Psalm 18:19 - He brought me out into a Spacious Place.
BECOME A RECOGNISED SPACIOUS PLACE
We want to ensure that everyone is welcomed in churches, whether they are a Christian who experiences same sex attraction (SSA) or who has experienced SSA in the past, or whether a member of the LGBTQ+ community who is exploring faith. Becoming a recognised SPACIOUS PLACE church ensures that anyone coming to your church knows that they will be met with love, and given space to learn about God’s purpose for their life in line with Biblical teaching, without the fear of judgment or coercion.
Why a Spacious Place?
Isaiah 54 is a great passage which talks about the future glory of Zion. We saw this passage of Scripture as a challenge to church leaders – how can your church be a place where people who experience SSA can come, take shelter, learn about God, grow in their faith and reveal God’s glory to the world? And we felt the answer lay in the words – SPACIOUS PLACE as spoken of in Psalm 18.
Isaiah 54: 2-3 says - Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
We want church to be a safe place, where everyone is afforded the space they need to meet with God. A place where they are:
Isaiah 54: 2-3 says - Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
We want church to be a safe place, where everyone is afforded the space they need to meet with God. A place where they are:
- free of condemnation, humiliation and shame (Isaiah 54:4)
- content in singleness (Isaiah 54:5)
- built up with strong biblical foundations (Isaiah 54:11-12)
- established in righteousness (Isaiah 54:14)
- able to stand on every promise of God’s word and refute every tongue that accuses (Isaiah 54:17)
How can you make this happen?
We encourage you to undertake training to ensure your church leadership and pastoral teams are equipped to provide loving and safe environments. We provide training for Church leaders, pastoral carers, prayer ministry teams as well as training specifically for youth workers or parents designed to help you have conversations with teenagers.
All training is delivered via training videos and notes accessed via our online e-learning platform. To register or to find out more, please complete the contact form below.
All training is delivered via training videos and notes accessed via our online e-learning platform. To register or to find out more, please complete the contact form below.
for parents and youth workers
Access our series of videos aimed at helping parents and youth pastors talk to teenagers.
Work through 7 sessions with content designed to help you start those important conversations about sexual orientation, identity, the teaching of different denominations as well as understanding the voices which influence teenagers, how to distinguish between experiencing attractions and acting on them and the importance of relationship; how God views us as sexual beings.
Work through 7 sessions with content designed to help you start those important conversations about sexual orientation, identity, the teaching of different denominations as well as understanding the voices which influence teenagers, how to distinguish between experiencing attractions and acting on them and the importance of relationship; how God views us as sexual beings.
for church leaders
Access our training for Church leaders and pastoral carers. Explore how you can lead your church to be a place where members of the LGBT community feel welcomed to explore faith.
Equip your pastoral carers to understand the unique challenges of those who are same sex attracted and seeking to live in line with God's word and become a church where singles are absorbed into the body of the church, with equal value placed on singleness and marriage.
Equip your pastoral carers to understand the unique challenges of those who are same sex attracted and seeking to live in line with God's word and become a church where singles are absorbed into the body of the church, with equal value placed on singleness and marriage.
for anyone who prays for others
You may wonder why there’s a need for a specific model of prayer ministry when you have probably been successfully praying with people for years. The key reason for this new model is to help you to become a safe space for people battling with issues that are often deeply personal without you inadvertently influencing them to conform to certain standards or ideals or cause them to withdraw or struggle to share in the future because of fear of judgment.