On New Year’s Day, my family and I attended a church service at Glide Church in San Francisco. Growing up attending church every Sunday, I had never experienced such a liberal church service. I thought my home church was progressive when the pastor tells everyone to introduce yourself to someone you have never met.

At Glide Church, the pastor told us to do this as well. What I expected was what happens at my church, where everyone shakes hands with someone in front of them or behind them and then sits down. This was not the case at Glide.

Everyone got out from the pews and went around hugging each other, people they knew as well as strangers. It was practically a ten-minute hug fest. Kids were free, people were crying, people were laughing, and some were even Instagram live streaming the service.

Next, a gay, married couple shared their story with the audience. One of the men had been diagnosed with HIV as a young adult and expressed his thankfulness for the Glide community for being there, holding his hand through his scary journey, and for being a safe place for him to go to.

Never before had I even heard words like "gay" be spoken in a church. We may not admit to ostracizing them, but simply ignoring the LGBTQ+ community does not mean we express any judgment towards them.

My mother works at the church I attend, and I often hear what goes on behind the scenes of the church. Believe it or not, the staff has to discuss whether or not the church should allow a gay couple to bring their children to Sunday School.

Of course, my mother thought that this was a silly question since God tells us to be loving and accepting of all, but others, being more conservative, had a hard time with this situation.

After experiencing a church service where there was a gay couple sharing their testimony as well as transgender people making up the majority of the choir, my church's issue, with allowing children of gay parents attending the Sunday School, seemed so absurd.

As I returned to my home church, something felt off. I sat through another service, wishing I was back in San Francisco. Were we really on a mission to be the friendliest church as the Pastor declares every Sunday when ordering us to introduce ourselves to the people surrounding us... or were we aiming to be friendly to those we can accept?

At Glide Church, the pastor preached, “You can only love God as much as the person you love the least.”

The amount of love you have for God cannot exceed the amount of love you have for your greatest enemy.

Let that sink in.