A multi-speaker YouTube discussion (Nick Stumbo, Rodney, Ashley) about practical ways preachers can integrate topics of sexual brokenness and sexual integrity into sermons and church life. Speakers emphasize owning personal testimony, normalizing conversation about sexuality, educating oneself, using Scripture applications across sermon themes (gratitude, discipleship, leadership), and offering educational resources/workshops through Pure Desire Ministries.
What does it look like to practically address sexual brokenness or sexual integrity in my sermons? If someone is preaching, getting to share talks, how could they integrate that into their preaching?
Well, the first thing I would say is, as a man or woman who's communicating, own your own story at whatever that is, the more you can just come to terms, if you have any negative sexual history that you've kind of owned it and there's not shame that you're living with. That's such a great place to start from, is just recognizing maybe God's grace or help in your own life. To me, that always is the best place. So we're not just touching on a subject, but we got hidden shame or something, or always share a story. Have somebody that you know, this has been part of their testimony, get up and share and share their story to the congregation is, I think, another great way highlight the problem. Because this is a real global issue around the world. And I just know the younger generations, which is becoming more and more below me now, is really open. When churches address addiction, pornography, sexuality, and they don't hide it. You know, they don't hide it. They just say, hey, this is an issue that we have to face in culture, and they're open about it. Then the other thing I would simply say is call peer desire. They have a wonderful team, speaking team. Nick, Ashley went and did a church service in the Spokane area the other day, was fantastic. So Ashley, Bob, Nick, myself. I mean, there's a lot of us that could come and be complimentary to that subject as well, but there's a lot of ways to go about tackling it. So those are just some things to think about.
Yeah, I think educating yourself is really important. I think that that's something that if you can speak with some competency or some understanding about the issue, I think that that will seep through in anything that you talk about. I also was thinking as you were talking, Rodney, that, you know, social media, politics, things that are kind of on everyone's mind today tend to be things that are talked about a lot, like they're illustrations or practical applications from things. And I just was thinking, like, if you knew that sexuality is a universal thing that everyone carries, and to use Julie Slattery's language, every single person is somewhere on the scale of sexual brokenness to sexual integrity. There's not an arrival there, then address it as often as you can. And I realize, even as I say that, it's just like. Well, I'm not just gonna, like, throw a random illustration or Talk about sexuality if it doesn't fit. I'm not saying to force the issue, but if there's any connection to that topic, I think the more that you can press and the more you can use it as an illustration or you can use it as an example of something that needs to change, whether it's a philosophy or how we act, what we do, that kind of thing, then I think just a smaller, practical thing that actually has a huge impact is making sure that when we are using these illustrations or we are talking about sexuality or brokenness, that using both male and female, that there's always this. Men struggle, women struggle, men are betrayed, women are betrayed. And so making sure that we're casting that wide net so we're not making someone feel more alone than maybe they already do.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking about on this one, too, Trevor. That if every person sitting in church every weekend is a sexual being made in the image of God to have sexual thoughts, sexual desires, sexual hormones, then that's a reality of something. We all are. And whether we're in the midst of a struggle or not, we have to be able to apply the truth of scripture to our sexuality. And I think we need to get away from the mindset where we only talk about sex once in a while at that kind of unique weekend. And we warn everybody ahead of time and we make sure the kids or somewhere else. And I'm not saying we shouldn't do that, but if that's the only time we talk about sexuality, it actually, I think, creates a further level of taboo and shame and mystery. And, like, we can't really talk about this unless we prepare months in advance, get all the kids out. You know, it's like, now it's not just a part of our human experience. So if you do that because you feel you have a special need for a focus, great. But in addition to that, what you were saying, how can we apply the truth of scripture to this area as just a regular part of the sermons? And so a couple of quick examples I thought of. If you're preaching on gratitude, you could talk about the person who says maybe you're stuck in a marriage where you feel like you deserve more sex or your spouse should be more responsive to you sexually. How could you focus on gratitude for what God has given your spouse, what you do have in your relationship? Because as we focus on what we do have, we're going to grow in that relationship. So here I'm preaching on gratitude, but I've applied it to someone's maybe sexual frustration in their marriage. Maybe we're talking about counting the cost and following Christ and we could use it as a bridge to talk about that. Our culture, being a very sexualized culture, gives us this message that I can do what I want, when I want. And that includes being able to surf images on my phone, go to porn websites and kind of say it's no big deal, but if I'm going to count the cost to follow Christ and I'm going to deny myself and turn from this world, then I'm looking to turn away from those things. So now I've applied discipleship into that area or a third one I thought of. We could be preaching on Moses and principles of leadership. And maybe we say, you know, in the home, moms and dad, that means we need to be a leader in our area of our kids sexual development, that they're going to take their cues from us and we need to take a leadership role with our children in having proactive conversations about healthy godly sexuality. So in all of these, I'm looking for ways how do I bridge the gap to what people are experiencing. And I hope you're doing that in other topics as well. I mean, I wouldn't say that every application should be a reference to someone's sexuality, but the more we include that as one of the areas of life we're referencing, because usually I think most preachers do, they'll apply it to people's relationships in general, will apply it to their money, maybe to their careers, and I would just say and apply it to their sexuality. Because these are all major parts of what it means to be human. And when we give people biblical ways about thinking of their everyday struggles and battles, that's where I think it really becomes a normal conversation in our church.
Yeah, totally.
And I would say normalize it by having options for people to take steps into educational platforms or classes or workshops and then like Nick said, double down on that. Just holistic spirituality, the integration of the way of God in all areas, including sexuality.
