For nearly 15 years, Olu Brown, Lead Pastor of Impact Church, located in what was once an abandoned warehouse in East Point after small beginnings in the auditorium of Brown Middle School, has quickly become one of the fastest-growing United Methodist Churches in the country by “doing church differently.” 

A native Texan, LGBTQ+ ally, and divorced father of two, Brown leads a 21st-century congregation that is diverse and inclusive—two buzzwords that often serve as signals to LGBTQ+ Christians that a house of worship is safe and welcoming. But unlike many African-American ministers who embrace Black liberation theology concerning the oppression of Black people—but take a literal approach to the Biblical condemnation of queer people—Brown is explicit about the evolution of his theological position and why his support for the LGBTQ+ community, along with conversations with conservative clergy about LGBTQ+ issues is not only the right thing to do but is also a social justice issue. 

“Those in the African-American experience understand that this really is not about theology. It's about social justice. And if you're not careful, you run the risk of being an oppressed oppressor,” Brown says. 

“If you're going to fight for Black Lives Matter and say that you got to get your foot off my neck, and then in the next breath you tell your own brother and sister that they can't get married because they're in a same-sex relationship—that's an injustice. If you're going to fight for justice for one, you've got to fight for justice for all.” 

It’s a lesson Brown says he learned years ago after having a human experience with a queer person on the receiving end of what he describes as a “regrettable sermon against same-sex relationships.”

“One of the persons in the relationship talked to me about it,” Brown says. “And so it's been through conversations like that where I'm looking across from somebody who is a real human being like me, who is saying what the F, essentially. ‘I’m a human being, I'm a person, and you judge me because of who I love. And that's not right.’”

For many LGBTQ+ people, the judgment has frequently been rooted in scripture. Brown tells The Reckoning that the “isms” have the same tactics, whether it's sexism, racism, classism, they all use the same tactics of oppression, but we hide it in theology and the Bible.”

“You can just about infer or find anything in the Bible that you would like,” he says. “And unfortunately, people do what we call proof-texting—where you can find the isolated verse or a word, but if you're not careful, it's like anything else. You don't get the full context around it. And unfortunately, that is what has been done as it relates to theologies that people would use to go against LGBTQ+ [people].” 

According to a 2020 Gallup poll released in March 2021, “Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend.” And while nearly half of LGBTQ+ adults consider themselves religious, and that number increases to 70% among Black LGBTQ+ Americans, both straight and queer people have cited the church’s vilification and rejection of LGBTQ+ people as reasons why they’ve abandoned the church, according to a report from the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute. 

Brown urges LGBTQ+ Christians to separate the hurt inflicted by the church from God’s heart. 

“My hope for folks who have been hurt is to know that as wrong as the church has been on the local level, it does not represent the heart of God,” he says. 

“I would also say, don't be in any religious community that openly and knowingly and consistently abuses or hurts you because there are enough faith communities that love you and accept you as you are, and would love to have you as a part of the community.”

Normalizing Next 

With no shortage of LGBTQ+ affirming churches in Metro Atlanta, queer individuals who still desire to immerse themselves as full members in a particular faith community can do so. Although Brown says, “I appreciate and value churches that are started and valued around affirmation, in particular, of same-sex relationships, I look forward to the day when all faith communities are open and accepting of all people.”

This includes the United Methodist Church, which Brown’s church is affiliated with, and voted in 2019 to keep its ban on marriage equality and the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy in place. The global pandemic has delayed a vote on the split between the conservative and liberal wings of the denomination. 

A supporter of marriage equality, Brown tells The Reckoning that as Lead Pastor of Impact, he is not allowed to decide to perform same-sex marriages. The authority to perform such marriages rests with the governing body of the denomination. According to UMC’s The Book of Discipline, Brown could be subjected to reprimand if a complaint is filed with the United Methodist Church for performing same-sex marriages without permission. It’s a restriction that he hopes to one day be free of. 

“It's almost a slap in the face,” Brown says. 

“If you think about it, a heterosexual couple can come to me and I never meet with them. I’ve never talked to them. They're not even a part of the church, and I have full rights to marry them. It could probably be the worst decision I could ever make and the worst decision that they could ever make. But legally, based on our denomination's position, I have full rights to marry them. But a couple who has been a part of our church for years, and they've contributed their time, their talents, their treasure—they're wonderful individuals who happen to be in a same-sex marriage—and, oh, by the way, 10 years ago, we built a new sanctuary that they gave a significant amount of money to, and they come and say, ‘Hey, Olu, we're ready to get married.’ And I look at them and tell them, not only can I not marry you, you can't get married in the building you help finance. That's an injustice that has nothing to do with theology,” he says. 

For Brown, he aims for the Impact experience for all members and visitors, including those who identify as LGBTQ+ to be a living representation of the promise in their mission statement to be inclusive of people from all walks of life. It’s a tradition that he hopes will continue as he prepares to step down from his current role in June 2022, to embark on a new chapter in ministry. 

“I’ll continue writing and speaking publicly and doing a year-long intensive around this book entitled Normalizing Next: A COVID-19 Response For Leaders In The Church,” Brown says. 

As far as his successor, Brown tells The Reckoning that UMC Bishops have absolute authority over local churches and the appointment of Impact’s next leader. When asked if it’s a possibility that his successor will take a conservative hardline approach to LGBTQ+ people, Brown simply said, “that is a reality.”