It’s Gay Pride Week in Toronto, and Tim1 asked me to write an article detailing my evangelization efforts in Toronto’s LGBT community (LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). I would appreciate any useful information or criticism that readers of this blog can offer. me, as well as your prayers.
I started this ministry two years ago when I was working as an intern at a church in downtown Toronto, and I was informed that part of my internship obligations would involve three hours of evangelism each week in a café or pub, that wasn’t good news. To be honest, I find this kind of evangelism very intimidating. Unsolicited advertising does not make my style; I’m very polite!When the pastor explained to me what he expected of me, a strange scenario came to mind: me at Starbucks approaching someone who reads a book and drinks coffee, introduces myself and asks if I can sit down and talk to him. Naturally, she wants to know what I mean, so I immediately start talking about religion or Jesus, probably looking like the Mormons who showed up at her door last week while I was having dinner.
- Personally (and God uses all forms of evangelization.
- I do not make an absolute statement).
- I find that this kind of tactic is far from ideal.
- I know nothing about this person.
- And yet I interrupted his breakfast to talk about what he wanted to discuss.
- I wanted my evangelization to begin in a better and more natural way; He wanted to start the discussion in a way that was not “disgusting” or based on a forced pretext (ask for his opinion on spirituality.
- Etc.
- ).
- Besides.
- If I asked her to sit with this woman.
- Maybe she thought she was and.
- Of course.
- Living where I live.
- A man might think the same thing.
- It’s better to grab the bull by the horns soon.
- I thought.
- I’ve never been to a gay café before.
- But I thought (correctly) that some homosexuals would like a complete stranger to sit down with them and talk to them.
- And that’s what I decided to do.
Toronto’s gay neighborhood is just a ten-minute walk from my house. The first time I ventured there, I begged the Lord to show me where to go, what to do, and what to say. I was very nervous. I didn’t have a plan. I was sure that I would see all sorts of disgusting things and that I would be expelled from the establishment for spreading fundamentalist hatred, but I had to tell my pastor that I had evangelized for three hours that week, so I moved on.
The Lord has surpassed me. I stopped at the first café I saw, a Timothy’s, in the Church and Alexander neighborhood. I later discovered that it was a gay café in the Greater Toronto area (see Wikipedia article: http://en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/Church_and_Wellesley). Its clientele consists mainly of middle-aged men. I bought my coffee and looked for a place to sit. The tables were very small and the benches very close?Perfect for evangelization, though I’m sure you don’t have the original intention!
Toronto’s gay community is very close. Many of these men have known each other for many years and each one is treated by his first name, some of them were regulars of this establishment. I became friends with four of them: A. ? that he has severe cerebral palsy, which confines him to a wheelchair (which does not hinder his sex life; he told me that he had had hundreds of partners); Re. An HIV-infected drag queen who was attacked by a Catholic priest; J. ?A civil servant, recently from Ottawa; C. ? who works in the credit department of a national bank. These men accepted me as a friend and introduced me to other gay men, even though they know that I am a practicing, heterosexual, and conservative Christian who does not approve of their way of life.
Have I spoken to enough gay people to this day, almost all white and middle-aged, many of them came out of the closet after marrying and having children, for some reason 85% of them came from the Catholic context, that is to say that much of my evangelizing work is already well founded. It is not necessary to explain that the Bible has two wills, or which were Moses or Abraham, or to convince them of the historicality of the Resurrection; believe most of them. I have discovered that it is with the authority of the scriptures that I should be more concerned when dealing with them.
When I first meet someone at the café and they ask me what I’m doing (which is a natural entry point for presenting the gospel), they imagine I must be a liberal Baptist pastor. and gay, because after all, what would he be doing in his coffee?(The first man I spoke to had just broken up with her boyfriend, a Methodist pastor. )I’ll start by asking a few questions. I’ll let you talk for the next 45 minutes. I ask questions about your work, your background, your family life, your personal life, what you believe in, so you can get an idea of your epistemology and your worldview. Needless to say, I ask my questions in an educated, curious and relatively simple way, not in a formal or interrogative way. Homosexuals love to talk (at least coffee men seem to like them) and, in general, people today like to talk about “spirituality. “Then, cautiously, they inevitably ask what I believe in. Then I share the gospel with you, starting with Genesis 1, introducing you to biblical history and worldview.
Have I been able to share the gospel with many men for the past two years, even though I say things that are very offensive to the gay lifestyle?which is really his identity. I base everything I say on the authority of the Word; that is, I make clear what I am doing, that I believe that the Bible has authority for all people of all cultures and all times, because it is God’s authoritative revelation to the human being. I categorically insist on this. And I tell you that the Bible condemns me and condemns me all. He condemns me as an idother, selfish and sinful, who has taken God out of his position and put himself in the position of “owner of my own noses”. I’ve done things in my life that I’m ashamed of, and often what I’m ashamed of in the Bible says is my sin. (I discovered that these men can understand what to be ashamed of. ) I focus not on their homosexuality (what they expect from me), but on the fact that they are sinners.
It is common for them to pressure me and ask me whether practicing homosexuality is a particular expression of their sinful disposition, and I will not hesitate to say yes. When they ask me, I tell them that, personally, I would have a “live and let live” position. about everyone’s sex life, but that my opinion doesn’t matter if God, our Creator, said something different. I tell you that I know that I sound very bigoted and obtuse when I tell you that you are sinners and that your lifestyle does not please God. Who am I to tell another human being what to do based on my own authority?Then I explain that it is not because of my authority that I say these things. Accept it or not, I am completely convinced that the Bible is God’s revelation. That’s where I leave my eternal soul. Condemn me, but I have found salvation in Christ. And that condemns you. And I’m here to talk about the salvation I found in Jesus, which I think you need, that the Bible says is necessary.
In presenting the gospel in this way (which is the same way I present it to heterosexuals), have I not seen anyone angry with me because of my perceived intolerance?though I’m sure that day will come! In fact, being honest and conservative has worked in my favor, as they see that I really should care about them, to the point of entering an environment where I am a fish out of the water, to convey to them a message that I know they will take into account. it’s offensive. And I really care about them. Many of them come from contexts where they believe in something similar to what I believe in the authority of God’s Word, they come from a Catholic point of view, but they have since “evolved”. Maybe I’m young and they cheat on me in their opinion, but I’m a good guy and they realize, because they see that I love them, and a lot of times they’ll say, “On that, we’ll hear from you again. “. They like that I want to be their friend, even if I don’t approve of their beliefs. I think it shows integrity and respect; they respect that and they want to respond.
I do all this because I love the LGBT community, it is a community of individual eternal souls. Unfortunately, it is a culture that has almost no contact with Biblical Christianity of any kind. How many drag queens can a true Christian have among his friends? Too little, to our shame.
I am the pastor of a new church in central Toronto and it is my sincere prayer that God will use our people to have an impact on this spiritually neglected community. I pray for the day when transvestites can enter through the doors of our church and be welcome. with truly friendly smiles and Christian love. But before this day comes, you will need a Christian friend, whom you have learned to trust; a person who would never invite them to a place where they would be publicly attacked or humiliated; a place where everyone is on the same level, before the cross of Christ, because they are all sinners; a place where no one’s sin is considered more repugnant than that of another; a place where all sinners can sit under the sheer preaching of the Holy Scriptures and listen to the only Savior in the world and salvation only in his name.
I pray that we will be more careful with that; that while God’s sovereign grace operates through his faithful witnesses, the Church, we will see more gay men and women coming unto Christ.