| Affirming Christian Fellowship | |
| Founder: | Rev. Fred L. Pattison |
| Leader Title: | President |
| Leader Name: | David Thomas |
| Location: | Tucson, Arizona |
| Type: | non-profit, religious |
| Website: | www.ACF.lgbt |
The Affirming Christian Fellowship (ACF) is an association of Christian and Evangelical ministries that are a part of and are affirming to the LGBTQ community.
The organization's website describes its focus in a mission statement including the following goals:
ACF is not a denomination (as explained on their FAQ page[1]), and includes in its statement of beliefs that "a person can be Christian and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or straight."
The Fellowship was founded as the Evangelical Network (TEN) in 1988 by Rev. Fred L. Pattison, pastor of Casa de Cristo Evangelical Church in Phoenix, Arizona.[2] [3] [4] At that time, Casa de Cristo was a Metropolitan Community Church (UFMCC). Pattison's original vision was to network within MCC to find other Evangelical Christians in the denomination. However, when Casa de Cristo's board and congregation voted to leave MCC in 1988, the focus of TEN changed to reaching out to and helping start independent Evangelical churches with predominantly gay and lesbian congregations.
When Pattison retired from his pastorate as well as the presidency of TEN,[5] he recommended to the board of TEN that his successor be Todd Ferrell of Freedom in Christ Church in San Francisco where Ferrell was serving as a church elder.[6] Ferrell served as president of TEN for nearly four years and was succeeded by Pattison's pastor-successor, Ronnie Pigg. In 2004, TEN's church affiliates voted in a new board with Todd Ferrell returning as president. He led the organization until 2017 when David Thomas, pastor of Abundant Grace Church in Granite Falls, North Carolina, was chosen as TEN president.
For several years, TEN's annual conferences were held in March at Casa de Cristo in Phoenix. An "international" conference was later begun and held in Vancouver, British Columbia over Labor Day weekend in September. Eventually, it was decided by members and the board that in order to reach more members nationwide, one annual conference would be held at different cities around the United States with various churches across the nation acting as host.
In addition to many years of conferences/gatherings, TEN/ACF has been active in social justice issues including:
The ACF Statement of Faith[8] is similar in content to many mainstream Christian organizations. The organization's Statement of Faith states that they believe:
While there are other LGBT affirming Christian organizations (such as Q Christian Fellowship and The Reformation Project[9]), TEN continues to focus on outreach specifically to the LGBTQ Evangelical community.
Since 1988, TEN/ACF has hosted an annual conference including times of worship, keynote speakers, and workshops. The conferences have been held annually in different US cities, once always in the spring, then for a time both spring and early fall, and currently during the summer.[10] Previous guests and speakers have included Marsha Stevens-Pino, Peggy Campolo, Tony Campolo, Ray Boltz, Stan Mitchell,[11] Jay Bakker, Mark Tidd,[12] and Kenny Bishop.