The message last night was on pornography and when I first heard it I was a little shocked and worried about how it would work handling that topic. I had never heard it explicitly preached on from the pulpit. Usually it is couched in terms of sexual purity or some other code word that tries to avoid making people uncomfortable. But Noah to his credit didn't pull any punches. He basically laid it out there that there. There are many people in our church that struggle with pornography and he wasn't going to sweep that subject under the rug.
His blunt approach was a little risky but proved to be the exact right course. Talking to a few people afterwards there was a strange sense that it was about time that this sin was brought out in the open. Even the new couple sitting with me told me that they were glad the church was so up front about things.
What I appreciated most about the sermon was that is done with a heavy does of grace. The emphasis was that we know this is a huge temptation for many men in the church but we don't think you're weird or sinful because of it. Instead the church wants to help people break out of that habit because it destroys the soul and robs people of meaningful intimacy. My gut tells me that true freedom from pornography will begin to take hold in our church because of last night's sermon.
After being away from barefoot for a couple weeks, I gained a sense of perspective on what I appreciate about the church. We are not perfect but I like being part of a body that doesn't mind taking risks. I also like that our church is committed to being more than just surface level religion. It's a bit scary practicing this idea of real life community. My natural inclination is to do what most people do with this type of topic by hiding it somewhere and hoping that it just goes away. I get the feeling that this church is going to hold me to a higher standard.
If you are interested I have link to Barefoot Lansing on the right and last night's sermon is available on-line.
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