I'm looking for a church that is a welcoming and accepting community because I feel like that will be really helpful for me in fully accepting myself and my relationship. I found a church called C3, which seems like a much happier and more positive church than the one I grew up in, but their website says nothing about their stance on gays. Does anyone know anything about them and their stance on gays/gay marriage? I know I could just go check it out, but I don't want to throw myself into a negative church experience if someone knows for sure that they aren't accepting and I can avoid it.
Honestly, no I have no idea who they are. I do know however that each church is different, its not all singular under one denomination. My friend is methodist and go's to a church where his two moms got married, and where the paster is gay, and methodist's arent always too fond on gays . There are even a few catholic churches in my area that are cool with gays, so it just really depends. Just make sure you do some research on your local churches before you rule out any possibilities, you might find a few that are gay-friendly other then C3.
I am not familiar with the new C3 Church movement other than I know it started in Australia and came out of the Pentacostal movement. Pentacostals are not gay-friendly, so if I were to guess, I would assume the C3 Church isn't either. However, don't take my word for it. They have an international website -- shoot them an anonymous email. But -- there are TONS of gay-accepting/friendly churches out there. Except we seem too normal and don't seem to make the newspaper headlines like the extremist churches do =P Anyway, the Episcopal (or Anglican) Church is probably the largest that has gay-marriage and gay ministers throughout the United States. But, many Baptist (not Southern Baptist), Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and United Churches are gay-friendly. I know in Toronto, its quite easy to tell as the Church sign generally has a LGBT flag on it -- not sure if that occurs in the United States. In my personal experience, churches that are independant and non-denomination tend not to be as supportive as the large, traditional, protestant churches. Good Luck.
Just to add to Fintan, my local United Methodist is queer-friendly. I have sent out five emails: each to the leadership of Global, Americas, Australia, East Africa, and Europe. We'll see what they say... Also, if you want to send them an email anonymously, it will have to either be with a fictious named email account or one that's like [email protected] (To EC staff, not a valid email address AFAIK.)
I went to a C3 church. They seem pretty friendly, but I felt like the preacher was more of a motivational speaker. Others might be different. It's a church that won't judge, that's for sure.
In line with what other people have suggested, you might try contacting the pastor of your local church and talking with them directly. They'll be able to tell you if this is the right place for you more than any website, and I would think they'd be more than willing to talk to prospective members.
I have not heard back from any of the five regions yet, although it's only been two days. There are some things on the website which worry me though, and maybe the more religiously experienced might be able to decipher what these tenets mean and come to a different conclusion than I did. This kind of makes it sound like a static set of beliefs to me; the infallible, authoritative and everlasting part doesn't seem like there's much room to move around as social attitudes in society improve at large. Although who knows, maybe "living word" is kind of like "living Constitution," so it could mean doctrines are subject to change. Just doesn't sniff right with me. As much as I don't like Joel Olsteen for his homophobia, one thing that I do like about prosperity gospel, and apparently millions of other Americans like too is that his ministry doesn't focus on sin, damnation, and contending with the devil all the time. The fact that belief in the devil is a core official belief of the church doesn't sit too well either. Citation: About C3 Church | C3 Church
I am still waiting for a real response from C3. I got the following non-response from the global secretary today: I don't know what the "general tone of the scripture means" because it seems to depend on who is reading it.