I am pretty
good at being oblivious to many up-coming films, but even I haven’t been able
to miss today’s arrival of Fifty Shades
of Grey, cinema-style.
As Tim
Challies starts to point out, it’s the flag to say we can no longer ignore
it:
Our culture is a sex-mad world.
All of our
culture. It’s not just men. It’s not just single people. It’s not just adults. It’s not just unbelievers. It’s not just behind closed doors. It’s changed childhood forever. It’s ruining current marriages and is
disastrous for future marriages. It’s everyone, it's everywhere, and it's not going away.
Not that this
is new – since Genesis 3 God’s people have lived in a sex-mad world. But the reality is that technology and desire
have colluded to make pornography, masturbation and fantasy a massive issue today in our culture, and in the church. Yet I wonder how many of us have actually talked about these things with a brother or sister in Christ?
Ollie, around a year
ago, got together with some of the male students and started honest
conversations, grounded in reality, pierced with pain and shining with
hope. Those guys came away buzzing, and
we got thinking. This is not just an
issue that male students face, so Ollie and I are holding a morning to start
the conversations across the church.
On Saturday
14th March, 9am-1pm, we’re gathering to talk. Some of us know we need to talk for
ourselves. Others know we need to talk
for the sake of others - our friends, spouses, children. Some of us will
not yet even realise how big an issue this is for others, or even how it has
affected us. But it is an issue we all
face; it’s an issue for all ages and stages of life, for men and women, so we’re
talking together*. We want to be learning
from each other and learning for each other’s sakes. We want to help each other face reality, walk
through it together, and shine hope in the darkest of places.
Be there. “Sanity in a sex-mad world”. 14th March 2015, 9am-1pm. www.emmanuelbristol.org.uk/sanity. Book soon as spaces are limited.
* please note, no one will be forced to share anything. We're hoping many will feel able to be open in single-sex, confidential group times, but there is no compulsion to share anything personal.
