The Church That Talked About Sex (Part 1)

Truth #1: The church has come a long way in this conversation — and there’s still a long way to go

Thirty years ago, the church just didn’t talk about sex. The brave pastors who tackled sexual intimacy or Christian sexual ethics knew they might be confronted by embarrassed or angry people after the service. Unsurprisingly, many pastors simply stayed away from the topic! Some still do.

The thing is, the Bible doesn’t stay away from sex – and the enemy doesn’t either. A few months ago, Jeff and I were speaking at Omaha’s Love Church (which you’ll read more about in a minute), and a quote shared by senior pastor Todd Doxzon stopped me in my tracks: “The enemy will do everything he can to get you into bed before marriage, and everything he can to keep you out of it after marriage.”

Wow. That’s a powerful summary of the situation.

The truth is, God created sexual intimacy for good reasons … and there’s an enemy who wants to mess it up. If the church doesn’t talk about sex, we’re leaving the field open to Hollywood, social media, pop culture – and the enemy – to fill in the blanks.

Thankfully, today, many churches do address the topic! Some have groups to address specialized needs (such as pornography struggles), or discuss the topic in a healthy way in their youth ministry, or teach on it from the stage. Often, when Jeff and I are talking to a pastor to help plan a marriage conference, we are asked to cover the issue.

Many other pastors want to tackle the topic but aren’t sure how. So I turned to the leaders of Love Church in Omaha — who I thought tackled the topic really well — for ideas.