In the midst of the Polar Vortex that is gripping many of our communities, we experience the realities of loss, of new life budding, and of resurrection!  I am amazed at the number of people who contact us week after week.  It is often challenging for Wes and I to keep up with all the messages and meetings.  The stories we hear are filled with loss, with confusion, with the fight to remain hopeful.  But newness comes with connection, friendship, encouragement, sharing the journey, and support.  Devout parents unsure how to navigate their young teen’s disclosure that they think they’re gay.  Husbands coming out to wives and children and trying to discern next steps.  Gay individuals newly opening their life to Christ and wondering what that will mean.  People in mid-life finally piecing the puzzle together and recognizing their own gender dysphoria – and again – wondering what comes next.  Christians wondering what to tell their gay friends.  Families impacted by the suicide of an LGBT loved one.  In so many of the stories, there is evidence of life, there is loss to grieve, there are questions to explore, and there is the reminder to anticipate resurrection.
 
When I first came in 2002, I thought I would serve for maybe 3 years and then move on to pastor a congregation.  It seems that God had other plans.  What a privilege and challenge it has been to pastor the people that God brings to New Direction.  I cherish the opportunities to pray, on the spot, with someone in need.  I’m grateful to offer words of lament and comfort, as limited as they may be, to people who are grieving.  And I am enlivened every time I get to expound on the resurrection power of the living Christ.  I have seen too much life emerging to ever doubt God’s presence with our community.  I have experienced too much growth and hope to ever question God’s love and grace.
 
Whether we gather for a memorial to remember a transgender sister, take a road trip to worship with 700 other LGBTA Christians, offer our testimonies as part of generous spaciousness conversations, pray for each other at one of our Gatherings, encourage pastors to step up to advocate for their LGBT parishioners, work with a volunteer team to plan our retreat, weep with a mother, laugh in the office, travel through bad weather to serve a denomination, read a blog, write an article, update the website, send out receipts, have coffee with a new connection, coordinate new speaking events, go on the radio, strategize for ministry growth, spend an hour responding to an email …… we are grateful to experience God’s presence leading, guiding, and equipping us to share the love of Christ.
 
Thank you for praying for us as a community!  Your prayers, in partnership with the Spirit’s presence, bring us from loss to resurrection!

Some of you may know that I'm currently a distance learning PhD student at the University of Birmingham, UK. My dissertation is focusing on dialogue (or lack thereof!) between Evangelical or Pentecostal and GLBT (Queer) theologians. It is amazing but fraught work, as you all might imagine. But Wendy's invitation to join the Generous Spaciousness team gave me something I didn't fully expect: clear evidence that dialogue about faithful sexuality was already happening among God's people! My first theology professor said to we newbies on our first day: "All of you are theologians. The question is, 'Are you a good one'? I have seen with my own eyes that ordinary Christians of varying convictions about holy sexualities are having faithful conversations together, and believe me, it is something you've gotta see to believe!