Dr. Christopher Yuan is now a Christian author and speaker sharing how the gospel of Jesus changed his life, but he got his call to ministry while he was in a jail cell.
Yuan taught the Bible for 12 years at Moody Bible Institute and recently launched “The Holy Sexuality Project,” a 12-lesson, gospel-centered video series for teens and young adults.
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This is his testimony.
“Obviously I was not a Christian growing up, and I wrestled with my sexuality from a young age. I wasn’t open about my sexuality until my early twenties, but when I came out to my parents, that crisis brought my mother to faith and then my father. I went in the opposite direction,” Yuan told award-winning journalist Caleb Parke.
He co-wrote a memoir about his testimony with his mother, Angela Yuan, in a book called, “Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope.”
“I was in dental school. I started partying. I was doing drugs. I was expelled from dental school just three months before I was supposed to receive my doctorate, and then I moved from Louisville, where I was going to dental school to Atlanta,” Yuan explained. “Like, I just was partying, selling drugs, supplying drugs.”
During that time, his mother, Angela, was going to commit suicide, but instead of ending her life, she found new life as a born-again believer in Jesus. Her husband, Leo, also became a Christian.
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“This whole time, my parents were praying for me,” Yuan said. “They enlisted over a hundred people to pray for me. And my mom fasted every Monday for seven years. She fasted 39 days on my behalf.”
The faith-based novel that was turned into a film, “War Room,” was dedicated to her for her bold prayer: “Lord, do whatever it takes to bring this prodigal son to you.”
“They prayed for a miracle,” Yuan told Parke, “and that miracle came with a bang on my door. I was arrested, found myself in jail, and that was kind of the beginning of my journey of faith.”
That was the first time the future Bible professor picked up the Good Book for himself to read.
“In jail, I was reading the Bible – found a Bible in the trash can – and I was convicted that I had put my identity in the wrong thing,” Yuan said. “I really think that we need to begin there with identity.”
This sparked the idea for Yuan’s second book, “Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story.”
“Before I knew Christ, I could not hate my sin without hating myself. Now that I know Jesus, I can hate my sin without hating myself. You know, when we talk to people who identify as gay, how can we talk to them about this being sinful behavior when they don’t even see this as behavior? They see this about who they are. So God revealed that to me. He also revealed to me about the importance of holiness, not just sanctifying your sexual desires, but your whole person: your desires, thoughts, your behaviors, all of it. So it was actually kind of in prison that I realized that the goal is holy sexuality, not simply heterosexuality.”
Yuan was called to ministry during his stay in prison. Out of jail, he went straight to Bible college, got his master’s in exegesis, and then his doctorate of ministry. Now he writes, travels, and speaks, sharing his testimony and the concept of biblical sexuality.
“But I often tell people, you know what? The gospel, What does it mean to me? My testimony often is on, I used to identify as gay and now no longer do, and definitely that’s an important aspect, but the best way for me to summarize my testimony is this: I once was blind, and now I see. I once was lost, and now I’m found. I once did not believe, and now I believe in the Son of God, and his name is Jesus. That’s my testimony.”
This is part two in a series of stories from an interview conducted with Dr. Christopher Yuan, Christian speaker and author of “Holy Sexuality and the Gospel” and “Out of a Far Country.” He just produced “The Holy Sexuality Project,” a first-of-its-kind gospel-centered video series to help parents and grandparents empower their teens to understand, embrace, and celebrate biblical sexuality. Here is part one.
WATCH THE YUAN FAMILY TESTIMONY BELOW:
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Caleb Parke is the SMG managing editor. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and connect with him at calebparke.com
