Renewed and Transformed by the Gospel With Kyla Gillespie

And so I went to them and I started to ask them, like, I could help with the coffee bar, setting up the coffee on, you know, Saturday nights for God Rock. I could help with, you know, our homeless shelter, you know, meals that we did once a month. But I started to get this stirring from God that there was more that he was calling me to, and that was, like, I wanted to pray up front. I wanted to start a preteen ministry because it was my passion as, you know, like, teens. And so we had to have some really hard conversations, just not, you know, like, I said these things to Jess and bj, and they sat me down.

And it wasn’t just one conversation, but it was many with love and grace and empathy and compassion. But, like, we don’t believe that you serving in these capacities is okay while you’re transitioned as and as Bryce living as male. And that really got me thinking. At first I was, like, kind of angry. No, not kind.

Yeah, I was. I was hurt. Yeah. Like, whoa. And then it started to.

I started to ask deeper questions. But this time I went to God and I started to ask him, like, do I have the right to choose and determine my gender and sexuality? God, like, what do you want from me? And. And, you know, in those questions, like, do I have the right to determine my boss?

You know, like, my sexuality, gender, can I change my. All these things. And I lifted it up to him and he started to reveal things to me through his word, through circumstances, through his people. And there was this one specific moment. I started to get depressed again, started to feel lost and broken more than when I first transitioned.

And I remember crying out to God and just asking him for help in that moment. And this was probably almost a year of walking with Jess and bj, as we were growing our love for each other and relationship and honesty and trust. And I asked God again, like, what do you want from me and how can I follow you? And I heard him say a few specific things to me. Is return to me, Kyla.

And I was like, what do you mean by return to me? I thought that I could follow Jesus and live as Bryson because I thought that I was too far gone to ever change those things. I thought that there was no possibility of going back to my biological sex at the time. And so God was revealing to me that it didn’t matter what I had done. He wants me to come back to him.

And I fell on my knees and I started crying out even more to him. And I said, God, I Don’t know what this will look like or if I could ever be female again. And I heard these specific words from him is, trust me and are you willing? And in that moment, just being met by God in such a powerful way, I just cried out to him. Yes.

And that was a moment after six years where I went to my Jesus friends and I just said, I believe God is calling me to detransition. And so it was a long period of time where God was really working on my heart. And scripture started to transform my mind as I dug into it. I love the word of God, and I believe it has the power to transform us. Wow.

Beautiful. Jesus is so beautiful. Are you willing? Wow. So.

So, okay, so now what are you doing now and why are you doing it? Right. Well, it started really early in my detransition. My pastor and his wife had opened up their home to me and ask and let me come live there, because detransition and transition is really difficult. You almost go through the same process, but opposite.

So there’s six months to a year when you don’t look female going back. And even, you know, doctors said to me, like, we don’t know if you’ll ever look female again. And so when I first moved in with them, my goal was to find anyone, everything that talked about biblical sexuality and gender. And I was digging and googling and searching for people, and I found this husband and wife in Australia. And they were having this conversation about around gender and sexuality and what the Bible has to say and speak into this.

And so I reached out to them, I sent them an email. They replied back. We did some zooms. And then at the probably the second zoom, they said, you know, we have a friend in the US and his name’s Preston Sprinkle, and he works, you know, he runs the center for Faith, Sexuality and Gender. Here’s this information.

I’m sure he would love to speak with you. And that would be three months into my detransition. And I knew God was calling me to things after I detransitioned. A few things were, you know, like, maybe one day writing a book, speaking was one of them, and a podcast and, like, specific things that he was eventually going to call me into. And so I reached out to Preston right away.

He was just in the middle of doing Grace and Truth 2.0 on the gender part of it. And so he invited me to come down and do the filming there and also speak on a panel. And because God had already called me to these things that I believed he called me to, and I promised him that I would just say yes to anything that he was calling me to. I said yes. And so three, four months into my detransition, I flew down there and met Preston and a couple amazing godly men.

And we just had a great time, but I was really wrestling with my gender. I was going through a lot of dysphoria at that time, but God used me in that area. And then from there, he just kept opening doors. Preston would invite me to this and that, and it started to open. And then Theology in the Raw conference.

And then I started to get asked from there to speak at different local churches, a couple local churches here in Vancouver. And it just kept going forward and forward and forward as I kept stepping out and saying, yes, yes, I was freaked out at the time, but I just knew that God will provide everything I need for everything he’s calling me to, no matter how I feel. And so that just kept going and kept going. And I felt like, okay, this is something that God’s really calling me to. It needs to be heard within our church, the big C church.

How do we equip others to love people, people that are marginalized? And God just kept opening doors. And then last year, about a year and a half ago, he pressed on my heart to just have a website. You know, Renewed and Transformed is the, the name that he gave me. And I said, okay, a place where people can find me if they’re hurt, struggling, wrestling, or want me to come speak and, and from there, you know, more opportunities.

But Canada was really difficult. We weren’t having this conversation. And probably for the first three to five years, most of my conversation was happening in the US and. Wow. Yeah, no, no, no, go, go ahead, keep on going.

I was just going to say, until last year, someone heard another podcast with Preston on theology and the Raw that I did a couple of years ago, reached out to me and they had a conference that they held for youth workers. And this was getting me excited. He reached out to me, we sat down and talked, and he said, would you come on tour to all five conferences with us all around Canada? And I was like, yes, absolutely, yes. And so from there in Canada, it’s opened up the conversation.

People are hearing, you know, me share and speak more, and, and it just keeps going forward so that it’s amazing. And I, I like have a front row seat to it. So if people want to get in contact with you, what’s the name of your website? Yeah, it’s Renewed. Sorry, my website is kyla gillespie.com okay, my ministry is called Renewed and Transformed.

Okay? And if someone wants to get ahold of me, head to my website. I have multiple opportunities where you can reach out to me and I will do my best to, you know, reply back as soon as possible. Also, you can find me, you know, on social media under Kyla Gillespie or Renewed, Transformed. And I believe the handle is at Kyla Gillespie, 14, for Instagram, connect with her.

One last question. If there’s a parent of a teenager that’s going through gender dysphoria, what’s the one thing you advise them to do? Right? If it’s a Christian parent, you know, I would say, you know, get as much information and knowledge in a biblical manner. Find resources such as, you know, Preston Sprinkle and, and my, my ministry.

Hopefully this can help you, but it’s as parents, it’s going to the word of God. It’s fasting and praying for our children that are being attacked by the world, culture and the enemy right now. And we have to be diligent knowing that this is a spiritual war that we’re in in the midst of this. And our children need us to stand firm in the truth which is best for them to thrive and gives them the most joy when they’re living inside the boundaries of biblical sexuality and gender. And so reach out if you have a trusted pastor that you can get counsel with, if you can find a Christian biblical counselor that’s not going to push them towards, you know, hormone blockers and transition and then, you know, have conversations that are difficult.

Open that up. Like, what does it look like from Genesis 1 to 2, how God created us. And then what does it look like when we hit Genesis 3 and there was a fall and brokenness? And because our children are struggling with, you know, might be struggling with their gender or identity, whatever, it doesn’t mean that, you know, like, we just put our hands up and we say, oh, I don’t know how we can walk through this. No, we go, okay.

It’s okay to struggle and wrestle with these things. This is how we live as a follower of Christ, some, you know, a God that loves us more than we could have ever imagined. And we start sharing the gospel and the goodness and all those kind of things. So I would just, yeah, don’t be discouraged. Reach out, talk to people.

Go to God with every question and everything that you have and lay it at the foot of the cross, and I believe he’ll come to you and comfort you in the hard times that you’re dealing with friends. There it is. You’ve heard it. You. Our beloved sister in Christ.

Our trophy of grace. We’re so proud of you. And we thank God for what he’s going to continue to do in you and continue to do through you. Hey, guys. This is transforming the church.

When the church is transformed, the world will be transformed. Catch you guys next time.