Going Deeper: For those who affirm LGBT people and want to expand their welcome to LGBT persons and beyond.

Debra Haffner, 2012 (format: Book)

Outlines the building blocks of a sexually healthy faith community. Sections rigorously examine sexually healthy religious professionals, worship on sexuality issues, pastoral care on sexuality, youth and adult sexuality education, safe congregations policies, welcoming and affirming programs, and how congregations can advocate for sexual and spiritual wholeness in their communities.

(categories: All, Christian Family and Community, Going Deeper, Pastoral Care)

All in God’s Family: Creating Allies for Our LGBT Families

(format: book)

A curriculum available for the Institute for Welcoming Resources which includes the All in God’s Family curriculum guide, the book Families Like Mine, the video In My Shoes: Stories of Youth with LGBT Parents, and the CD-ROM That’s So Gay: Portraits of Youth with LGBT Parents. This curriculum gives you opportunities to gather with other members of your congregation to pray, to learn, to share, and to work together to transform your lives, your congregation, and your world into a loving place in which God’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families can thrive.

(categories: About Youth, All, Being an Ally, Christian Family and Community, Christian Marriage and Equal Marriage, Going Deeper, Personal Stories)

Being In Relationship: A New Way to Talk with Black and White Theologically Conservative Christians about the Place of Lesbian and Gay People in Our Families, Our Churches and Society.

(format: book)

Being in Relationship from Auburn Seminary is a guide for conducting discussions around LGBTQ issues across racial and theological divides. As can always be expected from Auburn Seminary, this resource is well researched and well presented.

(categories: All, Being an Ally, Discernment and Discussion, Going Deeper, Justice Work, Preparing for the Journey)

Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing

Dennis A. Jacobsen, 2001 (format: book)

Doing Justice is an introductory theology of congregation-based community organizing rooted in the day-to-day struggles and hopes of urban ministry and in the author’s 14 years of personal experience in community organizing ministries. Recommended for any interested in a biblically and theologically grounded foundation for justice work.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, Justice Work, Theology)

Evangelism 101

UCC Open and Affirming Coalition, 2015 (format: free-download)

Is evangelism a dirty word in your church vocabulary? Does it make you think of preachers with fire and brimstone sermons and people who knock on your door with tracts about hell and damnation?

No! Our Open & Affirming presence in the Christian Church is, itself, evangelism, witnessing to the good news that all are welcome at the table of God’s love.

Evangelism is all about making good on our commitment to be open about our affirmation and being active ministers of God’s affirming love for all.

This slide show from Andy Lang, Executive Director of the UCC Open & Affirming Coalition, shows how evangelism is a coming out, speaks to your neighbors both LGBT and straight, and is especially important to reaching young adults.

(categories: All, Going Deeper)

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ

Patrick S. Cheng, 2012 (format: Book)

Struggling with the doctrines of sin and grace, Cheng argues that people need to be liberated from the traditional crime-based model of sin and grace and proposes a Christ-centered model that is based upon the ancient doctrine of theosis, or deification, in which sin and grace are defined in terms of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. This accessible work will serve as a useful resource for all people who struggle to make sense of the traditional Christian doctrines of sin and grace in the twenty-first century.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, Theology)

Justice Calls: Sermons of Welcome and Affirmation

Phil Snider, 2016 (format: book)

In Justice Calls, Disciples Pastor Phil Snider collects sermons that add compelling clarity to the growing chorus of Christian voices that are passionate about LGBTQ justice and equality–not in spite of their faith but precisely because of it.

With a combination of pastoral sensitivity, scholarly insight, and courageous vision, these sermons are a must-read not only for LGBTQ people longing to know they don’t have to deny their religious convictions in order to embrace their sexuality and/or gender identity, but also for people of faith who wonder if they have to disregard the Bible in order to fully accept their LGBTQ neighbors, friends, and family members.

Justice Calls includes sermons and essays from many well known Disciples pastors and scholars: Rita Nakashima Brock, Derek Penwell, Sandhya Rani Jha, Christian Piatt, Glen Miles, and a host of other excellent writers.

This volume is an ideal resource for small groups, Sunday school classes, preachers, church leaders, and all people everywhere who are interested in recognizing how the rich resources in the Bible can be cultivated in order to celebrate–rather than condemn–LGBTQ friends and neighbors.

Starting with the call for equality and ending with a call for the transformation of the church, this volume walks the journey of God’s affirming love for all with both care and courage.

(categories: All, Being an Ally, Going Deeper, Inclusion and Welcome, Personal Stories, Preaching Resources, Reflections and Musings, The Curious, Theology)

Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice

(format: website)

Many Voices is committed to creating a national movement for gay and transgender justice from within the Black church, providing quality materials for use in African American and all churches.

(categories: Additional Resources, African American, All, Going Deeper)

Ministry Among God’s Queer Folk: LGBT Pastoral Care

DavidJ Kundtz,. Bernard S. Schlager, 2007 (format: Book)

Ministry Among God’s Queer Folk from The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA, is does an excellent job of doing several jobs at once:

• being a clear, concise, and comprehensive read on the pastoral care of LGBTQ folk,
• providing information about LGBTQ folk succinctly and remaining both accurate and accessible to those seeking an introduction to LGBTQ ministry,
• providing a deeper, broader and coherent perspective on the the pastoral care of LGBTQ persons to those already involved in ministry,
• clearly laying out the practical and theological case for caring for the broad range of the LGBTQ persons needs ranging from the personal to the systemic.

Any seminarian, pastor, elder, or church leader interest in the pastoral care of LGBTQ people should read this book and have it at the ready for review and reference.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, Pastoral Care)

My Mind Was Changed: A New Way to Talk with Conflicted Christians about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in Church and Society

(more information)

Auburn Seminary (format: book)

Shares a new way to talk about LGBT dignity that helps conflicted Christians move through religious and emotional conflicts to become more supportive of equality. Meant for those who are working to craft a message about LGBT issues.

(categories: All, Being an Ally, Discernment and Discussion, Going Deeper, Justice Work)

Open Hands Magazine

Institute for Welcoming Resources, 1985-2002 (format: Free Download)

The LGBT Religious Archives Network, in collaboration with the Institute of Welcoming Resources, hosts an online exhibit displaying the complete run of the award-winning Open Hands magazine. This long-running journal—exploring the intersections of Christianity and LGBT concerns—began publishing in 1985 as Manna for the Journey by the Reconciling Congregation Program (United Methodist). Years later Open Hands became an ecumenical magazine, co-published with Welcoming Church Programs in other faith traditions. Publication ceased in 2002.

You can download and peruse individual issues, each of which explored a particular theme related to LGBT concerns and Christianity. Or you can search the entire collection for the appearance of particular persons or subjects since the exhibit is fully text-searchable.

The great diversity of writers appearing in Open Hands over the years includes most of the major thinkers and activists in LGBT Christian movements of the 1980s and 1990s. Through the issues of Open Hands you can trace the unfolding of much of the ideological and strategic thought that propelled and undergirded these movements.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, The Curious)

Opening the Door to the Inclusion of Transgender People: The Nine Keys to Making LGBT Organizations Fully Transgender-Inclusive

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 2008 (format: Free Download)

A publication from The National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Opening the Door covers practical ways to include transgender people in a fully inclusive community.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, Transgender)

Out In Scripture

Religion and Faith Program of the Human Rights Campaign (format: Website)

Out In Scripture is a resource providing an lgbt perspective on biblical liberation and justice for preachers based on the Revised Common Lectionary.

(categories: All, Bible Study, Going Deeper, Preaching Resources)

Qu(e)erying Evangelism: Growing a Community From the Outside In

Cheri DiNovo, 2005 (format: book)

The book chronicles DiNovo’s own attempts as a minister to expand the membership of a rapidly shrinking congregation in a poor, inner city Toronto neighborhood. As a result, DiNovo discovers that, in her congregation’s decision to evangelize among the marginalized and “queer” in their neighborhood, church members are radically changed. Qu(e)erying Evangelism answers the following questions: How do we understand evangelism biblically and in a completely new way? How does one be a queer theologian in a traditional pastorate and not only be faithful to a queer Christ but grow a congregation with all sorts of differences of opinion? How does the presence of the transgendered/transsexual-or indeed everyone perceived as different-challenge both the theology and praxis of a mainline denomination?

From the first chapter:

Like other colleagues in inner-city inclusive ministry, I wanted to try all the techniques of church growth that emanated from places like Willow Creek Church in Chicago. Surprisingly, I discovered that not only did the techniques not transfer effectively to our inner-city, queer-positive context, but that they were predicated on a vacuous theology with more in common with colonialism than with scriptural conversion. Clergy and laity who felt like failures because their churches did not grow numerically, and who feared the death of an inclusive Christianity that plagued them, became another group needing evangelism. How to speak faith to them? How to speak faith to ourselves?

That attendance at our evening or morning service grew ceased to be for me the primary question of my or our evangelical ministry. My own struggle with the discipline of being Christian became and is still focused on ignoring those very numbers. To read anything into the numbers that join or attend our church except our ability to be hospitable, I consider a temptation. Our struggle is to be faithful, to be hospitable, to be nonjudgmental. As we succeed in that, we are caught up in evangelism, we are getting out of the way of the Holy Spirit. For us, what is much more significant than the numbers attending is that the queerest among us feel welcomed, and that we can allow ourselves to show our own queerness.

Qu(e)erying Evangelism can be read online here or bought at the link above.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, Inclusion and Welcome, Pastoral Care, Preaching Resources)

Queer Lessons for Churches on the Straight and Narrow

Cody J. Sanders, 2013 (format: book)

Queer Lessons for Churches on the Straight and Narrow is about changing the questions we ask about sexuality, gender identity, and faith. The author helps us imagine new pathways into old conversations by shifting our attitude from one of suspicious scrutiny toward LGBTQ people to one of compassionate curiosity. Less concerned with answering questions, it aims to cultivate our imagination for asking new questions. Sanders asks, “What can all Christians learn from LGBTQ people that will enhance our lives and strengthen our communities of faith?” Lessons are offered on the themes of relationship, community, faithfulness, love, violence, and forgiveness.

(categories: All, Discernment and Discussion, Going Deeper, Preaching Resources)

Queering Christianity: Finding a Place at the Table for LGBTQI Christians

Robert Everett Shore-Goss, Thomas Bohache, Patrick S.Cheng, Ramona Faye West, 2013 (format: Book)

This compilation of essays by LGBTQI scholars in religion summarizes LGBTQI theology and explores its relationship to traditional Christianity. Contributors contrast the “radically inclusive” thinking of LGBTQI theology with the “exclusivity” practiced by many Christian churches, explaining the reasoning of each and clarifying contentious issues. At the same time, the book highlights ways in which “queer” theology and practice benefit Christian congregations. This book creates a starting point for dialogue and offers practical suggestions for Christian congregations that wish to put aside exclusionary policies and practices.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, Theology)

Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology

Patrick S. Cheng, 2011 (format: Book)

Radical Love – a love so extreme that it dissolves our existing boundaries – gay/straight, male/female, life/death, divine/human. Radical Love is an excellent introduction into how queer theology works.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, Theology)

Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the Other and the Spirit of Transformation

Stephanie Spellers, 2006 (format: Book)

A practical theological guide for congregations that want to move beyond mere inclusivity toward becoming a place where welcoming “the other” is taken seriously and engaging God’s mission becomes more than just a catch-phrase.

Read the review of Radical Welcome published in Crossbeams.

Don’t miss the resources available online. Click here for study guides and tools for reflection, assessment, and implementing Radical Welcome.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, Inclusion and Welcome)

True Inclusion

Brandan Robertson, 2018 (format: book)

From Mark Johnston:

Here’s what I have to say about True Inclusion by Brandan Robertson – Don’t read this book unless you want to be challenged: challenged to love, love yourself, God, and neighbor; challenged to include, to truly include; challenged to love as Christ loves us; challenged to walk the gospel road of inclusion. True Inclusion is written with a style and a viewpoint that is grounded in evangelical Christianity yet will challenge us all to continue our journey, working to build the Kingdom of God “where there is unity in the midst of great diversity, where we are not forced to abandon the multiplicity of identities that make us unique, but where the gifts that those identities produce are embraced and celebrated.”

See the Q&A with author Brandan Robertson in this AllianceQ Crossbeams newsletter article.

(categories: All, Going Deeper, Inclusion and Welcome)