Dear Prayer Blog Readers,
I would like to announce a series of special meetings going on in Oregon for the lesbian, gay, bi, transgendered and straight faith communities. My favorite form of the Christian faith after exploring for several years is what we call the Pentecostal, or "Charismatic" type churches. Some also call them Full Gospel or Apostolic. What ever you call it, we all have crazy stories and jokes about "holy rollers" and the LGBT community is often freaked out by many groups like this partly because so many of them have fundamentalist views. There are, in almost every major US city and worldwide small communities of those who are LGBT welcoming and affirming that are drawn to "spirit-filled" worship services. This type of church is noted as being similar to the New Testament book of Acts style of churches while others just pass these off as being built on emotionalism and sensationalism. Although there have been excesses and harm that have been done (especially to the gay community); my experience for the most part has made a life changing impression on me.
I am drawn to religion that produces answered prayers and allows worshipers to experience God for themselves. I have found that many groups like this can create an atmosphere where believers can sense the Divine and enter in to a powerful worship experience. When I moved back to the Portland area after having been gone for over fifteen years, I found that there was no such place here like this that was welcoming and affirming. Over the last year, I have been meeting believers that have ministered in this local area along this "stream" of Christianity and have made some great connections. Although there is no effort to start another church at this point, there are some regular meetings coming up that I want to get the word out...
The InGathering:An inspiring interdenominational evening of worship, prayer, and healing for the GLBTS community
First InGathering: Monday August 23 7:00 PM
Caldwell’s Colonial Chapel 20 NE 14th Avenue Portland, Oregon 97232
We will be meeting monthly on the 2nd & 4th Monday evenings
