Jeff Chu on "Growing Up Gay..."

A couple weeks ago, I got to go to the Progressive Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago. There were a lot of really great speakers and presenters at PYM14, but perhaps the most moving presentation was Jeff Chu's talk, "Growing Up Gay in the Church and What I Wish My Youth Pastor Knew." This video, originally posted by Tony Jones (who, incidentally, was one of the folks who put on the PYM conference), is an example, I think, of the kinds of conversations you're able to have at an unapologetically "progressive" event, that you wouldn't likely be able to have at a "big tent" or an evangelical event. There are, of course, many advantages to having gatherings in which progressives and conservatives can gather together (I still like Youth Specialties), but let the following video show that there's also an advantage to gathering where you can talk about "hot-button" issues without having to worry about bothering people from the complete opposite side of the spectrum. You're able to talk about how to do ministry in a particular context. You're able to have conversations like this...

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