I'm not sure what exactly you were expecting to find here... but I'm glad you made it!
Statistics tell us that college students are inundated with sexually explicit images, media items, thoughts, experiences and addictions.
I'm convinced that sexually related vices are one of the biggest stumbling blocks to college students experiencing a dynamic and fully engaged relationship with Jesus. The guilt, shame and lack of grace towards themselves becomes too deep a pit for them to believe they can ever escape.
And the worst thing...
We don't know how to help them.
At least that's what the vast majority of our ministries, conversations and programs tell them.
We have not done a good job, as The Church and/or as Jesus-filled ministries and leaders, of creating safe spaces for our students to express what they're thinking, feeling, experiencing, etc. And if we have, we've not done a good job of communicating that to students.
For the first time in my 12+ years of ministry with college students, I helped to put on a week of spiritual emphasis designed to help students explore the links between sex, sexuality and faith.
We brought in some great folks, with powerful stories, that God used to help begin some important conversations on our campus. We talked about things that most Christians feel like they cannot talk to anyone about (and most ministries choose to ignore)... like: pornography, masturbation, premarital sex, what do healthy relationships even look like, how far is too far, arranged marriages, shame, guilt, grace, healing, etc., etc., etc....
And in my almost 5 years at this university, this week of emphasis was the most widely and consistently attended of anything our office has put on... and I would dare say it would rival just about any other series of programs that have ever been provided on our campus.
We're still trying figure out the level/s of impact this week had (and continues to have) on our students... but if there's one thing I learned over the course of this powerful week it's this...
If you're not talking with your students about sex with your college students... YOU NEED TO BE!
And the great folks who helped us through sharing their stories and asking some important questions were:
- Anne Jackson
- Mike Foster
- Michael Johnson
- Micah Weedman
I am forever grateful for these folks and the conversations they started...
I'm grateful for the work God is doing in our students lives and the healing and freedom that students are beginning to experience...
And I'm excited about how God will use the ministries of these individuals, and the ministries of folks just like them, in the future to help sick people get well and enslaved people become free!
