Reconciling Ministries Network

The end of the beginning...

by Joey Heath

What a victory for the equality of all people especially lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (lgbtq) people. Judge Walker has ruled that it violates the US Constitution to discriminate against lgbtq people by denying them access to marriage. This ruling says there is not “gay marriage” or “straight marriage” only marriage which is open to all people and can not be denied to anyone. It says that in no way are lgbtq couples inferior to heterosexual couples. This is such a momentous step and it could be the beginning of dominoes toppling. I can see it coming. First the overturning of this discriminatory law is upheld and then equality begins to pick up momentum. Before long another discriminatory marriage law is struck down and then another and then another just like dominoes each one leading to another falling until finally all the laws discriminating against lgbtq people are gone. What a time to be alive, to see equality become a reality. But we are not there yet.

I believe it was Winston Churchill who first used the phrase “the end of the beginning”. This is where I believe we are, moving from the beginning of our struggle to the middle. We are not at the end and those who oppose equality are only going to push back harder. We can not get complacent and assume victory will come because if we do then the progress we are making will be lost. Celebrate our victory today and then tomorrow get up and continue the struggle. There is still so much work to do before we will have full equality for all people.

Then of course we can not forget that even as it looks like there will be equality under the law we still do not have equality in the United Methodist Church. Membership. The Book of Discipline still contains the discriminatory and untrue language that states “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teachings”. In 2012 we will meet again for General Conference this time in Tampa and I am sure we will once again bring the issue of equality to the table. This means we have a little less than two years to help shape the way the General Conference will vote on the issues of equality and inclusion. This is a huge task but one that is not beyond our reach if we spend the next two years telling our stories and speaking out for the cause of inclusion. Talk to the people in your congregation, talk to your neighbors, talk to your co-workers, talk to everyone, and tell them about God's inclusive love and why it is so important for us as the church to be open and welcoming to all people. The world is changing and it is an exciting time to be alive. Let us pray that as the world moves forward so the church will also.

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

UMC Don't Ask Don't Tell

by Joey Heath

With all the talk recently about the possible repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, it got me to thinking about the United Methodist Churches stances. Currently the UMC Book of Discipline states that “The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church” (UMC Book of Discipline 304.3). This is an interesting stance for a church that claims “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” because it does not seem very open.

What this policy does is it takes those who are seeking ordination or are currently ordained and who also identify as Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual (we currently have no policies concerning being transgender though sadly this means we have no protections either) and forces them into a church don't ask don't tell policy. Basically by coming out and living with integrity those called by God are denied their calling. How can we do this? How can we turn away those called by God? If God approves of an individual enough to call them into God's service how can we deny them? What makes this stance even more interesting is that we know there are LGB pastors in the UMC who are forced to hide. We have already recognized their gifts and calling to the ministry and taken them all the way through our very long and complicated process for ordination. They are succeeding in ministry but only at the cost of their integrity.

You would think that we would want our pastors to live with integrity as this is a Christian value, but I guess in the UMC we do not. We would rather our pastors lie about who they are. We would rather them lie about who they love. We would rather them deny their own families. This forces our pastor to choose between a Holy calling and living lives with integrity. Who are we to force individuals to make this choice? Sadly many are making this choice and too many are choosing to live with integrity and leave our denomination. We are losing many of our best and brightest. This not only does a disservice to those individuals affected by our policies; we are also hurting ourselves as the church by turning away qualified and talented individuals.

There is hope though. The Book of Discipline states in our social principles that “we affirm that all persons are individuals of sacred worth, created in the image of God” (UMC BOD 161H). We would do well to remember that we believe all people including LGBTQ persons are created in the image of God. Maybe then we would begin to realize how destructive our currently policies truly are and we would begin to repent of our past and move towards a future that is truly inclusive of all of God's beloved creation.

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

Call to Truth

by Joey Heath

I have just finished my first year of seminary. One-third of my theological education is now behind me and what a journey it has been so far. The passion I had for social justice has been magnified ten-fold. If I have taken anything from this semester it is that we as Christians must live out social justice and we must reach out to the oppressed and needy in all the ways we can. This is our calling “we love because he first loved us. Those who say 'I love God' and hate their brothers and sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, can not love God whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:19-20). This is our truth from Jesus Christ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). The message of the Gospel is love and redemption two things I very much believe in. So in that spirit I have written this call to truth.

We are called to be a witness to that which we believe to be truth. Truth may cost us but that is what is demanded for the practitioners of faith. It is this push that may result in a violent push back but in that push back the victory is already won. Jesus came and was crucified in an act of violent push back. At first glance this may seem to make Jesus weak. As the story goes the powerful Roman Empire has destroyed the Savior who meant to bring redemption and if that was the end of the story it would be it would be defeat. But that is not because Jesus rose again on the third day. Jesus gave us the model for witness to truth and now we are called to witness. The time of sitting just back in our pews on Sunday mornings is over. We must continue to push back as the vocal minority until we find ourselves in the majority. Changing hearts and minds will not happen overnight but it will happen if we continue to speak up and speak out. If we truly begin to Believe Out Loud.

Today there is a powerful change underway, with a great amount of push back against inclusion of the LGBTQ community. But people of faith are coming together and saying enough is enough, our LGBTQ brothers and sisters have been treated as second class citizens for far too long. We all must join the chorus of voices crying this message. So I implore you, Speak Out. Come Out. Tell your stories. Because I tell you this truth, if we stand in solidarity we can and will create change and bring the world just a little closer to looking like the Kingdom of God it was intended to be.

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

Called by God - Part 2

by Joey Heath

As part of my seminary education I am required to do two academic years of intern placement in ministry setting. Since I plan to seek ordination and hopefully will enter into local parish ministry I have been looking at several churches as possible options for my placement. One of the questions that is asked by the pastors I am interviewing with is about my call story or why I feel called to ministry and why I want to be a pastor. It is a question that I have spent a lot of time thinking about before coming to seminary and one I still think about as I continue to discover my call.

My call story really begins in 2008 at the UMC General Conference. I was there with the Reconciling Ministries Network to be a witness to the General Conference delegates and the wider UMC about the need for full inclusion of all peoples in the life of the church. Seeing the UMC at there reminded me of why I love this church and why I am proud to call myself a United Methodist. But as the church voted on issues of inclusion, my heart broke. I had personally been hurt by my own denial of membership. When the vote on church membership occurred and went against inclusion it broke my heart to know that there would still be those denied membership to our community of faith. That though we claim to have open doors not all congregations mean it. It was in the broken heart and stream of tears that I heard my call. In that moment God spoke to me and said that I am calling you to be a leader for the next generation aiding my church in becoming the church I desire it to be. God used that moment to show me just how far we have to go as church and that it will not change on its own, but through the work of our pastors and lay people working to create a change that reflects the diversity of God's creation and the inclusive love of Christ.

My understanding of God's call becomes clearer as I learn and one of the things I am certain of is the need for the church to change. The next generation will quite possibly determine whether the UMC dies or continues to be a representative of Christ on earth. I am being called to be at the forefront of this change as a pastor that reminds the youth and young adults that the church is not a place of hate, rejection, and condemnation but is rather a place to find God's open and accepting arms waiting to pour grace on us.

I believe one of the keys to energizing and revitalizing young people will be to reverse our current policy on homosexuality. A recent study by the Barna Group stated that a majority of young Christians and young non-Christian identified individuals believe the church is anti-gay. This is a real problem because this means many young people who have peers who are LGBTQ see the church as not a place for their friends. When this occurs they are less likely to attend church as well. We need to reverse this image and show that the church welcomes all people regardless. Period. This is what I feel called to. I am called to the margins and to the neglected and pushed. I am called to show that God loves all individuals and wants all to come and that all are welcome in God's church. I am called to show that God's church is place not of hate but a place of love. A place to come and find redemption and salvation in God's loving embrace.

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

Created by God

by Joey Heath

It is a momentous time in the movement for equality for LGBTQ people. Marriage Equality has now reached the US capital Washington, DC. The Soulforce Equality Ride is on the road again bringing a message of affirmation for LGBTQ people where that message might not be heard. What a time it is to be involved in the LGBTQ rights movement. So much work is being done but so much more is left to do and as such I wanted to start my next post based off of a post a friend of mine made on the Gay Christian Network. My friend (Matthew, a seminary student at BU) posted this:

“My sexuality is an expression of the diversity that God created into nature. Diversity is not a result of sin. It is all part of God's plan. As for myself I believe God made me gay in a fallen world and he would have made me gay in a hypothetical non-fallen world. I believe that it is homophobia and hate that are results of the sin of the world. Those are the things that come from sin”

There is much more to his post then just this quote but this is what really struck me. I hear so often people say that homosexuality is the result of our fallen world. They make it sound as if the sexual orientation of a segment of the population was just an accident. Well I am standing up today and saying this is wrong. The sexuality and gender identity of LGBTQ people IS NOT an accident. God created us each to be diverse individuals. People come in so many different ways, shapes, sizes, hair color, eye color, skin color, etc. So why is it so hard to believe that sexuality and gender identity would be part of that beautiful diversity?

In Jer. 1:5 God say “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Now this was a message to Jeremiah calling him to be a prophet but I think it also speaks to the idea that God knows us even before we are born and that God puts us together,creating us into a unique creation. This means my sexuality can not be an accident because it is a part of who I am, a God created part of my identity. This idea that God would rather all of the world be heterosexual but because of sin coming into the world this accidental sexuality exists is based on a heterocentric worldview and denies the very creation of God. Look throughout the animal kingdom, this diversity of sexuality also exists there. So the next time someone is trying tell you that this homosexuality is the result of fallen humanity kindly remind them the it is homophobia and hatred that are the result of sin and that sexuality and gender identity are a part of the beautifully diverse creation of God.

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

What if I am wrong?

by Joey Heath

In a conversation I was having recently I was asked what will happen if I am wrong about sexuality and whether it is a sin. It took me a little while to mull over this and come up with a theological response. I could have said I truly believe that God has shown homosexuality to be a part of the beloved creation and not a sin, but I felt that would be a cop out response and I wanted to respond in a way that offered something to think about and chew on. After some time of praying and thinking and this is what I kept coming back to.

Romans 3: 22-24 says “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Galatians 2:16 says “yet we know a person is justified not by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by doing the works of the law.”

Galatians 2:21 says “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.”

John 5:24 says “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes in the one who went me has eternal life and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

Mark 10:45 says “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”

So what does all that scripture mean? Well it means that we are all sinners and no matter how hard we try to adhere to the law we will always fail and be sinners. Gay or straight, we are all sinners. Christian or not we are all sinners. No matter how much we seek out perfection it will be just beyond our reach because have sinned and therefor fall short.

Galatians 2 speaks beautifully about the law and how our justification not from the law but is in Christ. You see redemption is the free gift offered to any who would receive it and there is no limit on it. See Christ came and gave his life so that all might believe in him and receive that redemption.

Then you turn to the gospels and see that Jesus himself says that he came to bring redemption to all who would hear and believe and for that cause was willing to go as far as to give his life for us.

So what happens if I am wrong? Well nothing, because I have placed my faith in the creator of the universe and as such have faith that redemption has been given to me because I believe. John Wesley once said“Faith, therefore, is the "necessary" condition of justification; yea, and the "only necessary" condition thereof”. This means that by faith were we are redeemed. So if I am completely wrong (though I must say I do not believe I am) that is ok because I have the assurance through faith in Jesus Christ that I will be redeemed. After all it is not about whether I sin or not but whether I accept the saving grace that comes from faith in Jesus Christ. To put it simply it is not about what we say and do but where we place our trust. I for one place my trust at the feet of Jesus and in the one who created us all and loves us all.

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

Called By God

by Joey Heath

To have a prophetic voice. To speak with the authority of God. To speak the truth of God. To show the love of God in everyday. These are part of who a pastor should be.

I have been learning about the reformation in my church history class and how the people hungered for the word of God. One woman stood up because she was called by God when others were not willing to stand up and speak out with a prophetic voice. This woman was a contemporary of Martin Luther named Argula von Grumbach and if you ever get the chance to read her Letter to the University of Ingolstadt I highly recommend it. In this letter she took on the corrupt Roman Catholic establishment of the time and the persecutions of the reformers and used scripture to back up everything she said. In doing so she preached the word of God. That is what I call prophetic voice. She spoke out because she felt called by God to speak out.

God calls us all to do certain things. For some it may be to be a teacher. For some it may be to practice law. For some it may be to be a stay at home parent. And for some they are called to preach and share the love of God from the pulpit on Sunday mornings and wherever else they might be throughout the week. A calling from God, particularly to be a pastor, is a high calling to follow.

I have a calling and I hope those who read these blogs or hear me speak hear the prophetic voice of God coming through. I am called to be a pastor, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. Sadly I am not sure I will be able to become one at least for now. You see, because of the things I write about on here and my openness about who I am and the fact that I refuse to stop trying to be a prophetic voice particularly on the issues of sexuality and gender identity my candidacy will most likely be rejected. Sadly the United Methodist Church recognizes the call of many but not all. You see if you identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (thank God there are no rules against being transgender, though some protection would be nice) then your candidacy is in jeopardy. The United Methodist Church actually actively rejects these that are called by God. They will recognize the gifts the person has and acknowledge they would be a great pastor and then reject them based on their sexuality. How can we a church who follows God reject those called by God? If a person is called by God shouldn't that be good enough for us to accept them?

Right now the church is losing good pastors who could have been the future leaders in the UMC. I know of several who have left the UMC for other denominations for this exact reason. They love the United Methodist Church and they feel called to be a pastor but because the UMC views them as a person of sacred worth who is unfortunately “incompatible with Christian teachings” they are rejected and in order to live out their calling they have left. Why are we letting this happen? When are we going to reject this notion that some how because someone loves a person of the same gender that they are damaged and unworthy? When are we going to stop riding the fence on this issue and speak as a church with prophetic voice claiming that all are equal and truly of sacred worth because they were created by God and called into God's service? When will we recognize the calling that God has placed on so many of the lives of LGBTQ people?

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

Failed to be an Obedient Church

by Joey Heath

We have failed to be an obedient church. That phrase from the prayer of confession is one I have been thinking about quite a bit recently. Whoever wrote the prayer of confession knew what they were doing because we have failed to be an obedient church. If you look at the history of the church here in the United States we have been failing...well pretty much our entire history. We allowed one of the worst forms of slavery every seen in history to happen in our country and parts of the church supported it. We claimed that women were not deserving the of the right to vote, the right to be placed at equal status with men and not subjugated to them, doing the same jobs making the same pay, and to be treated as equals in their own homes and we based it on scripture. We took land and displaced native populations and claimed it was God who gave us Manifest Destiny. We claimed that the races should be not be mixed and that God had ordained the separation the races based on the Bible. Most recently we have broken and turned away LGBTQ people claiming that they are less than and not deserving because they live “perverted lifestyles” saying that we “love the sinner, but hate the sin”.

Many Evangelical leaders want to say that we are in a moral decline here in the United States and that we are doomed. I would suggest that based on our history we have always been in moral decline. Now I would agree with Evangelical leaders on one point, there is an increasing number of people not going to church. Look at our sanctuaries on Sunday mornings, how many are half empty? I say it is because we have failed to be an obedient church. We spend far too much time sitting in our pews just getting our tickets punched. How much time do we spend telling others about this amazing God we worship and love? How much do we share that Jesus came not just for those sitting in church but for everyone? In fact it was Jesus in Luke 19:10 who said “For the Son of Man has come to seek out and save the lost”. What does this mean? Well If we are truly trying to live our lives like Jesus then we should be finding those who have forgotten or never truly felt the love of God and showing it to them. We should be seeking out those that are hurting, particularly those who have been hurt by the church. We should be doing everything we can to be instruments of God's love to world.

So why does the church have a bad image to the world? Because we have failed to be an obedient church. We have failed to reach out to the lost and offer the light of Christ. We have failed to see the hurting and offer the comforting hand of Jesus. How will you reach out to the lost and the hurting? How can we as the church act like the church that God wants us to be? How can we be obedient?

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

The Night That Changed My Life

by Joey Heath

Recently in my Hebrew Bible class, or Old Testament as it is called by many in other places, we discussed the Psalms and spoke specifically about the power of lament, which make up about a third of the Psalms. Despite this fact we rarely hear this side in our churches, the angry screaming “why?” at God. I thought I would share a time of prayer when I was lamenting to God because in that moment of being most real with God, God was more real to me then I have ever experienced.

I remember that night like it was yesterday. It was a random night during the week when nothing was going on and so I was over at my campus ministry house in the prayer closet. This space is what would have been a walk in closet when the house was a living space but was now used as a private prayer space off of a room we called the prayer room. This particular night was not really that different from most nights. As I had been doing daily for around two years, I was praying that God would remove my homosexuality from me. I was praying that God would forgive me for having felt attracted to guys that day. I was praying that God would forgive me for having the desire to see what it would be like to just kiss a guy. As usual I was crying and that night my prayer turned into lament.

After two years of daily commitment to study and prayer I felt no closer to my goal. In fact the pressure to keep up the facade was beginning to get to me. I was tired of not being honest with those I cared most about. I was tired of being depressed. I was tired of crying. Most of all I was tired of feeling like this struggle had taken over my spiritual life and even though I was doing my best to follow what I thought to be God's will for my life, I felt more distant from God than I had since I began my relationship with God. I guess in that time of prayer I reached a breaking point.

Suddenly my mood changed from sorrow to anger. I found myself saying to God “Why am I still this way? Why haven't I seen even the least bit of change? Why do you seem so distant while I am doing my best to be obedient?” Finally the real break came. I cried out “I can’t do this anymore! I can’t continue on like this so if you want me to change and you want me to not be gay then you are going to have to take it away yourself. If it is truly your will then you do it because I can't!”

In that moment my crying suddenly stopped and I sat back in silence. I just sat there for a moment and that is when God spoke to me in a way I will never forget but will probably never be able to describe. It wasn't an audible voice but it was not a thought coming from me either. It was something else coming from somewhere else, it was God. God said “that's ok Joey I love you anyway”. With this message from God a peace suddenly rested on me that I can only describe as the peace of God. It was like suddenly God had swooped me up in God's loving arms and held me. In this peace I knew that God was telling me it was ok for me to stop fighting, that God truly loved me, and that I am a beloved created child of God. In that moment all the sorrow, distress, and despair seemed to melt away, replaced only with God's comfort.

That moment has become a defining moment in my life. It was one of the clearest experiences of the presence of God I have had. While I live with the presence of God daily this was a special moment when God reached down and touched me in a moment when I truly needed it. What is even more interesting is that it came out of a lamenting experience, a moment when my emotions were raw and I was completely honest with God. I guess what I am trying get at is that God was present with me in my time of lamenting and honored that place of honesty it took me too. So why do we not preach this from our pulpits? Why do we say to question God or question the will of God is heresy? Why do we tell people that church is not the place to yell “why?” to God?  It is in those moments of honesty that it is sometimes easiest to meet with God because we are most vulnerable. So why is it so uncomfortable to question God?

Pain from Equality

The title may be a little confusing to some. You may be thinking what pain is there in equality, so let me explain. In my city, Washington, DC, the city council will be voting on marriage equality for the District very soon. It is our belief is that this will pass and we are also hopeful that it will be accepted by Congress (as we are the only city subject to have our laws reviewed by Congress). We know there will be celebration when this does happen but then there will also most likely be pain. See here is DC we are up to six reconciling congregations inside the city and I had not thought about this possible pain until just recently.

Here is the problem. We as reconciling United Methodist are known for our accepting and welcoming attitudes towards LGBT people. If DC marriage equality passes sad days may follow for the reconciling congregations here. The problem is how to react when LGBT couples show up asking to get married at our church. They have heard that reconciling means we are accepting of all people, but sadly they will have to be turned away. See the United Methodist Church bans us from having any service celebrating the union of LGBT people in our churches. The United Methodist Church has also banned our pastors from performing these ceremonies with past punishment being the loss of ordination. So when LGBT people show up at out churches, and they will show up, we will have to turn them away because of policies we see as wrong. Now the hard part is these couples will not understand that, they will only hear that they are once again being rejected by the church and that they have no place in the church. Once again we are turning away those turning to the church. Once again the United Methodist Church will cause pain instead of bringing the love of God. How do you think Jesus would feel about that? The Jesus I know does not turn people away but rather embraces them and loves them right where they are.

Pray for the pain that will come from equality and pray that equality will come to the United Methodist Church.