I was under the impression that I was supposed to have only Christian “friends” and everyone else was a “project” of sorts. Literally, I started a small parachurch ministry called “project.”
All of my friends were Christians that went to church, read their Bibles a couple of times a week, and attended small groups.
We liked it that way.
It was safe, squeaky clean, southern Bible-beltish, middle-class living. God had a way better, way messier, way more redemptive plan and wanted to use me in ways I never dreamt possible.
Jesus Conversations in a Gay Bar
In January of 2007, I began working at this bar as a bar back (sweep up cigarettes, change out kegs, do inventory). I went to this place on purpose, on mission. I went there not with the intention of planting a church (I thought I was going to be a college professor one day), I went there with the hopes of meeting non-Christians and befriending them and sharing the gospel.
Night after night, I found myself answering people’s questions about Jesus, faith and the Bible. Some were obviously just antagonistic. And yes, I was made fun of a lot in the bar.
But I worked really hard and tried my best to stay focused on why I was in there. The questions soon shifted from mocking and jeering to late night, sincere questions of the meaning of life, why we are even here on earth, and the afterlife.
For example, one night, my friend Ivy and his girlfriend came in really late just before closing. He sat down and asked, “Alex, am I going to hell?”
“Ivy, you’re an atheist. You probably don’t have anything to worry about,” I said with a grin on my face.
He said, “No seriously. This afternoon we were in the backyard working in the garden and found a turtle. We picked it up and stared at the shell for about an hour and talked about how it looked like someone just painted it. It was perfectly designed.” (My nerdiness was drifting into teleological arguments for the existence of God).
I said, “Yes, Ivy, Someone did design that. But why are you worried about hell?”
“I just am,” he said.
“So today you went from Atheist, to agnostic to asking about the eternal state of our soul and you happen to be describing the afterlife defined according to Christianity?”
“I guess so,” he said.
“Wow. It’s been a big day, Ivy.”
I’m often asked: “What about your gay friends and the gospel?”
