I had a lot of gay friends and even had some congregation members who were gay, and I just wasn't sure where I stood. In my heart, I was like, "How can I condemn these people for their love of one another?" I started looking deeper into the Bible and studying and then I went to a gay-affirming church. It all came together at one point.

I always thought I had to earn God's love and approval. I kept trying, but it never seemed like I could do it, and I thought, "Man, what's wrong with me?" A friend of mine was like, "Man, you're full of it. You're trying to do what Christ has already done: You're trying to earn your salvation and you can't - it's a free gift." It sounded too good to be true. He said, "You need to start reading the Bible for yourself and stop taking everyone else's word for it." When I really started to do this, I realized God loved me no matter what.

The more I follow grace, the more I'm drawn to him (God), the more I'm willing to stand up for people being persecuted. .. This sounds so churchy, but I felt like God spoke to my heart and said '(homosexuality) is not a sin'.

We believe that this time of transition will make for a more dynamic Revolution Church, and will help us focus and expand our scope and mission.

I try to love my neighbor as myself but I'm not trying to be a people pleaser. Sometimes that's hard, because my human nature is to want people to be happy with me. But sometimes I feel my convictions are so great that it would be compromising the truth if I didn't do that. So sometimes it's a struggle to say, "This is what I think; this is what I believe, and if you don't agree with me, oh well." The hardest thing for people to accept is the gay-affirming issue. It's hard for people to agree to disagree on that one.

As a preacher I just feel like I have to be honest; I couldn't live with myself if I wasn't. I think that's why I've been able to reach some people who don't feel comfortable in churches. I do make mistakes and I can be goofy and quirky sometimes. I'm not the world's greatest speaker. I don't try to hide that.

I love New York. It's made me realize that God's a lot bigger than I thought he was. It's a really interesting crowd. We have an agnostic person who comes on a regular basis, a transgender person who said that they found our church because they we're looking for a church that wouldn't hate them. The congregation is really great.