MyGodMadeSex

As you know, I work with high school students at my church. The ministry is called Vertical, and we have it at each of our three locations. We decided recently to do what we call a “Big Push.” Basically, we pull out all the stops when it comes to advertising on the radio, tv, and billboards around town over the course of a few weeks leading into a new series. We do this twice a year with our weekend services to try and reach those that don’t normally attend church. This was the first time we’ve done it for our high school ministry.

So what topic is of great interest to high school students? Yep, you guessed it…sex. So we titled the series MyGodMadeSex.com, and filmed commercials, purchased tv and radio spots, and bought billboard space. It created a SLIGHT amount of controversy here in town.

Clarifying the Message.
Advertising Sex
MyGodMadeSex: So says Cedar Creek
dar Creek abstinence campaign raising some eyebrows
Toledo Blade Editorial
Church’s sex-ed campaign stirs calls, controversy

The purpose of this series is to explain what God has to say about sex. High school students are learning about sex from a wide variety of sources; Culture, Parents, Media, Friends, “Religion”. These sources are clearly not the best option and way for students to learn about sex. So we are presenting specifically what GOD has to say about sex, straight out of the bible.

Overall, coverage has been positive, including the local newspaper editorial. One quote that did strike me as odd was in the last link, in which the newspaper interviewed a local Baptist preacher, who said “…church is not the place to talk about sex.” Huh?! I would be curious to see how he explains Song of Solomon.

So our first weekend of this two week series was last night. We had over 600 students in total at our three campuses! According to calculations, that means that 1 in 50 Toledo area high school students was sitting at a Vertical service last night hearing about God’s design for sex. That’s amazing! It was a long weekend for those of us who were leaders, and we’ll be doing it again next weekend when we cover “Messing Up to Making Up.”

We’ve had students as the voice and face of this campaign, and even tonight one of them was on the local Fox station defending the purpose of this campaign. They’ve done a fantastic job and I couldn’t be prouder of them! They’ve owned this campaign and risked being ridiculed by being seen on tv, on billboards around town, and at school by putting up posters with their faces on it and having them ripped down, only to have the students post another one in it’s place.

I think another bonus of this Big Push has been the fact that it has shown our students that they can make a difference in the culture around them and stir up feelings and emotions. It shows that they’re not the generation of the future, but the generation of NOW and they can affect things now.

To read another leader’s post on their feelings of the weekend, check out this post by my good friend Jen Funkhouser.

Related posts:

1. They Know
2. Looking Ahead
3. God's Wrath
4. I’m Not Dead!
5. God's Finest Work