‘Pray Over Our Kids’: How Parents and Churches Can Handle Trans, Sexuality Issues in Christian Families By Billy Hallowell for Faith Wire
A former teacher and education expert who runs a nonprofit aimed at helping kids and families navigate today’s chaotic culture believes Christians need to think deeper about how to navigate LGBTQ issues impacting the church.
Dr. Kathy Koch, a staff member with Summit Ministries and the founder and president of Celebrate Kids, Inc., lamented the reality that some pastors and church leaders are ill-prepared to deal with these issues.
Preparing Faith Leaders and Congregants
And Koch, who routinely speaks about issues like education, homeschooling, and evangelism, believes preachers and other leaders in the church must be better equipped to help Christian families.
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“Let’s get our pastors prepared,” she told CBN’s Faithwire. “You can graduate from seminary and have no coursework in evangelism, mental health, etc. Which I don’t understand.”
Koch said church leaders of all stripes should attend conferences, read periodicals, and watch content to understand how to address and cope with parishioners’ challenges.
“[We have to let] parents and grandparents and kids know we’re a hospital for the sick,” she said. “We have got to train up the people.”
One of the barriers to addressing LGBTQ issues in the church, Koch said, is that some people struggle even to admit and address the presence of heterosexual sexual sin, inappropriately skirting the issue.
Beyond that, certain judgments can sometimes get in the way of helping others with healing and restoration.
“The whole thing is just so messy,” she said. “We have a hierarchy in our mind. We’ve got to get rid of that. We have got to train up the people sitting in our pews to welcome the prodigal home and to allow for that conversation without the shocked face like, ‘Oh, that’s happening in your family. What have you done?’”
