Missionality and the GLBT Community

Andrew Marin, the primary blogger for Love Is an Orientation recently began a series of posts about his life in Boystown, Chicago's primary gay neighborhood. His organization, The Marin Foundation, tries to build bridges, break down stereotypes, and open up conversation between the Christian and GLBT (Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Trangender) communities. At the very center of his ministry is the recognition that the attractional model is doomed because of Christian's actions in the past, as well as the stereotypes of both communities created in our culture. We cannot expect to bring in to our churches today a group that has been the victim of countless attacks from within the church throughout our entire history. In his book UnChristian, David Kinnamen provides countless statistics and research on the perception of the church by outsiders. At the top of his list of negative perceptions of Christianity is that it is anti-homosexual, a view held by 91 percent of the participants in the survey described in his book. To be clear, this does not mean that 91 percent of Christians are actually anti-homosexual. Rather, it means that there is a tremendously strong preconception that the Church is actively against homosexuality. 

If we are to reach out to this specific community, we cannot do it without actively seeking to break down barriers and dispel stereotypes about ourselves as followers of Christ. Andrew Marin's approach of physically living in the midst of those who he is trying to reach right here in our own country, epitomizes just how challenging, but also rewarding being missional can be. In the second post of his series on living in Boystown, (http://www.loveisanorientation.com/2010/part-2-life-in-boystown/) Marin describes an encounter he had with a gay man on the bus. Marin was reading Come Be My Light, by Mother Teresa, when the man commented on his book, said he'd read it, and proceeded to start crying and tell Andrew about the book had helped him understand that even if he felt far from God, God was near to him. This sort of conversation does not happen by standing within the foyer of your church and waiting for somebody to come in. It happens by giving your own life incarnationally to whatever community God has in store for you.

Noah P.