For Christ is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of hostility that kept us apart. In his own flesh, Christ abolished the Law, with its commands and ordinances, in order to make the two into one new person, thus establishing peace and reconciling us all to God in one body through the cross, which put to death the enmity between us.

Christ came and "announced the Good News of peace to you who were far away, and to those who were near;" for through Christ, we all have access in one Spirit to our God.

This means that you are strangers and aliens no longer. No, you are included in God's holy people and are members of the household of God, which is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus as the capstone. In Christ the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in our God; in Christ you are being built into this temple, to become a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

My name is Dave Lafary. Three years ago I left the United Methodist Church. For more than twenty years I served as an ordained elder. I grew up in the United Methodist Church. I was confirmed as a young teen and active throughout high school and college. During high school I also began to struggle with a call on my life to ministry and my sexuality.

When I was in high school I felt alien and other. I acted like everyone else. I tried dating girls but I was not interested. I was attracted to other males. Surely I must be the only one in the world who was like this - this was the 1970s and I grew up in the rural Midwest and the internet was still twenty-five years in the future. It also was around this time that I became convinced that I could not be Christian and homosexual because it was "incompatible with Christian teaching." (1972 UMC Book of Discipline)*  

So what was wrong with me? Why couldn't I be normal?

I chose to hide my sexuality and deny it. I got married, thinking that would make me "straight." I prayed that God would make me normal - whatever that was. I thought this "curse" could be prayed away if I prayed long enough and hard enough. But after years of silently struggling in the closet I came out to my family and eventually to my church.

If you've lived in the closet then you know the shame and guilt that comes from living there. You know the pain and anguish of coming out to family and friends. I still feel the bruises and I still bear the scars.

Some of my closest clergy colleagues urged me to "just lie" and stay in the church. But I had been lying to myself and to everyone around me for too many years. I was a follower of the Christ who said "you shall know the truth and it shall set you free." I was ready to be set free. I could no longer deny my true being.  

So I left.

...read the rest of Dave's liberation story HERE. 

 

In Truth and Justice,

Dave Lafary

Dave Lafary

 

Spiritual Director of the Gathering at Geyerhouse, St. Louis, MO.

Director of Praise and Worship at Wesley UMC, Macomb, IL. 

Member of the Church Within A Church Movement  

 Come and BE. Come for conversation, community, prayer, education, worship, and spiritual refreshment.  

The Church Within A Church Movement is a Christian Ministry of hope and life. We have roots in a Methodist tradition and are growing into an Ecumenical community that lives into our Theological statement that includes:  

... Therefore, we are called to hold the church universal accountable to be an inclusive community.

... We stand for the celebration of the sacred worth of all persons and the rest of creation.

... We witness to God's work of breaking down the dividing walls of hostility and will co-operate with God in restoring humanity to an image that more fully reflects God's love.

The CWAC Movement's justice ministry is guided by these Working Strategies:

• Provide a pathway to Extraordinary Ordination for those denied ordination because of sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, inclusive progressive theology, and for people for whom ordination through CWAC would enable a liberating expression of justice ministry within a community of mutual accountability.
• Promote progressive church plants and ministry development.
• Break down the walls of racism, white privilege and other "isms" that divide us.
• Provide curriculum and worship resources for the progressive, justice-seeking church.
• Promote Ecumenical partnerships. 

 Read CWAC's full Theological Statement HERE