The Next Faithful Steps: A Guide for Reflection & Action After General Conference 2024
What is it?
The reflection guide was designed to help communities and congregations better understand and respond to the decisions of the 2024 General Conference of The United Methodist Church.
What’s inside?
The Next Faithful Steps includes guides for four holistic, discussion-based sessions. Each lesson guide includes insightful summaries of General Conference work and results, as well as meaningful discussion prompts, prayer, scripture, reflection, discussion questions, and suggestions for continued engagement.
How do I get it?
For your whole small group or church, The Nexts Faithful Steps is $20 and you can get it here. Your purchase helps Reconciling Ministries Network to keep equipping our denomination, from individuals to institutions, to keep moving forward toward justice and affirmation for all of God’s children.
If your community is interested in this product but cost is a barrier, please reach out to us at admin (at) rmnetwork.org.
If you’re wondering what your Reconciling Ministry can do to further show your love and affirmation of LGBTQ+ people, click below for a brief list of next steps you can take together.
Say More is a resource meant to support you and your community as you engage in thoughtful reflection and conversation around LGBTQ+ inclusion. We hope to empower you to share your story with others to further the causes of inclusion and justice both within The United Methodist Church and your own local context.
Say More is for communities and congregations who want to begin or continue facilitating conversation around LGBTQ+ inclusion. Whether this is your first time, or one opportunity among hundreds, we all benefit when we allow the stories of others to touch us deeply while also sharing our own reflection, testimony, and witness.
The foundation of Say More was developed by Rev. Dr. Tiffany Steinwert.
“A study for United Methodist Groups that guides persons to explore the controversial issues of homosexuality from a Christian perspective and to consider ways to be in ministry to and with persons who are homosexual. It contains the complete text of the 1992 General Conference Report of the Committee to Study Homosexuality and the official United Methodist position as contained in the Social Principals.”
Published in 1994, this study was later dismissed by the General Conference but was, for its time, an important and singular resource.
$20.00
A good toolkit contains a variety of tools that will help you accomplish your task. It may not contain every tool you will need to finish the job, but it contains the basics to get you started. That’s the intention of this Parent Support Group Toolkit. We believe this will help you develop and lead a gathering of the loved ones of queer and trans people: parents, grandparents, siblings, and more.
What’s included:
5 track options for learning about your LGBTQ+ loved ones, each representing a different way to engage your group based on interest
Meeting logistics and planning guide
Sample group rules and parameters of confidentiality
We hope this Toolkit companions you and your fellow families. Thank you for your ministries of affirmation and community-building! The time and love you pour into a parents support group are vital for changing – even saving – LGBTQ+ lives.
Written by LGBTQ+ youth ministers and church leaders and awesome youth advisors, this Toolkit covers major topics a young person might encounter while learning about their sexual and/or gender identity. This is a great resource for any LGBTQ+ teen but especially for those who are new on their journey.
Parents Reconciling Network and United Methodist Alliance for Transgender Inclusion, both extension ministries of RMN, teamed up to host three sessions together. These three Virtual Porches cover Gender Identity 101, what transgender, gender fluid, gender non-conforming individuals would have wanted from their parents, and open conversation with several individuals who share their stories and journeys.
Parents Reconciling Network, an extension ministry of RMN, hosts monthly Virtual Porch sessions for support, learning, and exploring with other parents of LGBTQ+ people. These one-hour sessions include interviews, presentations, and conversations on a variety of topics.
All are made in the image and likeness of God. If this is what we believe, then trans people, like all people, reflect something of God, and not just in the ways that they share in common with others, but also in the ways that they are different.
In Changing Our Mind, Past-President of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics David P. Gushee takes the reader along his personal and theological journey as he changes his mind about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender inclusion in the Church.
What does nonbinary really mean? What is gender nonconforming? And isn’t they a plural pronoun? In this charming and disarming guide, a real-life they-using genderqueer writer unpacks all your burning questions in a fun, visual way. No soapboxes or divisive comment-section wars here!
