A Look Back at WGA’s Founding

Prayers were often panicky and straight to the point in the early years of Where Grace Abounds (WGA). The fundamental questions for me were rooted in how to apply the convictions and call on my life. One such question haunted me hourly. “ What exactly is the approach, the environment, in which God wanted us to work with people?”

One day, I had just asked God that very question when the phone rang.

“Good morning, Where Grace Abounds, this is Mary.”

The caller’s response was slow and hesitant as she talked through sobs. As I listened to her story, I felt the pain of her experience.

She was sixteen and experiencing confusing sexual feelings. She went to her youth pastor, who read from the Bible, prayed with her, and encouraged her toward obedience. Yet she left still feeling alone and discouraged.  She decided to go to the Gay and Lesbian Community Center. There she received acceptance and empathy for her sexual feelings, but when she talked of her doubts and faith in Biblical principles, she was told her faith was misplaced…that the Bible didn’t really say what she thought it did.

The teen’s question to me was, “Isn’t there some place I can go where they will listen to me; where they won’t try to talk me into or out of something?”  

At that moment, my question of the Lord came rushing to the forefront and I thought, “There it is; that is our approach.”

The official beginning of Where Grace Abounds (WGA) is July of 1986.  It was established initially for people who were in conflict with unwanted same-sex attractions, but we discovered in that founding year that the needs and emotions underlying sexual feelings are very similar.

· As I read and re-read and prayed through the story of the creation of the world and the human beings God created and placed in it

· As we listened to and prayed with men and women who came to us for help with their sexual struggles

· As we studied biblical principles addressing human sexuality…

…we came to believe that every person’s sexual and relational struggles must be understood within the broader human condition — our longing for love, identity, belonging, intimacy, and reconciliation with God. We are all created by God and subject to the same brokenness, temptations, longings, and struggles of life in this world.

With this conviction and focus in mind, WGA broadened our purpose to provide support services for all people who wanted to understand sexuality and relationships.

Our position in a nutshell is reflected in our tag line:

100% Grace. 100% Truth.

No Compromise.

The environment we try to provide in our support groups, and conversations with people, was born after that phone conversation with a sixteen-year-old in the first year of our ministry.

Her story still gives me pause when the complexities of human experience cloud the simplicity of God’s purpose for WGA. She called, asking through her tears, “Isn’t there a place where I can go and not be talked into or out of something?”

Yes, there is. It’s called Where Grace Abounds. WGA will hold to our convictions without forcing it on anyone else (Truth). We are agents of reconciliation, offering compassion and love (Grace). And we pray unceasingly for the Holy Spirit to bring peace and healing to people wrestling with questions about sexual attraction, identity, faith, and relationships.

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