Source: Chicago Tribune, Celebrating Diversity blog
Lesbian and gay Christians and their supporters talked with members of a suburban Chicago mega-church this weekend in what was described by one participant as a "very gracious dialogue."
Members of American Family Outing were welcomed to Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, one of the Midwest's largest churches.
The group -- including Jay Bakker, the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker -- met with Willow Creek leadership, including senior pastor Bill Hybels, hoping to begin a cordial dialogue about how the church views homosexuality.
American Family Outing has been seeking this kind of dialog with several large churches throughout the US. Advocacy group Soulforce sponsors the campaign in conjunction with the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, the National Black Justice Coalition and COLAGE.
Bakker, 32, who has led his own Revolution Church since 1994, told Chicago Tribune that he was drawn to help Soulforce's efforts by the group's willingness to engage religious leaders, not fight them.
"I liked it because it wasn't protesting, it was trying to have conversation," Bakker said Sunday. "I know from experience what happens when Christians start gossiping and rejecting other Christians."
Bakker said he came under fire when he supported homosexuality and gay marriage three years ago. But he commended Willow Creek leadership for Sunday's meeting.
"They listened, they ate with us, when a lot of churches struggle to show hospitality to these groups," he said.
Willow Creek was one of the first churches to welcome Soulforce, which is based in Lynchburg, Va., to worship and engage in dialogue with Hybels, church elders and staff, said Jeff Lutes, executive director of Soulforce.
"Bill Hybels is to be commended," Lutes told Chicago Tribune. "They were the first church that responded to our letters and to begin to have conversations with us and show willingness to meet face to face. By being willing to sit down at the table with us, they've demonstrated courage."
Willow Creek is a 38-year old mega church with an average weekly attendance of over 22,000 according to Julie Nemecek's Celebrating Diversity blog. The church has 350 full-time employees, 50 part-time staffers, and 12,500 regularly serving volunteers. Their weekly budget is $550,000.
Nemecek was part of the group that met with Willow Creek members. She explained the process on her blog:
On Saturday our group met at a community center in the Boystown area of Chicago (just north of Wrigley Field). Our 29 members included two sets of parents with their adult gay sons and one set of parents who lost their daughter to suicide (as told in the award-winning documentary For the Bible Tells Me So). There was a gay couple with their three kids, a lesbian couple with their son, and a lesbian couple with their service dog, Riley. There was a straight ally (the son of evangelists Jim and Tammy Baker), a number of gay or lesbian couples and us . . . the transgender couple. There were five ordained ministers in the group, 2 PhDs and a mix of ages and sexes. Two couples have June 17th weddings planned!
Other pastors have not been as welcoming as Hybels. Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., accepted the invitation but at the last minute insisted on a debate, and Rev. Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston did not respond to Soulforce. But he welcomed Bakker when the group showed up to worship.
Betty Schmidt, an elder at Willow Creek, described Willow as a hospitable congregation, even though the church does not accept gay and lesbian members who don't stay celibate.
"It's a very warm and welcoming atmosphere," she said. "It would certainly be my experience that we would never single out or identify or discriminate against anyone."
Nemecek described on her blog the meeting with Hybels and five other church members:
Both sides shared their issues and concerns in a very gracious dialogue. The Willow Creek staff seemed genuinely taken back that our emphasis was on committed, monogamous, loving relationships and families . . . not sex.
One of our group members said, "We're just like everyone else; too busy with our lives to have much time for sex!" Pastor Hybels also responded in disbelief on hearing that many gay and lesbian Christians are being told to marry heterosexually if they expect to be part of a church.
One of team members is a survivor of "ex-gay" therapy. He went through $35,000 of therapy - including electroshock treatments - before he came to reject this hateful treatment and accept the truth at God made him as he is and the problems people had with this were their problems and not his.
Dotti Berry, visiting from Blaine, Wash. with her partner of 7 years, Roby Sapp, also participated in the group.
The activist, who was once arrested for a sit-in at the Colorado Springs headquarters of Focus on Family, told the Chicago Tribune that she hoped American Family Outing could help heal the rift between religious conservatives and gay-rights advocates.
She said it has to start with something as simple as replacing both sides' stereotypes with a human face.
"You can't hate someone whose story you know," Berry said Sunday in Fox River Grove. "My hope is that by meeting people, they'll come to realize that what they might have been taught is not computing."
Schmidt said she feels strongly that people do not choose to be gay, and many in the Soulforce group said they were happy to hear similar sentiments from several church leaders Sunday.
But others said such influential churches as Willow Creek could do more to adjust their views on homosexuality and treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender families.
"I think for instance Bill Hybels could say just a few words from his pulpit without either opposing us or condoning us to make the world a lot safer for my children," Lutes said.
Full article: Gay Christians meet with Rev. Bill Hybels and others at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington | Chicago Tribune
Soulforce, Willow Creek, and Me | Celebrating Diversity blog