YouTube podcast excerpt (uploaded by Nick Stumbo) in which a speaker describes how churches can create safe, nonjudgmental groups to help people with broken sexuality, betrayal, and addiction. The speaker argues that an "environment of grace" — where individuals can reveal painful stories without condemnation and receive care — draws people who may not yet be attracted to church and serves as an effective outreach avenue.
A lot of churches, when they begin running groups and make it known like, hey, we're a safe place to deal with this issue, to deal with broken sexuality and betrayal and addiction. There are people, whether it's, you know, what you described as a plain community or men or women who are just disenfranchised on church or young people, that this message in particular resonates with them because it helps them see. Oh, I think this church actually has something for me that if I walk in and reveal my broken story, they're not going to, you know, turn away in horror. They're not going to give me some, you know, holiness condemnation lesson, but they're going to embrace me and care for me. And so the way you described that, people are kind of sliding in to try to ask confidentially, like, can I be in group? I've just seen that happen a lot. And it's an environment of grace that I think people are drawn to, even if they're maybe not yet drawn to the church. And so it becomes an, I think, an incredible avenue. The churches can reach people that maybe right now they're not reaching.
