Hope Conference: Support for Individuals and Families Struggling With LGBT Issues

Hope 2026, a yearly conference that offers support and healing for individuals and families struggling with LGBT issues, is coming to Colorado Springs June 12-13.

The event is sponsored by Restored Hope Network, an interdenominational coalition of ministries, therapists, pastors and spiritual mentors “dedicated to restoring hope to those broken by sexual and relational sin, especially those impacted by homosexuality and gender confusion.” 

Hope 2026 provides support, teaching, resources and spiritual care for those wrestling with unwanted homosexuality and transgenderism. In addition, the conference equips families, loved ones and churches to address LGBT issues with grace, truth and wisdom. 

Hosted by Focus on the Family, Hope 2026 features keynote speakers like Dr. James Merritt, Dee Barnes, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr. and Glenn Stanton. 

Merritt is senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Barnes is the founder and director of His Wonderful Works, a ministry in Covington, Georgia, that disciples those struggling with same-sex attractions or transgenderism and equips pastors and families to love strugglers while holding to biblical truth. 

Nicolosi is a licensed clinical psychologist and the director of The Breakthrough Clinic, which is likely the largest clinic in the world helping men with unwanted homosexuality. Glenn Stanton is the director of Global Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family. The author of nine books, he writes for the Daily Citizen about gender, sexuality, marriage, family and parenting. 

The conference includes worship, testimonies from overcomers and workshops like “Doing Life with your LGBTQ-Identified Child,” “Case Histories of Change,” “Clear Love for Confused Parents” and “Freedom in Jesus Christ.” 

Founded in 2012, Restored Hope Network proclaims a biblical view of sexuality, relationships, marriage, healing and transformation. Members believe and teach: 

• God created humans in his image, male and female, and our biological sex and sexual identity matter to God. 

• Marriage is the union of a man and a woman which “prefigures the union of God and his people or Christ and the church and has as its highest purpose the self-giving integration of the two sexes into a single sexual whole.” 

• Homosexual practice violates God’s standards for sexual purity, as does expressing a “gender identity” different from one’s biological sex. Both are against God’s will. 

• Jesus Christ deeply loves broken sexual sinners and provides hope for transformation. Jesus coupled a heightened ethical demand with a loving outreach to violators to lead them to repentance. 

For those struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions, identity and behavior, and for those with unwanted sexual identity confusion and transgender behaviors, the conference offers biblical truth and clarity, hope for healing and transformation, and practical tools for walking into wholeness. 

Parents, family members, ministry leaders and pastors will gain new insight about relating to, encouraging and bringing healing to those with sexual and relational brokenness. 

Find out more about Restored Hope Network and Hope 2026. 

Related articles and resources: 

Elizabeth Woning Left Lesbianism for a Relationship with Christ – She Wants Others to Have that Same Freedom

Focus on the Family: Homosexuality Resources

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

Freedom from Homosexuality – What’s the Controversy?

Is Therapy to Leave Homosexuality Damaging? New Review Says, ‘No Proof of Harm’

Just a Good Christian Boy

New Study Shows Therapy to Leave Homosexuality Can Be Effective and Helpful

Supreme Court Smacks Down Colorado’s ‘Conversion Therapy’ Ban in 8-1 Decision

Why We Support Therapy for Unwanted Homosexuality

If you or someone you know is struggling with sexual or relational brokenness, Focus on the Family offers a one-time complimentary consultation with our ministry’s professionally trained counselors. The consultation is free due to generous donor support.

To reach Focus on the Family’s counseling service by phone, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time). Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor to return a call to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.