CONNECTED Adventist

Michael has been on both sides of 'coming out'. He lived as a homosexual man for many years but events in his life led him to have a spiritual encounter with Jesus Christ. This experience changed many aspects of his life and led him to currently be on the other side of 'coming out'. Michael is now an international speaker for Coming Out Ministries and travels the world sharing his story and training churches on how to minster to people with same-sex attraction and LGTBQ+ community members who are desiring a relationship with Jesus and belonging within Christianity.

This episode is the continuation of my interview with Daniel and Jo. Make sure to listen to part 1 of this interview.

Adventism, and even Christianity has diversity. On this episode I invited two guests to represent the not-so 'cookie cutter' population of the Seventh-day Adventist church or Christianity for that matter. Through this interview we distilled what it means to have faith when you belong to a marginalise group, and the heartbreaking reality that at times, Christians like my guests experience the reality that they're not totally accepted 'in the church' or out of the church.

What a difference ONE WEEK makes during a pandemic!! Yikes! An update on my last COVID-19 episode and well- haven't things changed!

The necessity of Ethnic churches within Christianity has at times been questioned. However, the importance of Ethnic churches is rarely question by immigrants. Our guest is an immigrant to Australia himself, and is currently pastoring 3 ethnic churches. We discuss what ethnic churches have symbolised to both of us as immigrants and what Pr. Ray hopes his ethnic churches will signify to his youth and future generations.

When our Sabbaths become flooded with 'service' to others, we can at times, forget that the essence of the Sabbath was not only for service and fellowship with other believers but it was also a day to rest and be still; embracing the weekly opportunity for quiet fellowship, with our Father.

The outbreak of COVID 19 has created situations that many of us have never experienced before. This pandemic has forced some of us in to be in 'lock down' in our own towns and as a result, it have made some of us to reflective on the unimaginable effects of this outbreak will have on our lives, our family, our country and our world. But through this process what impact is all of this having on your faith, on your peace and ultimately, on your trust in God?

Many animals have a natural instinct to attack when they sense danger. Some animals, attack for the thrill of the chase. For some of us, Christianity can become instinctively defensive or 'impress' the need 'prowl' for conversations or interactions where we can attack people who hold differing opinions to us.

Society, culture, traditions, the media and unbiblical ideologies often define our opinion or expectations of what femininity and masculinity should look like. In this episode I discuss what God revealed to me regarding my own unbiblical ideas regarding femininity, being a wife and mothering.