Jason Wood is the openly gay pastor of Living Mosaic Church in Houston, which was founded in 2010. The Church advertises itself with the slogan 'A place for everyone.' The name Living Mosaic stems from the notion that 'On our own we are little more than bits of stone and glass. Our lives create a Living Mosaic as colorful and dramatic as a rainbow after a hard rain shower.'
Jason waited for 6 years for the United Methodist Church to change the church laws to allow for openly homosexual ministers to be ordained. When that never happed he decided to start his own church. But it was not an easy process by any means. It started with him having to come out to himself, which was difficult because he had to reconcile his own personal experience with what he saw in the bible and the scriptures. It took him several years to find people and literature that said that he did not have to be condemned by this cultural narrative and that he can live fully free and out, even as a Christian.
After that the next step was coming out to his parents who are devout Christians themselves. Coming out to his parents and gaining their acceptance was a long process that took him nearly 10 years. Jason's dad in particular, who is a minister himself, had a hard time coming to terms with it but eventually had a very powerful experience that let him to fully repent his narrow-minded attitude. But as Jason explains the parents who come out in support of their lesbian, gay or trans-gender son or daughter face just as much discrimination from their country club or church as their children do. Thus it is important to be supportive, understanding and patient with the parents as well.
Jason then decided he wanted to help others going through a similar situation but naturally found himself on the outskirts of Christianity and realized that there would not be doors flinging open and making his path easy for him. He also found it difficult to muster the courage to be a pastor and faced serious doubts that his service would be needed, not to mention that he could find the finances to start his own church. Jason later realized that it was just his own mental limitation with the creative process and once he saw that there is a group of people just like him who need to be loved and inspired, it became much easier for him. All he had to do was to tap into his own need for approval, acceptance and love and then translate that into what he could give to other people. He simply had to tell other people what he so desperately needed to hear for years and he soon found that he could gather people left and right and that there was indeed an audience that wanted to hear his message. Jason now speaks to a constantly growing congregation of about 100 members on a weekly basis.
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