The founder and pastor of a megachurch in Conyers, Ga., has announced that he's a homosexual.

Bishop Jim Swilley, 52, made the announcement last weekend to his congregation known as the Church in the Now.

Swilley has been married twice and is the father of four.

"I know a lot of straight people think it is a choice," Swilley told television station WSB. "It is not."

He says he hopes his public testimony will save young lives and prevent gay suicides.

"As a father, thinking about your 16, 17-yea-old killing themselves, I thought somebody needed to say something," Swilley said, fighting to hold back tears.

Swilley said he was going to take it one day at a time, but if there was a major exodus from his church, he promised he would start over.

He founded the Church in the Now congregation in Rockdale County 25 years ago.