Home News Trinity Works says it will return to Twin Cities Pride in 2015 to ‘save’ LGBTs from ‘the lifestyle’

Trinity Works says it will return to Twin Cities Pride in 2015 to ‘save’ LGBTs from ‘the lifestyle’

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Trinity Works says it will return to Twin Cities Pride in 2015 to ‘save’ LGBTs from ‘the lifestyle’

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An evangelical group that claims to have “saved” 80 members of the LGBT community at Twin Cities Pride in 2014 is planning on bringing its message to the large LGBT event again in 2015.

In 2014, Trinity Works organized a “humility outreach” to “save” members of the LGBT community by training fellow Christians in how to talk LGBT people into leaving “the lifestyle.” Last year, the group’s members conducted outreach at LGBT bars, the pride festival, and a corn feed along the pride parade route using deceptive tactics. The group hosted a corn feed along the parade route last year where unsuspecting parade attendees were given free corn-on-the-cob and bottled water and then evangelized to. OutFront Minnesota reported last year that the group’s crisis counselors consoled dozens of upset and tearful victims of the bait-and-switch ministry.

They’ve dubbed their outreach activities “Humility Outreach” because, the group’s leader Steven Uggen says, “humility” is the opposite of “pride.”

According to recent sermons and newsletters, Trinity Works plans to conduct the “humility outreach” in 2015 though it hasn’t released any specifics. The group hasn’t been content to keep its activities limited to Minneapolis either.

Last fall, Trinity Works held its biannual Messenger Boot Camp, a two month training course in evangelism. In order for budding “messengers” to successfully complete the course, they must participate in a special outreach.

For the fall session of Messenger Boot Camp, the messengers went to Los Angeles as part of Trinity Works’ “Love LA” event. The outreach kicked off with a trip to West Hollywood, a Los Angeles gay neighborhood, on Halloween.

The messengers were excited to go to the neighborhood:

Those outreach members filmed their activities in West Hollywood:

An unidentified man told the camera, “A significant shift has occurred… We are seeing something significant happen in the gay community where there’s a receptivity to what’s authentic and they are sensing the presence of God on their lives.”

The group didn’t just target the LGBT community. For much of the outreach, Trinity Works’ messengers preached to people riding public transportation between stops, and one of the messengers claims to have used the power of Jesus to heal someone in a wheel chair.

For those who attended Messenger Boot Camp that could not afford to go to Los Angeles, Steven Uggen told them they have to complete their training at Twin Cities Pride in June by trying to convert members of the LGBT community.

Uggen also says the Trinity Works messengers will return to Twin Cities Pride in 2015.

Outpost Ministries, Trinity Works’ partner in infiltrating Twin Cities Pride and converting members of the LGBT community to its brand of conservative Christianity, also says its members will be at Pride again in 2015. According to a monthly newsletter from the group:

Pray for the Humility 2015 Outreach to the LGBT community. Pray for the Church to continue to awaken to God’s heart for this unreached people group and for salvation, healing and deliverance Pray for the other outreaches across the nation this fall, including an outreach to the Gay Olympics in Akron, Ohio and a large LGBT gathering in Los Angeles that kicks off Trinity Works’ Love LA Outreach

Trinity Works’ Messenger Boot Camp will be held starting on April 4th at Bethel’s Rock Church in Richfield and run every Saturday through May.

In 2014, Trinity Works mobilized about two dozen churches to participate in its attempts to “save” members of the LGBT community from the “lifestyle.” The group’s messengers fanned out to LGBT bars and events the weekend of Pride. When approached by The Column last year, Trinity Works’ outreach workers refused to identify their involvement.

Here’s a video compilation of Trinity Works’ activities last year:

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Andy Birkey has written for a number of Minnesota and national publications. He founded Eleventh Avenue South which ran from 2002-2011, wrote for the Minnesota Independent from 2006-2011, the American Independent from 2010-2013. His writing has appeared in The Advocate, The Star Tribune, The Huffington Post, Salon, Cagle News Service, Twin Cities Daily Planet, TheUptake, Vita.mn and much more. His writing on LGBT issues, the religious right and social justice has won awards including Best Beat Reporting by the Online News Association, Best Series by the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and an honorable mention by the Sex-Positive Journalism awards.