I expect you might be wondering about me.  That’s good.  This is not a topic you want to let just anyone speak to with your people.

I’ll be adding more content to this site between now and June, but here are some questions you probably have upfront.

Who are you?

I’m Gary Wilkins, and I’ve served in pastoral ministry for about 20 years. During that time, I held a variety of roles in independent, Evangelical Free, and Southern Baptists churches. I have an MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a DMin from Southern Theological Seminary. My area of study through both those degrees was a biblical understanding of culture.

Five years ago, God led me from full-time ministry into the business world. As a pastor, I was aware of the moral and political dimensions of homosexuality and other aspects of secularism. But I had yet to learn how they were becoming such a challenge to believers in their place of work. As a result, I feel a burden to help other pastors understand these challenges and better equip their people to face them.

What is your theological perspective?

My theological perspective is quite simple. Homosexuality is a sin, and while it has many consequences, it is not beyond redemption. The gospel message–that Christ became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God–holds true for those struggling with this sin.

But the movement surrounding homosexuality has become a cultural and social phenomenon that reaches far beyond the simple truth of sin and the gospel. As a result, we rarely have the opportunity to talk about sin and redemption. Instead we must untangle a complicated, ever-shifting web of lies to make a case for truth.

I first confronted the complications of homosexuality in 2014 when the issue of gay marriage was rising to prominence. I wrote article called Answering the Cause of Homosexuality which you can download.  It will show you how I applied that passage.

Can you be trusted to encourage your people in a biblically sound way?

That is for you to decide. However, I don’t expect you to make that decision on my word alone. All the content I plan to use during Prep for Pride will be available online before the campaign.

I am using my blog FaithCulture.org to host this content. This site also includes other things I have written over the years on various elements of faith and culture, so you can read that as well. I am also available if you have additional questions.

In addition, I hope you have heard about this from someone you trust and that they have good reason to pass it on to you.

Where does this go from here?

Pride Month is one month out of the year. But the issues it raises continue daily. I desire to use the season of heightened attention to help pastors equip their people for the ongoing challenges.

Those challenges center on how personal identity has become a central component of employment. By that, I mean an employee is expected to assume the identity that their employer envisions for them.

Unfortunately, employers are becoming more influenced by woke ideology. As a result, the identity these employers expect from their employees is far removed from the identity given to us in Christ and explained to us in the Bible. This shift makes shaping our people’s identity in Christ much more challenging.

In addition to Prep for Pride, I am working on resources that will equip believers to diagnose these unbiblical identities accurately and find opportunities to contribute positively to their work and other community involvements.

What will you do with the contact information this campaign collects?

At the end of the campaign, participants will be given a choice to continue to receive information on these additional resources or stop receiving communication from me. Any information used beyond this campaign will be anonymous and done with the participant’s acknowledgment.

I hope that, out of this effort, we can better understand the challenges believers face in their places of work. With that greater insight, we can better equip them to be a light for the gospel’s truth in the face of growing darkness.

I’d love to talk further.  Feel free to reach out directly at prepforpride@outlook.com.