Pastor friends, especially my more conservative pastor friends, you probably have people in your congregation who are sexually attracted to the same gender or they’re experiencing gender dysphoria. How you speak about LGBTQ people from the pulpit—

—can be soul care or soul-destroying for those folks. LGBTQ people are not “those sinners out there.” They are not an abstraction for you to speak only condemningly of. They are the sheep under your care.

People don’t need your immediate reaction to be, you’re a sinner, or, you should be ashamed. People need your reaction to be, we love you and Jesus loves you.

Or maybe “you’re a sinner” shouldn’t be your reaction. Maybe it should be, we will walk with you through this and we will learn together.

Maybe humility and hospitality are the way forward instead.

I can hear some of you saying, God cares about our holiness and our sanctification, though.

Yes. But: “Christ gave Himself up for [the Church] that He might sanctify her...”

Think self-sacrifice, not self-righteousness.