sex talk

I have shared this before, but we started a couple of new series (for both XStream and House Party) talking about sex, so I thought I'd re-visit it.

I've been a youth pastor for about 20 years, and I've taught about sex only a handful of times. It's not that I don't think it's important; I've simply never been comfortable talking about it. Parents should be the ones to teach their children about sex. The church/student ministry should be a supplement to what parents teach. But over the course of my work with students, I've not done much to help.

A few years ago, God began to stir things up in me. I felt like God was saying that I needed to get ready to talk about sex. I asked our leadership team to hold me accountable for that. A few days later the phone rang, and Bob and Dannah Gresh offered me a speaking role with Pure Freedom. I would be traveling all over the country talking with hundreds of students about sexual purity! Does God have a sense of humor or what?!

We opened our series with middle school students tonight, and I think things went rather well. The small group leaders reported that they had some good conversations with students, and all the students were dialed in all through the night.

We'll be posting my talks and emailing questions to parents in the next few days so that they can discuss what their students are learning.

But for starters, here's a map detailing the loss of virginity. I was surprised by the results. I thought that the average age of people losing their virginity was much lower than what is reported here.