Ed Shaw is a church planter, the pastor of Emmanuel City Centre in Bristol, England, and the director of Living Out, a ministry that seeks to encourage Christians, equip churches, and engage the world with God’s plan for sexuality and identity. He is also an accomplished writer, and his latest book is titled, Purposeful Sexuality: A Short Christian Introduction. Ed loves his family and friends, his church and city, and music and books.
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Other Podcasts in the LGBTQ and the Church Series
Juli Slattery: This Is How the Church Can Begin the LGBTQ Conversation
Gregory Coles: It’s Possible to Be Same-Sex Attracted and Fully Surrendered to Jesus
Mark Yarhouse: How to Pastor Someone Who Has Gender Dysphoria
Sean McDowell: Scripture Is Very Clear About God’s Design for Sexuality
Rachel Gilson: How Jesus Helps Me Say No to My Same-Sex Desires
Caleb Kaltenbach: Do You See the LGBTQ Community Through God’s Eyes?
Preston Sprinkle: Jesus Left the 99 to Pursue the One—And That Means Trans People
Laurence Koo: A Call for the American Church to Welcome Single (LGBTQ) Believers
Key Questions for Ed Shaw
–What does it look like to provide good pastoral support to same-sex attracted individuals? How do churches fail to do this well?
-What is it like for you personally when you hear pastors or churches emphasize protecting the church from an “LGBTQ agenda” in society?
-What advice do you have for pastors and ministry leaders as far as how to be transparent with the people they are leading?
-Some Christians think that because God sanctifies us, if same-sex attracted believers are diligent to surrender their desires to God, those desires will eventually go away. What do you believe is the most accurate and helpful way for people to think about this?
Key Quotes from Ed Shaw
“For a pastor and for a leadership team in the church, thinking through these issues, one of the first things they need to think through is, we will probably already have people in our midst for whom same-sex attraction, questions around sexuality and gender identity are big things that they’ve perhaps never felt able to talk about in the context of an evangelical church.”
“A big thing to realize, if you don’t realize it already, is just [the LGBTQ community] will be thinking, ‘You are evangelical Christians; therefore, you hate us.’”
“We need to bridge a gap. And one of the best ways of bridging the gap would be just building friendships and often saying sorry for the missteps we’ve made in the past.”