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Driscoll on Sex, Critics, and When to Cross the Line in the Pulpit

CL:  What would you say to somebody who’s in a very conservative church where a lot of the traditional members might feel uncomfortable dealing with sex?  Would you still encourage leaders in this context to push the limit and talk about sex candidly?

I think it’s important.  I would encourage them to deal with the issues in the way that’s most appropriate for their people.  I’m in Seattle, which when we planted was the least churched city in America.  It’s a highly sexual city.  This is not the heritage of Christian conservatism.  It’s just not.  And we’ve spread out to the other cities, but we’ve really focused on unchurched, urban areas, reaching twenty-somethings, and just last year alone, we baptized just shy of 1400 new Christians.  So my people are coming in, they’re twenty-something, college educated, single, already having been raped, and addicted to pornography, and they walk in with questions, and what I can’t say is, “I’m sorry…some of our podcasters from the deep South who live on a farm will be offended by this…”

CL:  Is there a line with sex we shouldn’t cross from the pulpit? How do we know how far is too far?

I think it really depends on context.  It can be dealt with in men’s groups.  It can be dealt with in women’s groups.  It can be dealt with in marital training days.  The hard part as a leader is that you know you’re only going to get a small percentage of your people.  For the big Sunday event, that’s where the majority of your people are going to be.  So, if you say, “We’re going to have an event for all of you who are addicted to pornography,” well, you’re not going to get a great turnout.  Who’s going to show up on that night?  But if you address it on your Sunday meeting, then you have the opportunity to speak to the largest number of people. 

So that’s one of the things the ministry leader is always asking.  What has God given me to say, and what is the best medium by which to communicate that?