A new Posture Shift leader certification initiative to train the next 600,000 leaders on biblically sound LGBT+ church inclusion
Already licensed? Log into Trainer Portal
Join us in writing a new church history.
Decades of mistreatment, rejection, exclusion, and misunderstanding from the Church have damaged relational trust and barred LGBT+ people from access to the Gospel. Many desire to love well — yet most remain uncomfortable relating directly with LGBT+ people.
As we speak, a new church history is underway in which LGBT+ people experience rich, meaningful fellowship in their faith communities. And now, it’s developing more swiftly than ever. Our new Train50 initiative will empower leaders to train and equip 600,000 Christians!
Same Course. Same Price. Two Tracks.
Our training courses are intended to help leaders implement a Posture Shift at your church or ministry.
Posture Shift “Get Trained” Track:
Anyone can get trained! All who care for LGBT+ people can gain practical insights for enhancing biblically sound care for LGBT+ people.
Train50 “Train Others” Track:
We license organizations (not individuals). Obtain licensure to teach Posture Shift across your entire church or ministry. Trainers must be pastors, staff, or elders.
TOPICS COVERED
- Gospel in a Generational Shift
- Biblical Basis for Posture Shift
- LGBT+ People Through a Missiological Lens
- What It’s Like to Grow Up LGBT+
- Suicidal Risks and Statistics
- Importance of a Level Playing Field
- Gay Community’s Vulnerable History
- How to Respond When Teens Come Out
- Guiding Parents When Kids Come Out
- How to Care for Suicidal Youth
- How to Care for Transgender Teens
- 8 Effective Principles to Outreach
- “Lateral Distractions” Relational Model
- 32 Tips for a Strong Relational Witness
- Best Practice Care Model
- Building a Sustainable Support System
- Biblically Sound Inclusion Model
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Attendee Questions
- Table Discussion
- People Studies
“Highly practical, biblical, and mission-focused.”
– Thomas H.,
Fall 2019 Attendee
“I see hope for my church.”
– Maya R.,
Winter 2019 Attendee
“I took home new ways of thinking, practical ideas and models for ministry.”
– Paul T.,
Fall 2020 Attendee
“Do whatever it takes to get this training.”
– Grace P.,
Spring 2020 Attendee
About Licensure
- Licensure is exclusively for church or ministry staff.
- We only license organizations. We do not license individuals.
- Licensed Organizations select their own Licensed Trainers.
- Licensed Trainers must be pastors, staff or elders.
- Licensed Trainers have access to Posture Shift Portal.
- Posture Shift Portal contains teaching and video tools.
- Annual Portal Fee and Course Handbook purchase required.
- We license national, regional or local churches and ministries.
- Training restricted to “your” people within “your” organization.
Training Requisites
2-Day Posture Shift (or Train50) Course
Why must Trainers be on staff?
We encourage our Licensed Organization partners to train “top-down” from executive staff and governance leaders. Once buy-in is secure, then training can extend to lay leaders — including life group, adult discipleship, and youth ministry leaders (among others). Teaching throughout your congregation as staff will demonstrate your ownership in making your church more inclusive and caring.
Remember, everyone can attend Posture Shift in order to more generously live out Christ’s love for LGBT+ people.
UPCOMING TRAININGS
Frequently Asked Questions
Your organization must sign our Posture Shift Licensed Partner Agreement. You can then name staff persons (pastors, teachers, camp counselors, coaches, etc.) and/or governance leaders (elders, trustees, superintendents) as your Licensed Trainers. All Licensed Trainers must attend a minimum of one (1) training at our 2-day Posture Shift Intensive Course which offer our Get Trained and Train Others tracks. Same course. Same Price. Two tracks. Train50 is our “licensure” (Train Others) track.
Staff who have completed the minimum training requirement (see question above) can be added to the Posture Shift Licensed Partner Agreement as your designated Licensed Trainers. Once added to the Agreement, they will receive immediate access to our Posture Shift Portal offering presentation slides, video clips, and PDF coaching tips to ensure that they can effectively teach throughout your organization. Posture Shift Portal is only accessible to Licensed Trainers who have met the minimum training requirement.
Our Posture Shift Licensed Partner Agreement requires an Annual Portal Fee and minimum Posture Shift Course Handbook purchase (50 books).
Posture Shift Course Handbooks | We do not want to sign Agreements in which no teachings ever occur. Our missional aim is to rapidly mobilize the Gospel reaching LGBT+ people throughout churches and para-church ministries. That requires teaching and a minimum of 50 books is a fairly low requirement. Additionally, we want to ensure maximum learning retention, so we require that every attendee of a Posture Shift training receive a copy of our Posture Shift Course Handbook to continue their learning after you host a training. Importantly, you can purchase Handbooks inside our Posture Shift Portal at discounted bulk rates only available to our Licensed Partners.
Annual Portal Fee | This fee is different for national, regional, and local ministries. We will disclose the fee at Posture Shift Intensives (or Train50) Course. This fee will be directly invested into expanding our teaching assets, coaching tools, and other premium content to maximize teaching impact within your organization.
Absolutely not! We would never expect a Licensed Trainer to attend one Posture Shift Intensives Course and then go and replicate the teaching in your organization. Most Posture Shift trainings that your named Licensed Trainers conduct among your people will be 1 hour, 2 hours, or maybe 4 hours in duration. Trainings can be structured to occur in a single event — or one hour per week for several weeks. Your Licensed Trainers are free to teach longer trainings — that is up to your organization to decide. Importantly, we routinely see Posture Shift having great impact in brief 2-hour teachings. Shorter teachings also help your Licensed Trainers advance their Posture Shift teaching skills..
As one of our valued Licensed Partners, you are permitted to teach Posture Shift to “your” people within “your” church or ministry. You cannot present our teaching at a third party conference or teach across multiple churches/ministries or among citywide leaders (such as a ministerial alliance). The reason is simple: our team has developed and trained Posture Shift hundreds of times over 15 years. We must preserve our right to protect our brand credential and integrity given the sensitivity of this teaching topic. If there is any confusion or damage created by Licensed Trainers teaching Posture Shift, we want that to be contained within your organization. By the way, such a challenge is one we can solve because we are partnering together. Creating confusion or damage across a range of leaders that our Posture Shift team has no relationship with could do irreparable harm to our work. We are simply aiming to lead with boldness while also exercising wisdom as we launch our licensure effort to rapidly mobilize the Gospel to reach LGBT+ people throughout the wider church.
Our Licensed Partner organizations will determine who they name as their Licensed Trainers under the Agreement. We advise that they name executive, teaching and governance leaders employed or elected to formal leadership positions.
We are super grateful for Christians who already have a deep passion and gifting for loving LGBT+ people! Thank you for following Jesus in reaching LGBT+ family and friends. As you know, there are some Christians who will fear that any kind of inclusion of LGBT+ people is biblical compromise. LGBT+ people can easily pick up on these signals or hear unhelpful comments and get propelled outside the church. In our work, we are aiming to create a new church history in which LGBT+ experience welcome and radical love inside the church. To get there, it will require executive and governance leaders along with senior staff taking ownership in teaching throughout your church or ministry. We are simply trying to adhere to best-practice leadership and honor local church authority while also encouraging such leaders to take the lead on this effort.
Questions?