This topic may make you a little uncomfortable, it certainly does me, after all my mom and mother-in-law both read my blog! But I decided to post anyways. I felt the same way when I was planning what our Wednesday night men’s class would study this last quarter.
I have been teaching the class for 10 years now, so I reflected on what topics I have not covered well over that time, that are pertinent to men. We teach our teens about sex regularly. We talk about the topic in marriage classes, but not often in regular classes.
At first, I was a little nervous about beginning the subject. Our men’s class has about 25-35 men and range in age from college to 80s. The class has been wonderfully received. In fact, the first week we talked about why the subject is not addressed more and the men found it encouraging that the church was discussing the topic.
My aim in the class was to look at the topic from the Bible, trying to communicate what God says about the topic, while also discussing all that is going on in our world with the topic. When you consider how big of an issue this topic is in our present world, then it is a shame that the church doesn’t address the topic more!
We are covering the following areas (the class likes one or two more weeks):
- The Bible and Sex
- Understanding and Avoiding Lust
- The Problem of Pornography
- The Problem of Adultery
- Parenting and Sex
- Sexual Identity Issues in our Culture
- Homosexuality
- Sexual abuse in our culture
- Marital Sex
The class has had some very helpful discussion and we have all been able to learn from each other on these topics. We have done well to keep the topic tasteful, Scriptural, and applicable to the wide range of men in the class. The diversity of the men has helped as we have learned from one another. The class has reached some of its highest attendance ever.
The point of this post is to share the idea and my experience with the class. The church has often been seen as turning a blind-eye and deaf-ear to this sensitive topic. In a sex-saturated world, Christians need to study what God says on the topic and gain encouragement for overcoming their temptations. So be it from the pulpit or in class settings we must address these issues.
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Some Resources:
FHU Lectureship books have had good articles over the last 10 years on various subjects.
Joshua Harris book – Sex is not the problem, Lust is
Albert Mohler – Albertmohler.com
1 comment
Excellent thoughts!