God at Work in Unlikely Places

Greg Paul, a pastor in an inner city community, reminds us that we are called to humbly embrace that we are the beloved.

Modelling Repentance

Bruxy Cavey challenges the tendency of the Christian community to organize mainly for prohibition and calls us a lifestyle of repentance.

Campolo: Gay Issues in the Church

Campolo highlights questions youth are asking regarding gay issues in the church.

Online Relating

Bridging the Gap panel discuss the realities of relating online and share helpful insight.

Breaking Judgments of Gay People

Bruxy Cavey calls us to break down pre-judgments and stereotypes about gay people.

Empathy in the midst of the Divide

Brian McLaren shares the story of his grandfather and the ways we embody systemic injustice. He reminds us to live in the Spirit of Christ.

Walking in Step with the Holy Spirit

Wendy Gritter points to the complexity of sexual identity and the great need to address our own issues of anxiety before responding to an individual asking questions of faith and sexuality.

Befriending 'Outsiders'

Bruxy Cavey points to the example of Paul engage the people of Athens as a model for Christians to engage those outside of the church with eyes to see where God is already at work.

Differing Graciously

Brian McLaren describes the tension many Christians feel who have gay loved ones.

Relationships: the core of the gospel

Greg Paul speaks from the place of being a pastor deeply committed to relationships.

Compassion & Service

Bruxy Cavey reminds us that Christ lived a life of such radical compassion and grace that religious conservatives misunderstood and accused him of being a drunkard and glutton. How close are we living to Christs example?

Relationship with Jesus is the Foundation

Brian Pengelly, someone who has journeyed to integrate his same-sex attractions and faith, reminds us that engaging the complexity of Biblical interpretation must be built on a foundation of intimate personal relationship with Christ.

Jesus & the Breaking of Barriers

Brian McLaren describes Jesus welcome and inclusion for our gay neighbours.

Befriending our Gay Neighbours

Gentleness & Respect

I thought this clip of Bruxy was a perfect one to post in the days prior to our synchroblog scheduled a week from today.

Really Listening

As we look forward to our synchroblog on June 24, I thought it would be particularly appropriate to share this clip of Brian Pengelly, our Youth Specialist at New Direction. Brian highlights an essential challenge to those who hope to engage in bridging conversations.



What do you think?

Letting God Work

I'm really grateful that Ron Belgau was one of the contributors for "Bridging the Gap: Conversations on Befriending Our Gay Neighbours."

Ron is a thoughtful and mature follower of Christ who also happens to be gay. He is someone with deep convictions - that some of our readers will share, and others will disagree with. What stands out about Ron for me, is that he is someone with deeply held traditional views and yet he engages with a great openness, love and care for his gay friends who have come to different theological perspectives than he has. Ron really seeks to stay in step with the Holy Spirit - not wanting to be like a pharisee in people's lives but wanting to be open to follow the Spirit's prompting.

I hope that Ron's connections in the Catholic community will open some doors for the BTG dvd being useful in that part of the Body of Christ.

Check out this clip:

Tony Campolo on Demonstrating Love

We hear it all the time, don't we?

"I love homosexuals ..... but....."
"I love gay people ..... but ...."

How is it that Christians truly demonstrate this love?

Tony Campolo challenges that "but" in unequivocal terms. Check out this clip:



What questions does this raise for you?

Common Ground in Christ

I got to know who Justin Lee was when I became acquainted with the “Bridges Across the Divide” website. Years before I was even connected with New Direction, the spouse of one of our ministry’s board members was one of the first group to get that site started. Seems like bridging and the ministry of reconciliation has been in our blood for some time.

Justin went on from Bridges Across to form the Gay Christian Network which is an online community for gay Christians of diverse theological perspectives. If you’ve never visited their site, go take a look: www.gaychristian.net

I spoke with Justin for the first time, when I called him to talk about the possibility of coming to a GCN conference – which I shared more about here. I was so impressed with his generosity of spirit. He could have slammed the phone down saying, “A lot of our members have been really hurt in Exodus ministries – and we don’t want you coming anywhere near our conference.” I would have understood if he had done that. But he didn’t. He took me at my word when I explained my reason for wanting to attend – a big step of trust on his part – and when I met him at the conference he was gracious, kind and inviting. After meeting him, he was someone I knew I would like.

As the ideas began to come together for our Bridging the Gap dvd, I knew that Justin would be a wonderful candidate to interview. His perspective was one that the piece needed to have – even if some of the things he shared would be stretching or uncomfortable or disagreed with by many of our viewers. What I hoped that people would walk away and be challenged with is the clear love and commitment that Justin has in his personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

In the midst of all of our disagreements about theology and homosexuality, we can begin to build a bridge when we see one another’s humanity – and for those of us who are believers – when we see one another’s love for Christ.

During the interview, I asked Justin, “Why would you want to be part of an initiative of a ministry like New Direction?” …… I asked it anticipating that his answer would hit the heart of the matter of what we were trying to accomplish with our DVD piece. Well in this clip, you hear part of Justin’s answer. And whether you agree with everything he says or not ….. I challenge you in the Spirit of Christ to open your heart to hear and connect with Justin, our brother in the Lord.



Thank you Justin for being so willing and generous to be a part of Bridging the Gap!

My friend David

David Colpitts is one of the contributors on the "Bridging the Gap" DVD. David was connected with New Direction long before I was. He participated in support group and later led support groups. He was also a New Direction staff member for a couple of years. David is now hard at work on ph.d. studies.

Although we haven't always perfectly seen eye-to-eye nor have we agreed on everything, David is someone who I respect on many levels. I respect his honesty. I respect his commitment. I respect his intelligence. I respect his courage.

Together, we had a number of opportunities to speak at conferences or deliver workshops. I think we complemented each other well and I have good memories of those times.

Over the years of our friendship, I have learned a great deal from David. He helped me rethink some things. For that I am grateful.

Thank you David for your kind, wise and thoughtful contributions to "Bridging the Gap".