Rainier Beach UMC

This church is fantastic.
You might have heard of it from the Boy Scouts story in April 2014. This church sponsors a Boy Scouts troop with a gay leader. The Boy Scouts of America revoked their charter for this; the church refused to fire the troop leader and has decided to continue the group without Boy Scouts affiliation. Let me say how enormously courageous this is. This church is teaching these boys about the importance of character, and about insisting on what you believe even when it is inconvenient, and even when others punish you for it.
I attended the Sunday morning service the weekend following the big news story. The church is a welcoming and friendly place. People gather before service for coffee and donuts and know each other well. The pastor personally welcomed me in and introduced me to others while we chatted.
The pastor is a normal person — she sits in the pews and generally treats herself like anyone else. The humility is refreshing.
The church focuses heavily on social justice. The sermon that week focused on environmental justice — specifically climate change and the Keystone XL pipeline. How very relevant to a real problem we face in the world today.
Attendance was pretty sparse when I went, so if you feel inclined to support social justice I highly encourage you to check out this church.