The Rev. James Dusenbury Jr. started In the Life Ministries in the Bronx eight years ago with three members and a singular inspiration. “I said, ‘There’s no gay church in the Bronx,’ ” Mr. Dusenbury, 43, said. “My mentor said, ‘That’s God calling you.’ ”

Jake Naughton was photographing a gay male couple for a class at the City University of New York last October and was invited to the interfaith church. Mr. Naughton, who said he was not religious, had done some reporting on the lack of services for gay, lesbian and transgender people in the Bronx, and was drawn to the small church. There he found what Mr. Dusenbury calls “a struggling congregation and a struggling church,” one dealing with issues of poverty, homelessness, H.I.V. infection, substance abuse, discrimination, and, the reverend said, “just trying to keep the doors open.”

If this sounds like a downer, it isn’t.

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“It’s very, very, very lively,” said Mr. Naughton, 26, who started attending services every two or three weeks, photographing the congregation for a continuing series he calls “My Redeemer.” He has done projects about a school for girls in the Kibera slum in Kenya and maternity care in Liberia, as well as multimedia projects in Kenya and among Sudanese immigrants in the United States. He is now a New York Times photography intern.

At Mr. Dusenbury’s church, although attendance can dip below 20 people in the summer, his enthusiasm does not wane.

“He’s a fiery orator, and there’s a lot of singing and praise and worship,” Mr. Naughton said. “I’d say persevering in the face of adversity is the heart of the service.”

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To support the church, Mr. Dusenbury works six days a week as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, and he brings in a ringer for fund-raising events. “That’s the Reverend Reunitée,” he said, laughing about his alter ego, who looks quite stylish in a loud evening dress. “Everyone says she looks like me. She never comes to church on Sunday. But when she’s at an event, people show up.”

In the years since he started the church, he said, the culture around it has become more accepting toward gay people. Yet this has not necessarily been good for the church.

“People have been lulled into a false sense of security, forgetting about the need for spirituality,” Mr. Dusenbury said. “But when something happens, that’s when they’ll turn to us.”

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