Twenty Years of Gospel Impact
In 2006, when most of the evangelical church was still debating whether to engage the LGBT+ conversation at all, Posture Shift launched a missiological vision rooted in a simple, radical conviction: that the church cannot reach people it will not love, and it cannot love people it has not learned to understand.
"A gospel of exclusion has no power to reach already-rejected people."
Founded in Boston, Massachusetts, Posture Shift set out to train leadership teams, equip parents and families, foster safe churches and homes, and protect LGBT+ people from harm. Over twenty years, that vision has expanded from a single training curriculum into a global movement touching 50 states, 5 Canadian provinces, and communities across the UK, Colombia, Kenya, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand.
This is the story of those twenty years.
Posture Shift
Mission & Vision
Identity
Our History: Two Decades of Faithful Presence
2006–2012 | The Early Years: Laying the Foundation
A First-Mover Mission is Born
Posture Shift is created in Boston, Massachusetts, and receives its 501(c)(3) ruling from the IRS. Its mission is clear from day one: to reach LGBT+ people with the gospel of Jesus Christ through inclusion, acceptance, protection, and care — at a time when few evangelical organizations were willing to enter that space.
Lead Them Home Radio
Posture Shift launches a daily 15-minute radio program called Lead Them Home, broadcasting practical guidance to families and churches navigating LGBT+ relationships. The program runs through 2009 and establishes the organization's pastoral voice in the broader evangelical community.
The Curriculum is Written
A comprehensive missional training curriculum is completed and published — the foundational text that would become the Posture Shift Intensive course, experienced by over 250,000 pastors and church leaders. The same year, Dr. Preston Sprinkle first reaches out to learn about Posture Shift, beginning a relationship that continues to this day.
National Platform Recognition
Posture Shift earns invitations to URBANA 2009 and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary — early signs that the broader evangelical world is beginning to trust Posture Shift as a credible voice. These platform opportunities fuel the rapid growth years ahead.
The Navigators Partnership
Posture Shift establishes a formal training partnership with The Navigators, training their national office and every regional team across the US. This marks the beginning of a pattern: once a national leadership structure experiences Posture Shift, they bring it to every level of their organization.
2014–2020 | High Growth: Earning the Credential
National Work Expands
Posture Shift is invited to train several national staff teams of youth and campus ministries — leading to "top-down" training of entire leadership structures across most regions of the United States. Posture Shift quickly becomes the trusted, go-to course for executive and governance teams in the evangelical world.
The Pulse Nightclub Shooting — Orlando
On June 12, 2016, a gunman kills 49 people and injures 53 others at Pulse nightclub in Orlando — targeting the LGBT+ community. Posture Shift is selected as the go-to training for Orlando pastors. Sixty days after the shooting, Posture Shift trains 1,000 citywide church leaders. Bill Henson visits the site, still wrapped in crime tape, and commits that Posture Shift will show up every year. See the full Pulse section below.
Guiding Families First Edition Published
Visiting the Pulse site and being deeply impacted by the dangers LGBT+ people face, Posture Shift made a commitment to release a best-practice care plan. Less than 6 months later, Guiding Families: First Edition was released with a goal of making churches and homes the safest places for LGBT+ loved ones.
The Seventh-day Adventist Partnership
The SDA Church — which rarely seeks external expertise on controversial topics — hires Posture Shift to train their North American board of directors and executive team. They approve Posture Shift as the go-to training for their regional and local churches, and later purchased the rights to publish an Adventist Edition of Guiding Families, now available in five languages and distributed at no charge within their denomination.
Guiding Families, Second Edition & Global Reach Begins
The second edition of Guiding Families of LGBT+ Loved Ones is published. Posture Shift also begins funding the college education of Anthony (20) from Bangladesh — who goes on to build an accounting career in Australia and pays that investment forward by helping Posture Shift launch our Justice Initiatives Fund. It has led to dozens of disowned LGBT+ individuals receiving educational and living expense assistance.
Denominational Partnerships Multiply
Training partnerships expand across multiple denominations throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Posture Shift's curriculum is now trusted by parachurch organizations and evangelical church bodies alike as the most credible and practically effective resource for equipping their congregations.
2022 – Present | Wide Reach: A Global Movement
2022 SDA Signs Third Royalty Agreement
The SDA Church signs its third royalty agreement for the Guiding Families Adventist Edition, now available in five languages — one of the most significant institutional endorsements in Posture
Shift's history.
Guiding Families, Fifth Edition
The revised fifth edition of Guiding Families is published, reflecting two decades of frontline learning. Canadian training events grow rapidly. A Spanish-language edition, Guiando Familias, equips Latino leaders and families in their first language for the first time. Our Fifth Edition more than doubles prior content, dramatically expands trans guidance, and includes a digital discussion guide to facilitate launch of parent reading groups.
The United Kingdom
Posture Shift expands across the UK with training events in Northern Ireland, England, and Scotland — opening a new continent of gospel mission to LGBT+ people through the local church.
Pakistan — and the World
Posture Shift trains leaders in Lahore, Faisalabad, and Multan. At a dinner banquet in Pakistan, the team meets 35 homeless trans friends — including a 6-year-old child, disowned and left on city streets. Posture Shift has now trained leaders in 50 states, 5 Canadian provinces, Kenya, Colombia, Scotland, Northern Ireland, England, and hundreds of Australian and New Zealand leaders via Zoom.
Exiles 2025 — Minneapolis
Dr. Preston Sprinkle and Chris Sprinkle invite Posture Shift to present at Exiles 2025 in
Minneapolis — bringing the ministry's 20-year message to a new generation of church leaders.
Stories of Impact:
The People Behind the Numbers
IMPACT STORY · KAJARI
Kajari is alive because God directed a suicidal 18-year-old to our ministry.
Kajari was about to take his own life after being disowned by his parents. In a last effort to live, he searched “faith and LGBT” on Facebook and found Bill Henson’s public posts about families accepting their LGBT+ children. That search saved his life. Years later, the young man Posture Shift helped now helps protect and fund the education of the next young person in crisis — a chain of grace that began with one family’s willingness to shift their posture.
IMPACT STORY · HAYDEN
From 15 to 23 — A Prodigal’s Return
"During those 8 years after meeting with Posture Shift, I slowly grew more and more blind to the Holy Spirit. I chose to ignore my convictions and lived a worldly life, chasing and idolizing people, instead of God. I was left broken and unfulfilled by the world. Then one evening driving home from work, I felt nudged to click “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe on Spotify. During this song, I realized that God is my almighty Father! I also knew He hadn’t left me for a single moment."
IMPACT STORY · MASON
Mason (12) emailed Posture Shift after being outed at school. Mason wrote: “I don’t feel right in my body as a girl. After sharing with a friend, she told a classmate. At my small Christian school, word quickly spread to all the parents and teachers. Now, my family won’t talk to me. My ‘friends’ call me horrible names. I want to get out of my skin! I want to escape this world and go to Heaven. I sometimes hate myself. Despite all this, I can still feel God’s love.” Less than two months after meeting Mason, his parents disowned him. He reached out again homeless at age 12 seeking our assistance.
Posture Shift’s response — building a support network, calling out his gifts, telling him of God’s love — is the work of nourishing faith identity that can draw someone to Jesus. Thankfully, Mason’s aunt in another state drove two hours to get him off the streets. She raised him for the rest of his growing up years.
"Despite all this, I can still feel God's love."
IMPACT STORY · ANTHONY
In 2018, Posture Shift funded the college education of Anthony (20) from Bangladesh. Today he has an accounting career in Australia — and helps Posture Shift administer support distribution for our Justice Initiatives Fund. Together, we have now helped dozens of disowned LGBT+ individuals across 10 nations. Demand for life-saving rescue and support is significantly growing as LGBT+ individuals face rising persecution around the globe.
IMPACT STORY · DANA AND MARK
"He is alive when he could have taken his life."
IMPACT · OVER 100 TESTIMONIES
"Alive Today Because of God Working Through Posture Shift"
Pulse Nightclub & Posture Shift's Response
June 12, 2016
On June 12, 2016, a gunman opened fire at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida — targeting the LGBT+ community on Latin night. It was the deadliest mass shooting in US history at the time, and a moment that forced every church in America to ask: do we know how to love these people?
Posture Shift was selected as the go-to training resource for Orlando pastors in the immediate aftermath. Within 60 days of the shooting, we trained 1,000 citywide pastors and church leaders — equipping them to care for victim families and the broader LGBT+ community in ways the church had never attempted before.
After training the pastors, Bill stopped by the Pulse Club site — still wrapped in crime tape. He watched surviving family members and friends grieve at makeshift memorials. He was moved to tears. That evening, he made a commitment: Posture Shift will show up every year to grieve with this community. Bill also felt deeply convicted that Posture Shift must release a best-practice care plan to foster greater safety in faith communities and families. That conviction led to the release of Guiding Families: Fifth Edition less than six months later.
"A gospel of exclusion has no power to reach already-rejected people. We will not let hate win by staying silent."
For the next five years, Posture Shift hosted annual remembrance trips to Orlando. In one memorable visit, the team lit 1,000 votive candles at the memorial — with young LGBT+ people helping arrange them side by side with the Posture Shift team. Bill and Paul Atwater also interviewed a mother who had lost her son in the shooting, capturing her grief and her gratitude for the church’s presence.
In 2026, on the 10th anniversary of the shooting, Posture Shift returned to Orlando — this time to grieve, remember, and recommit to the work that still must be done.
PULSE RESPONSE STATS
Pulse 1-Year Memorial (2017)
Memorial · Year 1:
Bill Recalls the First Pulse Visit (2021)
Reflection · Year 5:
Pulse Survivor Stories (2021)
Testimony:
The Pulse Memorial Wall — High Quality (2021)
Memorial Wall · Daytime:
COMING IN 2026
The 10th Remembrance Trip
Date: June 12–13, 2026 | Orlando, Florida
20th Anniversary Donor Partner Dinner | Pulse Club 10th Memorial Visit
Twenty Years of Measurable Impact
Growth Timeline
Curriculum Published
The Navigators
First national parachurch partnership — US & Canada
IVCF · CRU · YFC
3 major national staffs trained across US regions
2,500 in One Day
300,000+
Lives Protected
Education
Multiple
Housing
Many
Geographic Reach
From one city to a global movement — 20 years of expansion.
Latin America
Colombia
Asia / Pacific
Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand
Africa
Kenya
Guiding Families
Five editions · Five languages · 50,000+ in print.
Edition 1
2008
Edition 2
2018
copies
total
Missional Goals
Four pillars driving every program and resource.
trained
books distributed
lives saved
Faith Identity
Global
reach
Wide Reach
A Global Movement
2025 · Lahore, Faisalabad & Multan
Pakistan
In 2025 Posture Shift trained hundreds of Christian leaders across three Pakistani cities. At a dinner banquet that followed, the team met 35 homeless trans friends — including a 6-year-old child who had been disowned and left on city streets.
Our youngest homeless Pakistani trans friend was just 6 years old — disowned and dropped on city streets.
The United Kingdom
In 2024 Posture Shift expanded into the United Kingdom with training events across all three nations — opening a new continent of gospel mission to LGBT+ people through the local church.
Colombia & Guiando Familias
Posture Shift has trained church leaders in Colombia. The Spanish-language edition of Guiding Families — Guiando Familias — now equips Latino leaders and families in their first language. Available in the Extended and Essential editions at guiandofamilias.com.
YOUR NEXT STEP?
Pastors, get your team trained! Partners, invest in our next chapter. Parents, join an online reading group.
As we reflect over 20 years of Posture Shift, our hearts quickly move to deep gratitude for you – Donor Partners who generously give and pray; church leaders who trust us to train your teams; and families who invite us to journey with your family.
PASTORS AND CHURCH LEADERS
Posture Shift will empower your team to foster safer faith spaces, so that more LGBT+ people can experience the invitations of Jesus Christ. Visit our Intensive page or request a proposal today.
DONOR PARTNERS
None of our history would exist without your faithful support! God continually uses your generous gifts and prayers to anoint and bless the work of Posture Shift. More LGBT+ people have come to Christ because of you!
PARENTS AND FAMILIES
Your LGBT+ loved ones are beloved children of God. We join you in praying that each loved one will hear and respond to the invitations of Christ. You can join a Reading Group with other parents of LGBT+ children. Or request Direct Care if you need personalized guidance. If you don’t have it, the first step is to get Guiding Families: Fifth Edition.
What Leaders Are Saying
"Bill Henson's outstanding teaching was a game-changer for our pastors and leaders. His eye-opening content was not only biblical, just, and grace-based — the workshop format generated deep dialogue, empathy, and compassion for our LGBTQ friends, families, and neighbors."
Tim Lucas
"Bill Henson's team at Posture Shift has been a godsend for our movement. When it comes to LGBTQ+ outreach and engagement, the Posture Shift seminar is simply the best learning experience available for a general audience."
Michelle Sanchez
"Guiding Families is, quite simply, the best resource I've ever read when it comes to navigating the often-complex relationship between Christians and their LGBT+ loved one. Guiding Families will help you love well without sacrificing your convictions."
Dr. Preston Sprinkle
"This seminar allowed our leaders to see the need for a change in our approach or 'posture' toward LGBT+ individuals. We believe your church or denomination will benefit from Posture Shift."
Kyoshin Ahn
