Why Sexual Discipleship®?
“We have been sexually discipled by the culture around us.”
~ Dr. Juli Slattery
Putting those two words together – Sexual and Discipleship – might seem off-putting to some. However, we believe that this is exactly what needs to change in how Christians approach topics of sexuality.
For the past decade, I have used the term Sexual Discipleship to describe what the Lord has been teaching me about the integration of biblical truths with every topic of sexuality. Sexual Discipleship is a comprehensive, biblical, and relational approach to integrating human sexuality with the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Instead of telling people what to think about sexuality, it’s discipling them in how to think about sexuality.
Sexual Discipleship is an approach to God and sexuality involving three specific aspects of healing and integration.
1. Every sexual issues is also a spiritual issue.
Over decades, people have learned to separate God and sex. Instead, Sexual Discipleship helps people make sense of God and sex by pressing into the underlying spiritual questions that inform our thinking about sex, wholeness and healing.
2. Connecting to the heart of why God cares about sexuality.
Most people (even non-believers) won’t spend much time arguing about what the Bible says about sexuality. The real barrier is understanding why a loving God would say such things. Sexual Discipleship challenges both the cultural and purity narratives about sexuality, presenting an alternative narrative rooted in God’s revelation of covenant love through our sexuality as reflected in both the Old and New Testaments. This narrative gives us a framework not only for how God calls us to live, but why the biblical sexual ethic reflects a loving God.
3. Embracing a life-long journey towards sexual integrity.
The mandate for every Christian is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” As opposed to sexual purity, integrity is the call to submit everything – including our struggles, our shame, our identity, our wounds, and our attitudes towards others- to the Lord. Biblical sexuality is not simply a behavior code, but the extension of an all of life transformation by the love of God, the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We should all be on this journey of surrender and maturity. Sexual Discipleship teaches, encourages, challenges and models what this looks like in every stage of a person’s life.
The Sexual Discipleship model will equip you as a Christian leader to change the conversation and the spiritual culture around issues of sexuality.