A pastor who has struggled with "same-sex attraction" or SSA shared how God used it to train him for service and discussed how the Christian church could help people with SSA.
Ed Shaw, pastor of the Emmanuel Church in Bristol, spoke of how his struggle of homosexuality has done more than all else to prepare him for his work in the Gospel of grace.
"When pastoring somebody who is same-sex attracted, rather than thinking, 'The thing I need to sort is their sexuality,' you know, you want them to become more and more like Jesus. And actually, you need to be open to the possibility that God is going to use their sexuality ... to help them become more and more like Jesus," he said during an interview on The Church Leaders podcast.
Shaw facilitates Living Out, a ministry that inspires Christians to share the gospel, equips churches, and serves as a bridge to bring in a greater understanding of God's design for sexuality and gender.
Shaw said that being accessible to those dealing with identity and sexuality issues that have surfaced is one of the most important things ministers and members of the congregation can do for their community.
"For a pastor and for a leadership team in the church, thinking through these issues, one of the first things they need to think through is, we will probably already have people in our midst for whom same-sex attraction, questions around sexuality and gender identity are big things that they've perhaps never felt able to talk about in the context of an evangelical church," he said.
Gallup found that 16% of Gen Zers think of themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, the largest rate ever among any generation in history. The UCLA School of Law reported that around half of the adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
It is necessary to note that LGBT members have a "posture of fear" of the Church. Shaw believes that believers must bring them to the other side.
"A big thing to realize, if you don't realize it already, is just [the LGBT community] will be thinking, 'You are evangelical Christians; therefore, you hate us,'" Shaw explained.
He added that the church should also make an apology for the fact that at the height of the AIDS crisis, it didn't reach out "in love and compassion."
Shaw argues that when it comes to identifying offenses, Christians haven't necessarily extended the Gospel to themselves and gay communities, noted the Christian Post.
He also urged other pastors to get down off their high horse and admit their failures. However, he had also maintained that if a person has an inclination to anyone of the same gender, it should not automatically be a barrier to ministry.
"I am trying to live out the biblical sexual ethic, I've tried to do that in response to the Gospel of grace," he clarified. "I am in many ways, in most ways, no different to any other pastor. I'm someone who is struggling with patterns of sin in my life. I'm usually being more public and open and honest about them than many pastors are."
He went on to say that he wants to live in accordance with the light of the gospel, because he believes that God's Word is fully authoritative. To further clarify his statement, he said that he's not in any homosexual relationship and has no plans of being in one.
"I am seeking to help others in being open and honest about their struggle," he confessed.
