IN BRIEF: Persons engaging in homosexual behavior need transformation that can only come through the power of Jesus Christ. Churches need similar renewal, That's the message of Tim Wilkins, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who acknowledges be engaged in homosexual behavior with about five partners in 10 years before deciding his Christian faith required a celibate lifestyle.

Now happily married, Wilkins experienced transformation through a process of Bible study, spiritual growth, and “healing prayer.”

“Just as the homosexual needs a renewing of the mind, so does the church,” said Wilkins, director of CROSS (CReated for the OppoSite Sex) Ministry of Raleigh, NC. He led a seminar, “Hope, Help, and Healing for the Homosexual,” during Jericho: A Southern Baptist Missions Festival held June 29-July 5 at Ridgecrest (NC) Conference Center.

“The thing that's needed most is unconditional love,” Wilkins said. “Condoning love and unconditional love are not the same thing.”

Growing up in a home he described as “chaos,” Wilkins said he first experienced feelings of attraction to men at about age 7. He said he now realizes those feelings resulted from a troubled, violent home life and lack of a positive male role model.

“Homosexuality is primarily an issue of identity before it's an issue of sexuality. Homosexuality is an illegitimate response to a legitimate need, the need for unconditional love and affirmation,” he said.

Wilkins became a Christian at 9 years of age. He began engaging in occasional homosexual behavior at about 12. His behavior was “covert” as he continued to attend church regularly. Neither friends nor family members suspected his struggles.

Feeling he could not talk to anyone about his problem, he wrote on a small piece of paper, “Lord, I am trusting you for healing,” and wore it for years under his leather watch band.

“If I had not known Jesus loved me, I would have immersed myself in the (homosexual) lifestyle,” he said. “Heterosexuality was as repulsive to me as homosexuality is to you.” Wilkins ceased homosexual behavior 20 years ago at age 22, but his faith did not extend to the possibility of becoming heterosexual.

“I did believe God could make me celibate, but it was a number of years before I realized God could make me heterosexual,” Wilkins said. “I remained celibate, cynical, and single..

Wilkins began to immerse himself in Scripture, focusing on God rather than his problems.

“I had to want God more than heterosexuality,” he said.

He dared to ask God “to teach me the right way to love a woman.” He first experienced heterosexual desire 10 years ago.

Transformation for Wilkins was a process that happened gradually. It was, he firmly believes, “a supernatural act of God.”

“This mind that was once repulsed by heterosexuality is now repulsed by homosexuality,” Wilkins said.

He acknowledged that he still occasionally experiences homosexual feelings, but he said the constant, insatiable desires of the homosexual life style were taken away with his spiritual transformation.

Also, he emphasized, “one of the things that provides healing to the homosexual is healthy, same sex relationships.”

The transformation process moved another step forward when Wilkins married his wife, Lisa, on August 21, 1993. She married him with full knowledge and understanding of his background, his struggles, and the transformation that had occurred in his life.

Through CROSS ministry, Wilkins seeks to help others struggling with homosexuality but also to challenge churches “to break the silence” on the issue.

“When is the church going to recognize the need to hear the testimony of the former homosexual?” he asked. “When will the church allow a person to stand up and testify to the transforming power of Christ?

“The church needs to be providing redemption and transformation for the homosexual,” he said. “We have a responsibility to condemn the practice of homosexuality but offer healing to the homosexual.”