Members of Asbury Park's LGBTQ community and their supporters plan to hold a "counter-festival" on Sunday to coincide with the start of a six-day evangelical gathering where the featured speaker is a pastor whose sermons have been condemned as hateful by city officials and community leaders.

The evangelical gathering, known as the Festival of Life, is scheduled to run June 24-29 at Bradley Park, a block from the beach on Ocean Avenue, across from the Convention Center.

The pastor whose prior remarks generated the controversy is the Rev. Jonathan Shuttlesworth of the Revival Today ministry, based in Oakdale, Pennsylvania.

According to Revival Today's website, "Since 2015, Jonathan has conducted a number of open air crusades and outreaches dedicated to winning the lost."

But Shuttlesworth has referred to homosexuality as "wicked" in sermons and public remarks that have been condemned as hate speech. So a demonstration is being planned by members of Asbury Park's sizable and longstanding LGBTQ community, including the group Garden State Equality.

"Shuttlesworth has a proven history of anti-LGBT, homophobic, sexist, and pro-life views," Colin DeLuca, a Garden State Equality spokesman, said in an email. "He prays on the disenfranchised and low-income. You don't need to look any further than his twitter feed to see the hateful rhetoric he spreads.

"From equating bestiality to same-sex relationships, to derogatory implications of Hillary Clinton's sexuality, it's obvious he only aims to emphasize messages of bigotry and prejudice."

Shuttlesworth and his wife, Adalis, run Revival Today TV and Revival Today Radio stations, a YouTube channel of "Vidotional" videos, Facebook and Twitter pages, have an app and use other modern media tools.

Revival Today did not respond to requests for comment left on its media line.

Members of Asbury Park's LGBTQ community and its supporters, including a group known as We Are ASBURY PARK, had originally planned a protest of Shuttlesworth's appearance late Sunday afternoon.

But they later decided to stage their own, celebratory event that will include the participation of several local religious organizations, as a more constructive reaction to Shuttlesworth and the Festival of Life.

"The decision was made to not only welcome the festival itself with open arms, but to turn what was a protest against it into a much more loving and inclusive alternative," read a statement from We Are ASBURY PARK.

"We won't have a car or video games to give away," the statement added, referencing the fact organizers of the festival are offering prizes to those who attend. "But we will have food to both enjoy there and to bring home if you are in need. We will be gladly accepting donations of food, and new or gently used clothing to further share with our neighbors, anything left over will be distributed locally."

The applicant for the Festival of Life permit was the Rev. Lyddale Akins of the Triumphant Life ministry, whose address is Fort Monmouth, according to its website. The Triumphant Life web site notes that Akins has served as minister to youth at the Cathedral Assembly by the Shore in Asbury Park.

Akins did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening. No one answered the phone at Cathedral Assembly on Friday evening.

Among the "Beliefs" of Triumphant Life spelled out on its website is this one: "A Final Judgment Will Take Place for those who have rejected Christ. They will be judged for their sin and consigned to eternal punishment in a punishing lake of fire."

The statement from We Are ASBURY PARK refers to what appears to have been the initial participation of local clergy in the Festival of Life.

"Our churches, our City, our political action groups, and our local businesses quickly realized that we were hoodwinked," the statement read. "And also that any group taking action alone could be misunderstood as standing in opposition to fellow groups of marginalized people."

Mayor John Moor, Council President Amy Quinn and the City Council issued a statement urging demonstrators to express their views peacefully

"While the city values the constitutional right to freedom of speech, and encourages peaceful public discourse and debate on all issues of public concern," the statement read. "The mayor and city council -- in honor of the city's diverse population and spirit -- nevertheless denounce the past rhetoric of Revival Today's Jonathan Shuttlesworth, who will be speaking at the Festival of Life event next week in Asbury Park.

"Mr. Shuttlesworth has openly spoken about the LGBTQ community in a hateful, harmful and disparaging manner."

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook