Going back to church was the right decision

[Guest Motormouth18]

Everybody made me feel so welcomed, and they were all glad to have me back because they missed me. I explained to my youth minister why I hadn't been coming. Basically, I was scared of being "outted" for who I am. He said that he and no one would ever pass judgment on me. He said, you are who you are, but know that we love and care about you. Even the person that I was concerned about was extremely welcoming.

[Charlize]

That is wonderful news. Sounds like you found acceptance. I know you were worried about how you would be received. Glad you went!

Hugs,

Charlie

[gennee]

That's wonderful to hear. It's great when our faith community accepts us as we are.

[Guest thevaliantx]

May I ask what church you attend, motormouth (don't like calling you that, but it's your username on here)? My wife and I have been attending two different churches, and only one of them would there be a *chance* (it's actually less likely than that) of me being able to be myself there. A church that I attended when my wife were split up five years ago, basically asked me to not come back. Actually it was my uncle, the music director there, who sent out the word through family that I was not welcome in his church because (as I was told by mother) "that's his place of employment".

[VickySGV]

It will depend on where you live, but the Lexington Ky area has 5 Episcopal churches that are Welcoming and Affirming churches for GLBT people. Other church possibilities are the United Church Of Christ, Metropolitan Community Churches (Elizabethtown, Louisville and Paducah) , Unitarian Universalist churches and many but not all United Methodist Churches http://www.umaffirm.org/. Hopefully MM will come back with his, which if I remember from an earlier post, was a community based evangelical church for his community.

[Guest Motormouth18]

Sorry I wasn't able to answer earlier. I've been busy with house repairs and other things, so the internet has taken a back seat for a while. (btw, my name is Kim, and Motormouth is my nickname). I go to my little town's baptist church. I live in the south, so it is labeled southern baptist. It is nothing like those lovely (sarcasm) southern baptist churches that you see on the news. Vicky is partially right because my pastor considers himself to be an evangelical baptist. I'm not one myself, though. I've been going to this church since I was 3, and was baptized there at age 9, so most of the members have known me a long time. That helped me a good deal because some of them already had a feeling that I was different.

If anybody would like to know more about my church, here is the brand new website:

http://learybc.wordpress.com/