Lausanne World Pulse – Leadership Profiles – Leadership Profile: Christopher Yuan, Speaker, Bible Teacher, AIDS Activist, USA

October / November 2010

Q. What is the best piece of advice you’ve received?

A. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received was from scripture, “Be holy, for I am holy.” As I was trying to understand my new faith in Christ along with my sexuality, it wasn’t the six passages in scripture condemning homosexuality which impacted me the most. Rather, it was the plethora of passages which urged me toward holy living—and this meant denying myself, picking up my cross, and following him (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). It meant saying no to feelings which I never asked for, never chose, and may never completely go away. But saying YES to Christ and saying YES to a joyful obedience toward purity and holiness. This meant putting my sole identity not in homosexuality or even heterosexuality, but in Jesus Christ alone.

Q. What one issue do you believe is the greatest barrier or opportunity to evangelism, and why?

A. The late Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, said, “Homosexuality is not only the number one social issue of our time but also the very thing that will hinder our ability to preach the gospel in this and future generations.” I believe this is so true. Now, more than ever before, people are being turned away from the gospel because of the Christian stance upon homosexuality.

Evangelism. On Point.  Q. Describe a time in which you shared your faith in Christ with someone who didn’t know him, and then saw God clearly work in that situation. A. My time in prison was an extremely fruitful time in reaping in the harvest. But my burden is for the LGBT community. I do not have any big numbers or large success stories. And I thank God that he does not measure us the way the world would measure, with numbers and success stories. What has been the greatest encouragement to me are friends who I have known before I came to Christ (who are gay activists and hated Christians as I did) tell me that they have a great aversion toward organized religion but find me different. And what I have articulated is very reasonable. Although this would not be a huge success story, I believe that God is working in them and I hope that if we could each reach one or two people who are LGBT or like those described in unChristian, we would make a huge difference in preparing the soil for others to reap in the harvest.

David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, in their book unChristian, state that the Church is viewed as anti-homosexual. This is distinctively different than being anti-homosexuality. Anti-homosexual connotes being against gay and lesbian people. Unfortunately, we are working against the curve and have a lot of work cut out for us not only to reach the LGBT (lesbian/gay/bi-sexual/transgender) community, but also to win back our next generation who see us as anti-homosexual.

Q. What book do you most often recommend to others to read, and why?

A. I have been greatly challenged by unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. It points out the realities of this generation. I also was challenged by Reggie McNeal’s The Present Future. It helps us to remain balanced and not get stuck in “churchiology.” My mother and I are working on our own book, which will be released in the spring of 2011 by Waterbrook Multnomah. It will feature our journeys as parallel narratives: from a parent’s perspective and from a prodigal’s perspective.

Q. What would you like to be doing in ten years?

A. I actually stopped trying to plan my life because it got me into trouble before! The one thing that I would like to find in myself in ten years is remaining faithful to God and to my calling.

Q. How can people be praying for you?

A. Please pray for my health as the HIV has progressed and I will most likely begin medication soon. There are many possible side effects, and with my busy schedule it may be quite difficult. Please pray that I cling to Christ regardless of my circumstances and struggles. Pray that every day I will be drawing closer and closer to him and that my transformation would be more and more evident in the eyes of people I don’t even know!