Help Kevin imagine a more just and generous Christianity

I'm turning 30! One thing led to another and now... I help run a church in Brooklyn.

I was raised first, in an immigrant Taiwanese church in Australia and then an expat American non-denominational Pentecostal-style megachurch in Beijing. When I was in high school, my brother came out to me and was pushed out of the church. A new, ultraconservative youth pastor started preaching messages like "non-Christians can't love" and ultimately, for a variety of reasons, including reckoning with my own queerness, I quit the church in anger.

Through a decade of working through my own trauma, I found myself at Forefront Church. Forefront met me where I was and welcomed my skepticism. Ultimately, the counter to the rise of Christian Nationalism that hurt me was not running away, but cultivating a faith practice based on a relentless pursuit of one goal: "Love your neighbor as yourself". One thing led to another and I found myself singing, preaching, and now, serving a three-year term on the church leadership team.

Here are ways that Forefront helps me realise my goal of loving my neighbour as I love myself:

We love our neighbours directly. We operate a care team that surrounds people with support when they need it. At any given moment in time, many in our community, particularly Queer Trans folks of colour are facing all kinds of personal crises and we offer monetary support and community. Your support keeps people housed and healthy. As someone who sits on the board, I personally look at requests for help and I get to see the difference we make in people's lives. Help me love my neighbours more.

We teach our children to love themselves. On Sundays, I get to help out in children's ministry, and we affirm the inherent beauty and dignity of every child that comes in. We are building the kind of Sunday school I wish I had as a child.

We believe in our neighbours. Senator-elect Talarico comes from a faith tradition of churches like Forefront, one that encourages people to relentlessly interrogate scripture. We believe that everyone has a sermon inside of them. Through our Preaching Bootcamp program, we have cultivated a generation of preachers (myself included), many of whom have gone on to attend seminary and become prominent clergy around the country. Your donations help us keep this pipeline of generational talent open.

Thank you for helping me envision what the future of what the Christian faith could be, with a couple of nerds with the biggest hearts that I've ever seen.