How churches go woke

By Abdul Masih —

Behind the story of the San Diego youth pastor who celebrated Charlie Kirk‘s death, is a church that once was a biblically sound but turned woke under the direction of a new senior pastor, the former youth pastor says.

Ryan Miller’s re-telling of events on his YouTube channel answers in part a pressing question facing Christianity: How do Bible churches with sound doctrine get taken over by progressive ideas and become LGBTQ affirming?

Restoration Church fired Hailey Bunsold some days after she posted on TikTok taunting Charlie Kirk with scripture: You reap what you sow. In other words, you sowed hate, so you deserved to die. Initially Restoration promised proper discipline. By the time the board met, a significant backlash had whipped up, and she was fully removed.

Ryan was the youth pastor before Hailey. He quit the church over concerns in the hiring process of a new senior pastor, he says.

“There was some woke ideology in what he was saying” in the interview process, Ryan says. “Things like, ‘Would you officiate a gay wedding?’ He wouldn’t answer the question. I brought this to the elders, and said, ‘This is what he is saying.’ They disciplined me. They said, ‘You’re sowing discord’ and basically like, ‘You need to stay out of this. You are now someone that is causing disunity in the church right now. You’re not rowing in the same direction.’

“I dipped,” Ryan says. “I’m out. I’m done. I left the church.”

While Ryan served as youth pastor, Restoration was doctrinally solid, he says. The new senior pastor apparently made changes. The church’s website specifically says now that LGBTQ persons can be in ministry. Other churches, like Mosaic of Los Angeles, welcome LGBTQ to their congregation to hear the word but don’t give them ministry.

The question of LGBTQ in the church of God is a burning issue at present as more and more people dip into that lifestyle. How does the church respond with love and compassion to the growing crowds of people? Surely the hardline stance of condemnation of Westboro Baptist is not the answer and doesn’t reflect God.

For his part, Ryan says that the church’s message must have both love and truth. “Truth without love is harsh, but love without truth is hollow,” he says. “There’s so many people that have just been speaking hollow love. They’ve been trying to meet people where their feelings are at instead of saying
what is the truth of the gospel.”

Ex trans Neeza Powers agrees. “I’ve seen the affirming and welcoming (churches),” says the man who has been saved only 100 days. “But I I just want the welcoming to exist. Welcome all. Everybody should beable to walk in those doors. But when it comes to affirming the lifestyles that they’re living, why? Why are some churches saying that it’s okay? Are they that desperate for a congregation or are they influenced by by something else?”

At the same time, Ryan says there has been a lot of harsh rhetoric from Christians against the many people celebrating Kirk’s death online. “A certain political commentator is calling them rats and demons,” Ryan says.

Referencing Erika Kirk’s striking forgiveness pronounced for her husband’s killer, Ryan says, “To the point where we can forgive the shooter, we can forgive the people on social media. Forgiveness is not saying that what they’re doing is fine. Forgiveness is saying, I am relinquishing the weight of my unforgiveness and giving it to Jesus. I am turning over that unforgiveness to the Lord. I’m relinquishing my right to take vengeance against them.”

Until Christians forgive, there won’t experience revival, Ryan cautions.

Ryan says that the same elders who ran him off called him later to ask for forgiveness.

“Eventually what happened was I started getting calls from those same elders that told me off,” Ryan says. “And they would say, ‘Ryan, we’re sorry. We’re now seeing some of this stuff and we should have listened to you.'”

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