“Love Beyond Belief” & LGBTQ+ Inclusion

The Journey

For more than a decade, Southridge has sought to put Jesus at the centre in how we welcome and include LGBTQ+ people in our church community. Early in our journey, we recognized that the church has often had a very different impact on the queer community than Jesus had on anyone, especially those who experienced marginalization. We also recognized that the broader church was experiencing extreme division and polarization in this conversation, reflecting the opposite spirit of oneness that Jesus prayed for in John 17 and that the New Testament frequently teaches. In light of this, we sought to begin to understand and change the ways we were contributing to these un- Jesus-like impacts as well. We began a journey of learning and growth through theological study, active listening, and ongoing prayer, all to discern God’s leading in our community. From 2017-2020, we engaged in community teaching sessions and leadership conversations that led to embracing a “disputable matters” approach to how we hold our personal convictions about the biblical definition of marriage, respecting one another whether holding an “affirming” or “traditional” view. As the apostle Paul teaches in Romans 14-15, we aspired to not break fellowship over “disputable matters” that aren’t essential for salvation nor eternal in implication, but instead, committed to work to maintain the unity of the spirit, especially around core matters of faith in Jesus. A few years later, we were challenged to consider what it would mean to fully and equally live out this approach to our convictions with respect to LGBTQ+ inclusion and involvement in our church. That led to a community discernment process in the fall and winter of 2022/23 where our leadership facilitated conversations with each Southridge member to ask whether they felt led to move forward with full and equal inclusion. Over 80% of our membership felt this was the step God was leading us to take, and in February 2023, we made a decision to fully embrace a framework we refer to as “Love Beyond Belief” where every follower of Jesus, whether holding a “traditional” or “affirming” view on marriage, has full access and equal opportunity to live out their faith as part of our community in unity together.

"Love Beyond Belief"

As a community, we embrace diverse perspectives. Rather than insisting that belonging is contingent on believing all of the exact same things, we're eager to welcome, include, involve, and unify people who disagree on a variety of theological issues that are outside the essentials of following Jesus. Over time, we’ve come to describe our vision of embracing Jesus-centred unity-in-diversity as “Love Beyond Belief.” For us, this means two things. First, that our primary calling as Jesus-followers is to live out Jesus’ “Greatest Commandment” to love God and others, above and beyond our distinct beliefs. And second, that as a Jesus- centred, biblically-rooted, orthodox Christian church, there are some core theological beliefs like the Apostle’s Creed that we seek to embrace and unite around together. To hear more about our “Love Beyond Belief” journey, check out this message from February 26, 2023.

LGBTQ+ Inclusion

At Southridge, we believe that LGBTQ+ people are deeply loved by God and are full image bearers of God, each bringing unique value to our community. In that spirit, everyone is welcome to belong and participate in the life of our church. As a fully-inclusive Jesus-centred church, LGBTQ+ followers of Jesus have full and equal opportunity to participate in the life of our community – including baptism, membership, leadership, employment, and marriage.

What This Means:

• We welcome LGBTQ+ followers of Jesus into baptism and church membership
• We encourage and empower equal opportunity to LGBTQ+ members of our community to serve, contribute, and lead according to gifts and callings
• We honour and seek to spiritually support committed monogamous marriages for LGBTQ+ followers of Jesus
• We recognize that sincere and committed followers of Jesus hold a range of views on many issues, and while we may understand aspects of scripture differently, we can stay committed to loving one another well regardless of these differences