Beliefs and Values
Statement of Faith
I believe in the one and only Triune God. Three distinct and equal persons of one complete and divine substance. We worship the Triune God alone.
I believe our Triune God is bigger and greater than our humanness can ever imagine and the Creator of all things. I believe we are all equally created in the imago Dei, the image of God, which means God is more expansive and diverse than we can imagine. God is the Alpha, Omega, and is in everything between the beginning and the end of the story. God created male and female and everything in between in God’s own image. God created it all and saw that it was good.
I believe and trust in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate, begotten but not created, fully human and fully God. I lean heavily into the moral influence of Christ’s atonement and believe Jesus came to earth to show us how to live and to show us who God truly is. A God of love, mercy, grace, and a God who saves. Jesus was murdered on the cross because of and for the sins of the world. He was physically dead for three days and on the third day he was physically risen from the dead. Because of his life, death, and resurrection, we have been given the gift of salvation and life everlasting to abide in God’s love forever. Christ death and resurrection was and continues to be for the salvation of all humanity.
I believe in God the Holy Spirit with whom we are in fellowship with on this earth, given to us to abide with us until the day Christ comes again. I believe the Holy Spirit is with us always, filling every space in and around us. I believe the Spirit is like the pneumati (πνευματι)or the air, that filled John in Revelation 1:4. It is the air that filles our lungs and surrounds all space, connecting us to everything and everyone. The Spirit is in and around all things on earth; working to bring us all together to bring heaven to earth and create one complete and restored body to abide with the triune God forever.
I believe though Word and Sacrament we come to know our Triune God on a profound level. I believe the Word found in scripture is God’s revelation of God’s self to us. Through the stories of the both the Old and New Testaments, the truth about God speaks to all of us and reveals who God is and who we are, as people, created in the imago Dei. I believe scripture interprets scripture and in the context of reformed worship; scripture is always reforming us and what we know about God by continuing to be God’s self-revelation to us over and over again each time we hear and proclaim the Word.
I believe God also reveals God’s self to us through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper. We are claimed by God before we are born, and our baptism marks our journey as members of Christ body into the church and seals the covenant between Christ and the body. Each time we celebrate communion with one another, we are called to remember Christ’s body and blood given for the salvation of all. Each time we eat of the bread and drink of the cup together, we have an opportunity for the Spirit to be present with all of us and to continue to grow us closer to each other and to the Triune God.
I believe, as God’s church, we are called to be the physical body of Christ in the world. We are called to continue to do the work of Jesus today by feeding the hungry, freeing the oppressed, and spreading the good news of the Gospel. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves and above all love the Triune God with our whole heart
My call to Ministry
I believe my calling in ministry is to bridge gaps, heal and prevent religious trauma and to unify us all through love and communion with one another.
My initial call to ministry came through a passion for bridging gaps between the LGBTQIA+ community and church communities when I was serving as the first queer elder in the first PCUSA church I attended about 9 years ago. I grew up in the southern Baptist and non-denominational world. I spent that time focusing on the queer community and helping that congregation become a safe and affirming church community. During my time as an elder I had multiple people suggest I look into attending seminary, which I did, but the timing was not right. I came out as trans a few years later and realized God knew exactly what they were doing. I was not ready for ministry quite yet because I had not fully realized who I was. After coming out as trans, seminary fell into place and that path has continued for me. My ministry journey has been extremely transformative and has remained solid despite many personal trials along the way including divorce from my wife of 11 years. My biggest call remains to bridge gaps between the LGBTQIA community and faith communities has however my approach has shifted over the past few years of study and growth in my faith journey. Sometimes I am called to be loud in my advocacy but most of the time I am called just to exist in the ministry setting as the best pastor and caregiver I can be for all people. I spend much of my ministry not talking about the LGBTQIA community. I have since come to realize that my existence alone as a trans person of faith in a church setting can be enough to transform hearts and minds. God can do everything without us; however, God still chooses to work through each of us because we each have something unique to give and say about who God is. Just like the human body has different cells that do different things yet are still part of one body we are all part of one body united in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit that lives in each of us. We are all created with the imago dei and with the help of the Holy Spirit we can continue to bring God’s Kindom to earth.
My personal theology I live by includes love, communion, and unification. I believe I am called to love as Jesus taught us to love by healing and preventing trauma caused by religious institutions. I am not here to force everyone to go to church but, if someone wants to seek out a faith community, they deserve to have a faith community that is safe, affirming, and celebrating of each beloved child of God. Especially those in the queer community. I know first-hand how much harm bad theology can do and I am still healing from all the fears that were given to me by religious institutions that were not based on a foundation grace but on a foundation of fear and control. I was told by a non-denominational church that I was not allowed to work in children’s ministry because I was “struggling with homosexuality.” I left church all together that day and did not return for almost a decade. If those institutions continue to exist my calling to heal fear based religious trauma will also continue to exist as well. Everyone has a birthright to experience the love of God with or without church. Not only am I called to care for the queer community, I am also called to minister and care for those who have cause religious harm to the queer communities. We may never hold the same beliefs, but I hope we can all find unity in the love of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.