MINISTRY UPDATE, JUNE 2022

?For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly

desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.?

??????? (Titus 2:11)

Most of you know, Transforming Congregations exists to equip and support WCA-affiliated, GM, and orthodox UM churches. Since our last update, April and May have been exciting and full months of ministry!

We wrapped up our local, weekly, discipleship and inner-healing support group for men and women. It was a time of going deeper with Jesus, inviting Him and His healing work into often ignored and disconnected places of pain, loss, rejection, and/or past abuse. We invite Him to do what only He is able to accomplish: set us free of the effects of the past. God is so good. Over and over again, we leaders have been highly privileged to facilitate the large group, worship, teaching, and small group prayer opportunities, seeing men and women breaking chains that bound them, to grow in their capacity to walk in freedom and their vital Kingdom purpose.

You likely recall that I have been privileged to be on the WCA?s Task Force on Sexual Holiness, Wholeness, and Brokenness. I was especially blessed to exhibit Transforming Congregations at the WCA/GMC public gathering in Indianapolis earlier this month, the day after our report was overwhelmingly approved by the Global Legislative Assembly in a vote of 221 to 9! There were so many positive conversations and a lot of enthusiasm about our Task Force report at our exhibit table. The Chair of our team presented our report before the vote, following which she heard comment after comment of affirmation for the important work and essential topic that our Task Force undertook.

I have been overjoyed to know the GMC sees the issues of sexuality and identity to be foundational areas for the Church to address with grace and truth, and such needed ministry.

In April, for the first time, Transforming Congregations and Love & Truth Network exhibited our ministries at the American Medical and Dental Association conference. Not only did we have a table in the exhibit hall, but we also were able to craft a 3 minute video that was shown during the opening general session, specifically for this particular audience, who as Christian leaders in the medical field are highly concerned about issues of life, mental health, sexuality, identity, and transgenderism ? especially when foisted upon vulnerable, confused, and struggling children.

In the last two weeks, we have offered four of our events entitled, ?Sex & Identity, a summit on God?s design? at different churches in the valley of Phoenix, AZ. This is a full-day event especially offered to equip pastors, Christian leaders, and Christian counselors, but of course anyone who is interested in these important topics (whether a learner or personally struggling) is welcome to join us. These summits are usually scheduled for a weekday to make it most available to the leaders we are working to most equip and support in these areas of need.

Whenever I/we have an opportunity to preach, teach, or share we always begin with the reality and proliferation of the sexual brokenness hiding in the shadows of the Church and lived out by many who profess faith. We then talk about the reality of our need as Christians to walk in the light and the great need for churches to become healthier environments of vulnerability, compassion, and truth. Finally, after shining a spotlight on the general brokenness within the common, everyday life of the Church, we have laid enough of an honest foundation that we can move into the LGBTQ discussion, and all the confusion, sin, and disintegration common to that perspective and way of living.

To give you a better sense of what the summit is about, I have included a simple schedule below. Our presentation has many video clips of testimonies throughout, all of them deeply connected to that segment?s topics. The time flies by. With all that?s going on in our world and country, there is always far more material than we can ever get to in just a day of teaching, sharing, and listening together.

A Summit is just one example of many ministry events that Transforming Congregations offers around the country. However, more non-denominational churches are actively seeking our guidance, teaching, and equipping, but we would love to work with more UMC, GMC & WCA-affiliated churches. Would you take time to connect us with your pastor and/or others within leadership you may know? We would so appreciate your introduction.

Sex & Identity- a summit on God's design

Schedule       9am-4pm

8:30am          Doors open- check-in, coffee, fellowship, view

                  resource materials

                  - Welcome and overview of the day

                  - Opening testimonies

                  - Laying the groundwork

9:40am         Teaching #1- Understanding sexual brokenness

                      in the Church

                  - Table group, large group discussion Q&A

11:25am       Teaching #2- Changing church culture/

                      preparing the soil

12:15pm       - Lunch/break- Table group, large group 

                       discussion, Q&A

2:00pm         Teaching #3- LGBTQ+- A Biblical,

                  compassionate response from the Church

                   - Table group, large group discussion, Q&A

3:45pm          - Wrap up, thank you & discuss

                 

A man familiar with our ministry recently introduced us to his senior pastor and asked if we could all meet over Zoom. That pastor decided to invite his associate pastor and a person from their Care Ministry. Last week, that Zoom lasted for two hours and the end result was they are making space in their teaching calendar and discipleship programming to invite our ministry to equip their leadership teams, as well as teach and challenge their congregation. It starts with an introduction and God opens the door. Would you help? 

???????Cultural Corner:

I recently saw a meme going around on social media describing one perspective on the progression of where we are as a country regarding the topic of gay-marriage and LGBTQ rights. It?s called ?The Slippery Slope?, and it begins with:

1 ?let us get married?

2 ?bake our cake?

3 ?use our pronouns?

4 ?allow minors to dance for us in drag?

5 ?let teachers choose your kid?s gender?

Before 2015, when SCOTUS took a wrecking ball to God?s design for marriage between one man and one woman and the exclusive legal recognition of that union, those who were concerned about how such a change in the law could have far reaching impact were often mocked as right-wing zealots, slippery slope conspiracy theorists, or outright bigots for wanting to reserve marriage for one man and one woman. They were accused of wanting to keep gay couples from the right to be with their partner in an emergency or medical situation, of preventing gay couples from the same recognition as heterosexual couples. I often recall hearing things like: ?gay people just want to be able to live their lives and love who they love?, or ?just live and let live?.

It was all packaged and marketed incredibly well. Most Americans want their fellow-countrymen (and women) to be happy and given fair opportunities. This has certainly become true for the LGBTQ community ? heartily so. Has there ever been a population so protected and celebrated as the LGBTQ community is today? Not one I can think of.

But, that isn?t enough. Support from the many still falls short of support from all. As long as there is still someone who believes Jesus has called us to a better way than self-gratification, unfettered sexual indulgence, and limitless gender bending confusion there will always be someone to litigate against and someone to grind into submission ? under the ironic guise of ?tolerance? and ?love? for all.

The worship of self and pleasure at the altar of sexual immorality has become the reconstituted religion of our decadent society. The only institutions standing in the way are bible-believing, orthodox churches (distinctions which, sadly, leave such churches in the minority of ?Christian? circles today). Yet, statistics reveal the hidden truth about even bible-believing churches; they are also full of sexual sin. Jesus calls us and empowers us for far more than an outward appearance of purity ? He wants the whole of us. He came to give a new identity and bring true freedom from the bondage and consequence of sin. This is the good news of the gospel.

How should we respond to the rapid decay happening all around us: within our local, state, and federal governments, within our churches, and often within our circle of friends and family? This is tragic on so many levels, not the least of which is the way our society (unmoored from even basic truths and reality) is impacting the impressionable lives of kids and young-people.

These days, I am often reminded of Paul?s words in Romans 1:22 ?Professing to be wise, they became fools.? It feels to me as though these words have never been more true than what we?re seeing play out in our society today (and in many places around the world) regarding:

• The celebration of the right to kill pre-born babies
• The epidemic of pornography use and addiction
• Sex-trafficking and sexual exploitation
• The praise and exaltation of gender-bending and identity confusion
• Anti-God/anti-Christ sentiment and rhetoric
• The general, widespread conflation of good and evil

We are a rapidly declining society, sinking into some of the worst of our human depravity, especially when we want to foist our sin and societal sexual and identity confusion onto little children. As an example, an advertisement arrived in our mail a couple days ago, for a mental health/professional counseling training event, promoting LGBTQIA2S+ ideology. Among other things it boasts:

* Support transgender and gender expansive youth as young as three years old

* Reduce the traumatic effects of shame and minority stress

* Appropriately integrate queer history and theory in therapy

In the cacophony of praise and celebration of so-called ?sexual and identity freedom? our future as a country and as the Church can appear pretty bleak (and if left unaddressed, it is), but I am actually thankful for the exposure and the blatant, obvious nature of rebellion against God and His design. If this is the reality of the cultural waters we?re all swimming in, I?m thankful that we?re beginning to understand just how afflicted the Church is and how ineffectual it has become ? not just the woke, progressive, biblically compromised churches, but also many self-described evangelical churches. Increasingly, evil is becoming darker and more unmistakable in it?s destruction, while truth and wholesomeness by contrast, are becoming more evident.

The blessing in all this cultural chaos is we can see the distinction between good and evil more clearly. This is where the Church?s role as salt and light is needed (Matt 5:13). The reason our ministry exists is for the purpose of renewal and to equip UMC and GMC pastors, leaders, and lay-people to offer real and abiding support in these areas of great need. We have to face the truth that even in orthodox churches, while we would agree with and teach Biblical truth, many have been largely blinded to how wide-spread duplicitous and hypocritical living is in nearly every church. An epidemic of sexual brokenness and addiction is being lived out in the lives of many church-going men, women, and youth.

Let?s use this clarity to both repent and prepare. As pastors and leaders, many (not all) need to repent of how alternately silent or condemning we have been on the topics of sexual sin and identity confusion. We need to repent of our ignorance, pride, and lack of compassion revealed in attitudes such as: ?people in my church don?t struggle with those things?, or ?we don?t want any of those people in our church?, etc? The truth is, ?those people? are in our churches (and some of ?those people? are in our pulpits), but sadly, they just wouldn?t dare to be known in their struggle or hope to find compassionate help and support to break through to freedom because they know their church environment isn?t safe to do so. Instead, they have resigned themselves to struggle in isolation, when God calls His Church to ?walk in the light? (1 John 1:7) and ?confess your sins to one another? (James 5:16).

To be clear, compassion is not the same thing as compromise. Truth cannot be watered down or covered in ?grace?. Authentic compassion and grace do not minimize sin ? as Titus 2:11-12 instructs us. But godly compassion and biblical grace help to make a way forward and a place to be in community and in fellowship while learning to recover ? from any number of besetting sin areas, including sexual brokenness.

I believe churches need to prepare for the harvest that?s coming as a result of the fallout of so-called ?sexual freedom?. As sure as the law of gravity, the consequences of sexual sin are real. Sexual sin and the idolatry of carving out our personal identity according to our own feelings, likes and dislikes, results in destruction. Are we as Christians, as a body of believers ready to receive those broken people who are precious to God? Like well- equipped ER doctors and nurses, is the Church preparing pastors, leaders, and all Christians to share the love, healing, and transformation that Jesus died to give us? Are we equipping people to get free themselves, and to know how to walk with others toward Jesus and into their freedom as well? God is calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light!

Your financial partnership is needed as we work to restore truth in love within the UMC and equip the GMC as well. See click here for ways to partner with us. 

???????Andrew's Story:

In 2006, I was fresh out of college. I had a career in musical theater in New York City. I was gay-identified, and I was sexually addicted. I went to auditions, occasionally did shows and regularly dated men. I was sexually involved with other men and had many one night stands, through Craigslist or other ways. I was in relationship after relationship that failed and had hookup after hookup that just made me feel bad about myself and the choices I was making. But it was what all my friends were doing. It was just life.

My lowest point came after a party that I had gone to one night with a few friends. I had gotten drunk and done drugs, so when I woke up the next morning, I didn?t remember anything from the night before. I just felt really bad about whatever had happened. I called some friends and found out that I had disrespected my friends in really bad ways and sexually assaulted another man. That?s when I knew what I was doing with my life wasn?t working. I had to do something.

I began pursuing Christian faith shortly after that, but I didn?t know how that was supposed to help me with my sexuality. A friend recommended I talk with a pastoral caregiver, who had also come out of homosexuality, and I met with him weekly for the next several years. He helped me understand why I was feeling same-sex attraction, why I had always felt different as a boy and as a man than the other ?normal? guys. I began to understand the reasons why.

One book in particular about a guy coming out of homosexuality changed my life. It resonated with me to hear someone else?s story of being gay-identified, and it gave me a vision for having intimate relationships that weren?t toxic like the ones I used to have. I also attended a support group for men struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction, heterosexual sexual addiction, and pornography addiction. I was known there, and I learned how to live honestly.

Today I am no longer sexually addicted. I?ve been sober from sexual addiction for about 13 years now. I realized my pursuit of sex with men actually came from deep emotional needs. I?ve found that having healthy, platonic relationships with them is much more fulfilling than having sexual encounters.

Several years after making these life changes, I met a woman from my church who is now my wife. We?ve been married for five years and have three children. I have crazy amazing children and a fulfilling marriage, and I?m learning how to best love her and make her feel safe and come alive. I?m a counseling pastor now, and I meet with many individuals and help them. My life looks drastically different than it did thirteen years ago, and I?m so thankful for that. ???????