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Ed Young's Creative Leader Newsletter - October
With fall in full swing, I hope everything is going well for you and your ministry. Because this is an important season in the church calendar, I want to encourage you to continue the hard work it takes to reach your community in new and creative ways.
Heading into this fall at Fellowship Church, we wanted to tackle something that would have a lasting impact on everyone who walked through our doors. So we kicked off a series called Sexual Revolution to bring the bed back in the church and the church back in the bed.
It only takes a glance at a magazine stand or a few moments flipping channels on the television to see that our society has a lot to say about sex. The church, on the other hand, has been strangely silent or overwhelmingly negative about this powerful topic for far too long.
People are starved for answers to the conflict between a culture that says, "Do it--anytime, anywhere, with anyone!" and a church that whispers ashamedly, "Don't do it. In fact, don't even think about it."
Thankfully, God provides those answers. And we should discuss them in church--it's only second to the home as the best place to talk about sex. So as I sat down with our creative team to plan for this series, we took the following into consideration:
- It was time for a positive approach. Rather than starting with what society says about sex and teaching how wrong it is, we based this entire series on Genesis 1 and 2 to reveal the amazing freedom that comes when we use this life-uniting gift the way God designed it. Even our graphics reflected a more positive mood. We considered a darker, more edgy look (actually, it was a really intriguing ink blot that you may see in a future series), but in the end, we went with the artwork you see here to reinforce the upbeat tone we wanted to convey.
- Cutting material out is just as important as leaving material in. Because sex is such a huge subject, I could preach about it for an entire year. Any of us could. But in order to narrow and intensify the focus, we were extremely selective about what was included. In fact, we cut eight full pages of dictation out of one sermon in order to strengthen the delivery.
- Fresh perspectives are a must. Everyone thinks they know what they will hear in church when it comes to sex. Because of that, we wanted to treat this subject in a new, unexpected way. We avoided covering the same ground we have during past series about sex at Fellowship Church. We also included different people, such as our youth pastors, in our creative team meetings. We thought since they are on the front lines of ministering to students caught up in sexual turmoil, they should have some input. And when it was time for the message on how to talk to your children about sex, Lisa joined me on the stage to broaden our perspective.
- Be aggressive, not offensive. A series like this calls for an aggressive approach because people need to hear the truth and power behind what God says. Because of that, we intentionally used some statements like, "Sex is between the ears before it's between the legs." While saying that made me a little uncomfortable, it also woke a lot of people up. For visual impact, I taught the entire series next to a queen-sized bed placed in the middle of the stage. And we launched the series with a week-long campaign designed to get people talking, including invite cards, direct mail, online e-vites, and a 90-foot wide Sexual Revolution banner on the outside of our main building. The Bible isn't bland and boring when it comes to sex, so we shouldn't be either.
When we're dealing with a subject as culturally confused as sex, we have to step out of our comfort zone and teach God's bold truth with courage. Of course, we received some negative comments along the way—many from parents who were avoiding this important topic with their children. But we also received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from people who were excited and thankful that we were willing to talk about this subject in such an open and biblically based way.
Remember, ministry isn't for the weak of heart. As leaders, we should regularly find ourselves stretched to the limit as we follow God's lead. Sexual Revolution wasn't an easy series to develop or teach. But once God laid it on my heart, there was no turning back. If you'd like to tackle this challenging topic, we'd love to help. We've made the complete Sexual Revolution series available at a special price--you can check it out here.
I encourage you to pray high-risk prayers and engage in the relentless pursuit of God's amazing plans for what He wants to do through your ministry. And be sure to share your adventures with us along the way! You have a great opportunity this month with our Show Us What You're Made Of Contest – the grand prize wins you free tickets to our Creative Church Conference in February!
10/31 Update: The Sexual Revolution sale has ended - be sure to subscribe to our newsletters for updates on future CreativePastors offers and promotions!
