Your Church Probably Needs to Talk More About Pornography “Now, I know I’m going to get a lot of emails about this…” It was a joke Noel made often. Noel is the lead teaching pastor at a megachurch in Michigan. As such, he’s the church’s most public face for several thousand people, and that means he receives a lot of emails, ranging from clarifying questions about the week’s message to the quality of the coffee to the volume of the worship band. And, of course, plenty of angry emails whenever he stepped on someone’s toes, or preached the Gospel truth … Continue reading →
It’s the thing nobody in the church wants to talk about. But it kills more marriages, drains more hearts, and ends more ministries than anything else. It’s the elephant in the church–pornography. The church has only three available responses: ignore it, condemn it, or address it. We have chosen to address it. For the pastor who dares to address from the pulpit what people are talking about in the pew, the veil can be lifted. Where there is shame, we offer hope. It’s time for the church to become the biblical community where healing can take place. To that end, … Continue reading →
Church Governance Is Failing The recent news of abuses perpetrated by pastors and priests against children and women, and subsequent cover-ups and lack of accountable oversight, are a crushing blow to the church governance. With church attendance in rapid decline and skepticism in religious institutions increasing, recent revelations about the behavior of church leadership at Willow Creek and Catholic Churches in Pennsylvania are a gut-punch to the Bride of Christ. Scripture tells us, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 … Continue reading →
To the pastors and ministry leaders reading this blog post, a percentage of your staff and people are regularly looking at pornography. And, all of your people are stuck in a world that has a lot of loud opinions about pornography and distorted messages about sex. How are you addressing their questions? Are you speaking openly and honestly about this sensitive and sometimes controversial area? We’ve identified seven key questions that Christians might need you to answer related to pornography. And for ministry leaders who want to further address the issue, we provide additional steps you can take in our … Continue reading →
You’ve been lied to. But you’re in good company. In fact, we’ve all been lied to. We’ve been told that all men watch porn, and most of us have never researched whether that is true. Worse, we can use that unfounded statement as an excuse to justify our own behavior or to encourage others to do so. Here’s another example. As a young person, I was told that it takes seven years to digest swallowed gum, so I never swallowed it. However, science says the gum goes through the same process and takes the same amount of time to digest … Continue reading →