Anglican Pastor begs Christians to get close to homosexuals

Sam Allberry, an Anglican pastor at St. Mary's Maidenhead Anglican Church in the U.K. and the author of "Is God Anti-Gay?", wants believers to stop running from the LGBT community and start befriending and listening to them instead.

In a recent interview with Desiring God, the minister, who has been open about his journey with same-sex attraction, talked about a recent opportunity to engage with secular LGBT students on university campuses.

Why Christians need to get close to homosexuals

Recounting the experience, he said, "They thought I was out to have a go at them and to attack them. I found that heartbreaking because I was there to represent the Prince of Peace. I was there to represent the most loving person who ever lived.

"It just made me realize that the onus is on us as believers to show that we are for people and not against them. That we care for them. That we don't hate them. That we want to know about them. I think we assume we are the target and everyone else is the aggressor. So we are in a defensive posture."

For Allberry, listening is the best thing for Christians to do when it comes to the LGBT community.

He said, "I think too often we've been thinking, 'I've gotta have my spiel I've gotta say to people.' Actually, I find the more I listen to someone, particularly in this context, actually, the much sharper my instinct is of where I need to begin in sharing something of Christ. The more I've heard them, the more I will have a sense of who they are, where they've come from, where they're at, and therefore where to start."

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How to befriend and listen to the LGBT community

Allberry concludes by reminding Christians not to judge others but to remember that Jesus treats everyone the same way and that "the Gospel puts us in the same boat."

In his words, "My message to people who are pastors, when it comes to issues of human sexuality, is that your job is not to duck the issue. Your job is not even just to hold the line. Your job is to win people. The gospel is good news, in whichever area of life we apply it. That is no less the case when we apply it to the issues of human sexuality. We're giving people good news, not bad news. We can have great confidence in that.

"I think we need to set the right posture, the right tone. We need to go at it with humility and grace. I think we need to be of service. We need to be approaching some of these groups and say, "What can we do to serve you? How can we help?" But I think when the initial hesitation and nervousness of being around Bible-believing Christians calms down, you can have some very, very fruitful conversations."

The best reason to take his advice is this - "there is a harvest within the gay community. So woe to us if we are not actually engaging in the path of proclaiming Christ there."

You can listen to the full interview below.