Who We Are

Gentle Shepherd MCC (GSMCC) is a congregation within the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC). We are a Christian denomination with a ministry to all people everywhere, particularly those people who have ever felt separated or unwelcome by the church at large because of their sexual orientation, gender or gender identification, race, class or ability.

We are a Christian Church. We preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ which can best be summarized by John 3:16 which says, For God so loved the world that God gave God's only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."

We are a Bible-based Church. We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and it contains all we need to know in order to live the life we were created to live. However, the Bible must be interpreted in its cultural, historical and literary context. Failure to properly do this in the past has led to much misinterpretation of texts, especially those texts concerning homosexuality.

We are an "inclusive" church. We are not simply a "gay" church. This means we seek to make a place for everyone who walks through our doors to feel welcome. There is a place at God's Table for everyone at GSMCC. We take our dedication to inclusivity into our language. Therefore, we use words to describe ourselves, others — and especially God — in ways that include rather than exclude, expand rather than contract. We believe in an infinite God, therefore an infinite number of ways can be used to describe God.