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Houston Lee

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1 reviews

Review for The Gay Christian Network, Raleigh, NC, USA

Rating: 5 stars  

As the "war of words" has seemed to heat up between gays and the church, GCN is the one place I know of that is trying to build bridges rather than reinforce the walls, and does it in as close to a 'live' format as possible. I reconnected with GCN almost a year ago during a personal crisis and instantly found people willing to befriend me, walk with me through my pain or just listen without judging. I began to heal emotionally and mentally as a direct result of the support I gained on GCN. And a few months later found myself offering the same kind of encouragement and support to others going through various kinds of pain. The variety of opportunities for involvement is almost limitless: prayer support, fun and games, discussion forums on almost any topic you can imagine- both serious and light, idle chit-chat to serious debate. I have made friends with people literally around the world. There are tons of resources through posted essays, podcasts of "GCN radio" and videos, helpful resource links to books and other information. In short, GCN has been a lifeline, both literally and figuratively. More than once I and others have been able to encourage someone musing over suicide. I've even opened my home to new GCN friends from out of state, as well as enjoyed local gatherings over dinner and games with GCN'ers in my city. I have talked up GCN to all my gay friends at church and elsewhere, as well as several straight friends who seem open to actually learning more about what it means to be gay and Christian, and how the two can actually coexist and reconcile.

I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...

my own life in receiving encouragement, emotional and spiritual support, resources in the form of books, dvd's, etc. and in the establishment of many new and growing friendships.

If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...

spend a lot more money on publicizing it.

What I've enjoyed the most about my experience with this nonprofit is...

the personal interaction on the message boards and opportunity to make new friends.

The kinds of staff and volunteers that I met were...

regular folks and easy to relate to.

If this organization had 10 million bucks, it could...

upgrade its tech support and website capacity and capabilities, hire more staff to help run and develop the site, produce more and better educational products and programs, broaden its "live" outreach by producing more regional & international conferences

Ways to make it better...

I had known about it years ago.

In my opinion, the biggest challenges facing this organization are...

funding and adapting to a membership that is growing exponentially around the world.

One thing I'd also say is that...

This organization has the potential to literally rock the world in helping bridge the gap between LGBT communities and "The Church"

When was your last experience with this nonprofit?

2009

Role:  Donor & I have been an active participant posting messages almost daily in numerous forums. This year I became a montlhly sponsor.