I go to a similar church and I’ve honestly made such close friends there, we just call ourselves spiritual mutts and have a wide spectrum of beliefs. We are VERY loudly welcoming to LGBT folks, and even have one trans lady in our congregation. A local church of a similar demographic recently announced they were not LGBT affirming, and two thirds of the congregation up and left and came to us, absolutely shocked that this has happened, because they are not people who would tolerate that and has no idea the leaders occupied that position (the pastor of that church also resigned because of this stance). Honestly it’s one of the best things in my life, we do lots for the community and a ton of creative projects as well, including having summer artists in residence. It really can be so different from the shitty churches.
I go to a similar church and I’ve honestly made such close friends there, we just call ourselves spiritual mutts and have a wide spectrum of beliefs. We are VERY loudly welcoming to LGBT folks, and even have one trans lady in our congregation. A local church of a similar demographic recently announced they were not LGBT affirming, and two thirds of the congregation up and left and came to us, absolutely shocked that this has happened, because they are not people who would tolerate that and has no idea the leaders occupied that position (the pastor of that church also resigned because of this stance). Honestly it’s one of the best things in my life, we do lots for the community and a ton of creative projects as well, including having summer artists in residence. It really can be so different from the shitty churches.