Why This Trans Pastor Started His Own Church | NowThis
290This transgender pastor started his own church in the South — and half the congregation belongs to the LGBTQ+ community.
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Elijah Walker, Pastor, Solomon’s Porch:
My name is Elijah Walker and I’m the pastor of Solomon’s Porch and my pronouns are he, him, his. I’m trans, queer, asexual.
I grew up Christian. I grew up in a Missionary Baptist Church here in northeast Arkansas. And I was really actively involved in church my whole life. I was like the good kid in the youth group.
I was a senior in high school the year that I the year that I realized I was trans. And around the same time ... I also felt a strong sense that I was called to pastor a church and specifically to start a church.
I had a dream of creating a community where people of all different backgrounds of all different sexual orientations of all different and their identities could worship and be themselves. … when I moved home last summer, may, June of 2018, I was beginning to feel like now is the place. This is a place and now’s the time. And so in November I made an announcement that I was starting this church. … it just took off so quickly
John Caldwell, Worship Leader, Solomon’s Porch:
This is where we worship. This is our stage. And this is where we meet every week. … I was scrolling through my phone and saw a Facebook ad for Solomon’s Porch … And I reached out to Elijah the lead pastor here … we talked a little bit and then I kind of expressed my history and leading worship at different churches. And they were in need of a worship leader. So the very next week I was leading worship performances.
Christina Crump, Parishioner, Solomon’s Porch:
I got up on a Sunday morning to go to church for the first time in a decade and a half almost. And it was pouring down rain and I got up out of bed. … Elijah and this church that he was trying to get started, somehow like something about it spoke to me.
Elijah INTV:
Our congregation is very diverse theologically and in all demographics. about half of the people in our church are LGBTQ. The other half hour are straight cis gender folks that are allies to the community. We have people from all kinds of church backgrounds — Pentecostal, Church of Christ, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodists, Baptist. and then several folks that don’t really have a church background, that they don’t believe in God, or have never had a faith community of their own.
#Trans #LGBTQ #Church #Religion
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