Diverse congregation finds acceptance in church ‘for everyone’

“What does ‘gospel’ mean?” shouts out Pastor George Balgan.

“Good news!” or “Buenas noticias!” respond the members of Rainbow Praise Church.

“And what is the good news?” the reverend asks.

The church shouts out phrases in different languages: “God loves everyone!” or “Inclusion!” or “We are a house of prayer for all people!” picking up from Balgan’s sermon that evening that Rainbow Praise Church welcomes everyone: Christians, non-Christians, believers, nonbelievers, gay or straight, all colors and genders.

The diversity of the church is reflected in the languages used by the congregation to praise God. All worship is bilingual, in Spanish and English, with a smattering of Tagalog sprinkled in.

A line of flags on the wall includes almost every Latin American country plus several others from around the globe, representing this faith community’s many countries of origin.

The rainbow in the church’s name also reflects the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities in the congregation.

“Probably around 60 percent” of the church’s congregation of about 80 members “identify as gay or transgender, and 40 percent as straight,” Balgan says.

Families with young children are a common sight in the congregation.

The young Filipino man at the center of this Pentecostal mix of languages, nationalities, sexualities and beliefs is the Rev. George Balgan, who is called Pastor or Father George, depending upon the faith background of the church member addressing him.

Balgan was ordained eight years ago in Las Vegas as a minister with Metropolitan Community Church, an international denomination whose primary ministry is to the LGBT community. Balgan says he felt that the membership of the church in Las Vegas did not reflect the demographics of the city, so he was inspired to start a small prayer group to reach out to the city’s large Hispanic LGBT community.

The prayer group grew to include contemporary praise and worship music as MCC Las Vegas’ Rainbow Service, while retaining, Balgan says, “the reverence and solemnity that is associated with the Catholic tradition, particularly the Eucharist.”

The ecumenical service grew and continued to reflect the richness of Christian traditions while also honoring non-Christian religions and even nonbelieving thought. Buddhists, agnostics and atheists became regular members of the church, attracted by Balgan’s nonjudgmental welcome.

Balgan’s ministry was recognized by the denomination as one of the fastest growing ministries in the church because of his outreach to LGBT Hispanics. The ministry also gained a sizable following in the Filipino community.

As Balgan’s ministry continued to grow, the ministry made the decision about eight months ago to split from MCC and form an independent church, Rainbow Praise Church or Alabanza Arcoiris, as it is called in Spanish (Papuring Bahaghari in Tagalog).

Keith, who asked to be referred to by his first name only, is a white gay man from the Midwest who works in the construction industry. He grew up Lutheran, but “I helped get Rainbow Praise Church off the ground because there is a great need for people who are riddled with guilt and who feel as though they are not worthy of any kind of church involvement, to see that they are victims of,” what Keith calls, “dogma” rather than, he adds, “from any true rejection by God.” Keith describes Balgan as “deeply spiritual, quiet and outspoken at the same time.”

As a member of the church’s board, Keith says he supports the church with his time, tithes and talents because “it gives me the opportunity to give back directly to the community in helping people find their own spiritual home.”

His partner, Ivan Serrano, who also works in the construction industry, frequently translates from English to Spanish for church services.

“My mom and dad are both Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Serrano says. “I always knew I didn’t belong there because this is one of the strictest religions. But to leave and adopt a new church wasn’t easy for me.”

When Serrano first came to Rainbow Praise, “I was skeptical because of my religious background and my own beliefs. But when (Balgan) spoke to me and didn’t try to sell me a doctrine, I changed my mind, lowered my guard and opened my heart to listen to what he had to say.

“For the first time in my adult life I felt God’s love, through his words,” he adds.

Serrano says that at Rainbow Praise, “I have learned how to respect other people’s beliefs.” Because of its composition, he considers the church “integrated” rather than gay.

Rebecca Strauss, a straight, white, married woman who was raised Catholic, but “felt spiritually bankrupt,” says she was “searching for meaning in my life” when she attended the Rainbow Service at MCC Las Vegas for the Easter vigil service. She recalls Balgan preached, “Be not afraid!”

“It was what I needed to hear that night. The Spanish translation of the message and the English and Spanish music were so beautiful and powerful. The experience was very spiritual and emotional.”

Strauss says she became a member of Rainbow Praise Church because “the love of each person and the sense of peace I feel each time I attend service” made her know that she was in the right place.

Strauss says attending a church where the members are primarily gay is “not uncomfortable at all.” She calls it a “house of prayer for everyone.”

For Luis Adrian Trujillo, a young, newly single gay Hispanic man who works with children with disabilities as an interventionist, it was heartbreak that brought him to the church. “My relationship ended and it was a really numb feeling.”

He adds, “I knew I needed to approach God to be able to be healed, but how could I go to a straight church and express my sorrow?”

Trujillo admits that though he was “greeted with open arms” when he visited Rainbow Praise Church, “honestly, it was a bit strange at first.”

“Most of my life I had been hiding (his sexual orientation) in other churches I attended, so to be myself completely in a holy place was a completely new thing. It took a while to get accustomed to the equality, but there is no other place I would rather worship.”

Jose Pedro “Pepe” Jimenez, a single gay man from Mexico, says he attends Rainbow Praise Church because he feels welcome as a gay man. “It doesn’t matter if the service is in Spanish or English, what is important is to feel welcomed.” He adds, “I can just be myself, and I don’t have to pretend all the time.”

Jorge Gomez is a gay Hispanic man in a relationship who says he considers the Rainbow Praise Church “my family.”

“Reverend George is the only one that really makes me listen. Not like other churches I have been to and the more the preacher screams, the less I understand,” Gomez says.

Balgan says that while his sermons are “based on Christian Scriptures,” he believes that “our present community, with our own values, interacts with the faith community that produced the Scriptures.”

He adds, “A lot of times the two communities are in agreement, but sometimes possibly in disagreement.”

Balgan likens it to listening to a parent’s wisdom: “After we come of age, not everything they said was correct, at least not for me.”

A frequent theme of Balgan’s preaching is that if people feel beat up and rejected by God after going to church, “that’s not the Gospel, that’s not good news.”

He says words are misused to beat up communities that have traditionally been marginalized, such as the LGBT community. For example, he says the word “repent,” often seen on the signs of fundamentalist protesters at gay pride events, has a progressive, not regressive meaning. “Repent is metanoia in Greek. It means to renew your mind.”

Balgan says his favorite Scripture passage in Luke “says that Jesus continued to grow.”

This month, Balgan plans to start a church study group in biblical interpretation as well as a midweek devotional and prayer meeting.

Unlike some ministers who refuse to officiate at straight weddings until all same-sex marriages are recognized, Balgan says he has officiated at straight weddings in and out of Nevada for eight years. “And I have been solemnizing same-sex unions in a religious ceremony for as many years, seeking the blessing of God and community, even though those unions did not receive the rights and benefits of heterosexual marriages. I am very happy that I am now able to officiate at weddings for partners of the same gender” in Nevada.

Tony Mayen, who attended an evangelical church in Mexico and Las Vegas before friends invited him to Rainbow Praise Church, plays drums and sings with the church’s contemporary praise and worship team.

Mayen says that Balgan’s teachings “about love can be used as tools for our everyday life.”

Balgan is a recipient of Community Partners for Better Health’s community health advocate award because of his HIV outreach to the LGBT Hispanic community. The church is committed to promoting awareness of HIV and HIV-related issues in the Latino community and is a founding partner of Conciencia, a coalition of health organizations that serve the local Hispanic community.

It also is natural for him to be involved in immigration issues.

“We are an immigrant community,” Balgan says, “so we are active partners with organizations that promote immigrant rights and push for immigration reform.”

Balgan recently spent many hours ministering in jail to a transgender church member arrested for jaywalking and threatened with deportation to her home country — a death sentence in her case.

Worship services at Rainbow Praise Church are at 5:30 p.m. Saturdays at 953 E. Sahara Ave., Suite 30B, in the Commercial Center, with fellowship following. Additional information is available online at www.rainbowpraise.org or facebook.com/RainbowPraiseChurch.