Exodus Launches Initiative for Youth Struggling with Homosexuality
The youth division of Exodus International is starting an initiative to teach students and youth pastors how to minister to gay-identified youth or youth struggling with unwanted same-gender attractions.
Exodus International has been ministering to adults struggling with homosexuality for 30 years and is now expanding its focus to include youth struggling with same-gender attraction.
The youth division of Exodus International is starting an initiative to teach students and youth pastors how to minister to gay-identified youth or youth struggling with unwanted same-gender attractions after numerous requests kept pouring in the office.
Exodus Youth will be presenting "Groundswell," defined as sudden gathering of public opinion, which is an initiative to train and equip concerned youth pastors, campus ministers and students to respond to homosexuality among the youth.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Organizers of the initiative are currently discussing partnerships with several prominent campus ministries in order to rally more support behind the initiative.
According to Scott Davis, Director of Exodus Youth, the ministry is looking at Fellowship of Student Athletes, Student Venture (high school ministry of CCC), Young Life, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as some potential partners.
Groundswell conferences held this fall will also be part of the initiative's plan in training students and youth pastors. Workshops during the one-day events will teach attendants how to reach out to gay-identified youth on a personal level and to promote a traditional Christian view of homosexuality on a school-wide level.
Davis, who will head a workshop on "Changing the School Atmosphere," told The Christian Post, "We want to help them understand how to have healthy same-gender relationships without sexualizing it."
"Part of their attraction comes from an innate need that is not happening," he continued, saying that feelings of estrangement from peer groups lead to feelings of attraction toward peers of the same gender.
The workshops will help approaching youth with homosexual tendencies but "head knowledge only does so much," said Davis.
The youth director believes that only when their wounds from estranged relationships with peer groups and/or parents are healed can they begin to change.
Therefore, the main approach of reaching out to them will be through mentors who can also act as a parental figure if necessary, according to Davis.
