Let Your Rainbow Light Shine

I'd like to share a humorous story that happened two weeks ago  at First Congregational UCC, downtown.  This is the church where my husband, Gary serves as commissioned minister of Music and Arts.  He was in the church sanctuary getting ready to meet a bride when a group of teenagers appeared. They were from an out of town church and were on a service-oriented mission trip in Asheville.  They were working with a local organization that take youth around our city and explore the ways Asheville is addressing homelessness.  Their task for the morning was to go to all the downtown churches, pretend they were homeless, and see what each church would do for them.

So Gary told them what 1st UCC did for the homeless including the Pritchard Park Sunday breakfast [which Abiding Savior is also involved with] as well as Room at the Inn and A Hope.  He also told them what his congregation does if a homeless person comes knocking at their door during the week.

While he was talking he admitted that it was difficult for him to determine who was in genuine need and who was trying to take advantage of him.  He also casually mentioned that his husband, who is the pastor of Abiding Savior is pretty good at this and his church also has a heart for helping the homeless.

Gary thought nothing of the conversation until a few days later when we ran into a friend of his whose sister was with the group.  Apparently, the youth group was from a conservative Christian church. After they left First UCC they had a debriefing session because they couldn't believe their ears.  They weren't sure they had heard him correctly.

Not only was Gary a gay man serving as a church leader and his partner was a pastor as well.  His congregation was also the ONLY downtown church who did anything to help the homeless.  Needless to say, this caused a theological crisis, as well as a paradigm shift, for that group of young people.  Their experience that morning contradicted everything they thought they knew, or were told by their pastor, about gay people and progressive churches in general.

The truth was staring them straight in the face.  Those so-called "God-forsaken liberals" were doing what Jesus taught us to do while the conservative churches they visited were doing absolutely nothing to help the homeless.  I wish I could have been a fly on the wall while that conversation was taking place!  You gotta love it!