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  • Gallery Church in NYC responds to AIDS crisis

    To think of how many people in New York City have HIV/AIDS but don’t know it
    take Yankee Stadium and fill it. By the time they find out, they’ve already
    infected their partners and potentially their children. By this time, often
    their own health is gone.
    This knowledge is critical in the artsy Chelsea community of New York, where
    three-year-old Southern Baptist congregation, The Gallery church, calls
    home. In this community, the New York Health Department says, 1 in 4 men
    have the disease.
    Working alongside The Gallery Church and the St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital,
    more than 200 Southern Baptist volunteers are canvassing neighborhoods this
    morning to bring New York residents out of the dark in the Bronx, Brooklyn,
    and Manhattan. If the 22 testing sites are successful, between 500 and 1,000
    residents, many from low-income areas, will have a good idea where they
    stand with the disease and whether further testing is necessary.
    “The stats stare you in the face,” says Aaron Coe, pastor of The Gallery.
    “New York has the highest rate of HIV infections in the United States.”
    “We spent a lot of time learning from others. Listening to people infected
    by the disease and to other pastors and churches who’ve decided to respond
    to it,” he adds. “We wanted to tread lightly and not be the
    johnny-come-lately here to save the day. So we just asked St. Luke’s how we
    could help.”
    Today volunteers will provide hospitality to participants, passing out bags
    of information on HIV/AIDS testing as well as bags of information on The
    Gallery church. And to help curb the costs of transportation to go for
    further testing, the church will provide each participant a Metro pass.
    “It’s a preventable and treatable disease,” says Brad Cruse, a dentist who
    attends The Gallery and works at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital. “It’s not a
    death sentence if you find out early enough.”
    This outreach, scheduled intentionally during Passion Week, is part of City
    Up Rising, a four-day event in partnership with churches, city government
    and non-profits to revitalize and bring new hope to New York.
    “Every community deals with these issues,” says Aaron. “We just need to
    provide an environment where people are cared for. When Jesus saw the demon
    possessed man in Mark 5, his first question was not 'how did you get here?’
    His first question was "what’s your name?’ It’s not my business  how you got
    to where you are, but it is my business that you’re here and you need my
    friendship and help.”
    Pray for the volunteers as they raise awareness about the power of
    Christ to heal the whole person. Think about how you and your church may find
    a place in ministry to people with HIV/AIDS. Visit www.cityuprising.com.
    Posted Thursday, April 03, 2008 1:55 PM by adam | 0 Comments

  • Love in the face of Theology

    I met a gay man at Starbucks a few weeks ago. "All my friends are dead so I decided to move to Georgia," he said. He's an artist. A former fashion designer for people like Beyonce. And a victim of a bad theology of love. "My sister and I used to go to a church when I was seven," he said. "We'd go every Sunday and Wednesday and whenever there was something going on there."

    One day though a leader saw us getting out of my parents' car and later asked us why our parents didn't come into church as well. You know? We didn't have to go to church there. My parents didn't care. We could have stopped going anytime we wanted."

     Anyway, I could tell the attitude of the leaders changed. We stopped being invited places with the church group. We realized we were no longer on the in-crowd there. And I decided 'you know what? I don't need this.'"

    So my friend told me he's been to church since then, but not to any Christian churches. He appreciates all forms of spirituality: Hinduism, Native American animism. He celebrates Hannukah with his Jewish friends and Ramadan with his Muslim friends and in all of his words that day I sensed a hurt and a real desire to love. To love and to be loved. To be known and to be loved all the same. This, I believe, is why the homosexual lifestyle is so attractive to sensitive and injured people. It provides a community that hints at love and hints at acceptance and provides a safe haven for a guilty conscience: a guilt caused by acting out of a false sense of love. It could simply be said (of course this overly simple) that my friend left the place where he could find true love because a leader's theology of love didn't very well include the idea of accepting someone for the same reason Christ accepts and loves them: because they are his creation.

    Now I realize that in every story of burn victims (those who've been burned by Christians in this case) there is a story behind a story. Somebody had to set the fire. But somebody had to fuel it. And someone had to add oxygen to that flame to make it grow into a fatal force. It's a more complex story than what I'm recounting here. But it does at least bring up a good point: what is our theology of love. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? What does it mean to love God with all your heart? Why does Christ combine the two?

    Well, loving God means you'll love your neighbor. And this is why I love the story of Missionary Service Corps missionary Kerry Jackson who has moved into Atlanta to live among the arts community down there. His love for God has poured into his love for his fellow artists. He wants to provide them with gallery space, work space, worship space and space to be who they are--men and women created in God's image and therefore worthy of redemption.

    So, I gave my friend Kerry's contact info. And took my friend's card to give to Kerry. On it he has a picture of himself dressed in drag. I hope one day God's grace will remind him to dress like himself.

     Adam
     

    Posted Thursday, August 16, 2007 11:00 AM by adam | 0 Comments

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