from a variety of backgrounds, assumptions, and experiences. For the past decade I have worked in youth ministry in the context of Baptist churches, though since Sept. 2014 I’ve…
After we come out of the closet, we often experience strain or breakdown in some of our friendships. Sometimes we’re not even sure exactly why these friendships are fading away. Caitlyn Spence, one of the members of our Vancouver Generous Space group, wrote about one such friendship in the hauntingly beautiful piece below. We’re grateful for her permission to share it here, and we hope…
Several members of the New Direction community face daily battles with depression and other forms of mental illness. The rejection, marginalization and isolation they often experience as LGBTQ+ Christians can exacerbate these realities. One of our hopes at New Direction this year is to talk more about mental illness and de-stigmatize it. Together, we can learn how…
Middle section, second pew from the front, left side. That’s where my family sat every Sunday morning. It provided easy access to the stage for my pastor dad, who was always positioned closest to the aisle. It gave me a sense of being under the watchful gaze of the whole congregation: significant, but scrutinized. Sunday…
Timothy Kincaid is a “blogger friend” who I’ve had the privilege of engaging on a couple of different blogs: Warren Throckmorton and ExGayWatch. He regularly writes on Box Turtle Bulletin. Timothy is a gay Christian who I have found to be insightful and respectful. Timothy wrote this piece as a comment on another blog and…
Ok…. so we got this email today through one of our other websites: “I am a concerned nieghbor of a lesbian couple and wish to send them some info on how to become a christian and distance themselves from there unGodly life style they are currently leading. They are very unhappy people and we believe…