Who Are We?

Michael's experience

I have been a churchgoer since I was a child. At the age of 12 I knew there was something different about me, but there was nobody I could talk to about my feelings until I was 32. After coming out and living in a gay partnership I still went to church regularly except for a period when I was living in Sydney and was angry at homophobic ranting coming from well-known church leaders.

I attended churches of various denominations including Pentecostal, where I was put through deliverance ministry and spiritual counseling, prayers of pastors and other church members, as well as my own personal prayers, none of which made any difference to my sexual orientation. Most of the churches I went to were welcoming but I always felt I had to put on my “church personality” rather than being who I was, a gay man. This caused a massive guilt feeling about my sexuality and a continual war in my mind concerning my sexuality and my Christian faith.

Only last year I came to a place where I knew that God loves me as His child, the child He made me to be and that I could live happily and proudly as a Christian and a Gay man. I didn’t need to live a dual personality any more.

Unfortunately I don’t know many churches where LGBTIQ people are freely able to be who they are until I found North Adelaide Baptist Church through this website. It is a small congregation but a loving group of people with whom, because of their desire to be an inclusive community, over the last six months I have found acceptance for who I am and feel a welcome part of this ‘family’.

Michael