We Belong

Statement of Welcome and Reconciliation

We affirm that all people are created in the image of God and as beloved children of God, all are worthy of God’s love and grace.  We recognize that there are differences among us and believe that we can love alike even though we may not think alike.  We invite all people to join us in our faith journey toward greater love, understanding, and mutual respect.

  LGBTQIA is an acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and other non-conforming identities. 

We at Desert Mission United Methodist Church believe that all children of God should have a place to worship and serve to fulfill the purposes God has set before them. Therefore, we celebrate humanity’s diversity of race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, faith history, economic status, marital status, physical and mental ability, and education. 

Notably, we refuse to discriminate on the above and we not only welcome our greater LGBTQIA community, we will also perform weddings in our sanctuary and Pastor Jim will officiate for LGBTQIA weddings. (We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, for example: by being abusive.) 

Common Questions

Submit a Question

Well, we are a very happy church, but we are not all gay. We are not all one thing. What unites us is that we all believe that worship should be open and welcoming to everyone.

The Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) is a non-profit organization seeking the inclusion of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in both the policy and practices of The United Methodist Church. Churches, pastors, and lay leaders may affiliate themselves with RMN to communicate their support. Reconciling Churches support this statement: “We celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community equally shared and shepherded by all. We welcome and affirm people of every gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, who are also of every age, race, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, level of education, and family structure, and of every economic, immigration, marital, and social status, and so much more. We acknowledge that we live in a world of profound social, economic, and political inequities. As followers of Jesus, we commit ourselves to the pursuit of justice and pledge to stand in solidarity with all who are marginalized and oppressed.”

It has. While we believe that most rules should be obeyed, rules that perpetuate injustice call us to obey a higher calling. We reject the rules that call us to relegate LGBTQIA folks to second-class status. We reaffirm the baptismal vows we made to “renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of our sin,” namely the sin Jesus names in Matthew 23:13: “But woe to you, [church leaders], hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.” We refuse to reject LGBTQIA loved ones from coming to church and fully participating.

No we don’t. There are numerous available scholarly resources that address the “Clobber Passages” and why they are not relevant to today’s conversations and LGBTQIA relationships. We encourage everyone to do a little research and to prayerfully challenge one’s own assumptions in order to arrive at a place of peace, acceptance and love as the Apostle Peter did in Acts 10:28 when he says, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew (that is, a faithful and ritually clean person) to associate with or to visit a Gentile (that is, a non-Jew who were considered to be unrepentant sinners), but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”

We highly recommend that if you find a church that seems to welcome you and your loved ones to ask the pastor if she or he will perform LGBTQIA weddings or if the church will allow LGBTQIA weddings in its sanctuary. This seems to be a quick way to discern between those that are truly affirming and those that are happy to take your money while treating you as less than fully human. It’s not a perfect question as there are pastors who want to be supportive and loving, but are supervised by unsupportive leaders; but this question should open up a deeper conversation to help you make a good decision.

You can find other LGBTQIA-friendly churches by visiting any of the following web sites: United Methodist “Reconciling Churches”, Open and Affirming United Church of Christ, the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, More Light Presbyterians, Reconciling Works Lutherans, or Room for All Reformed Church in America, just to name a few of the organizations that can help you find supportive churches.