Sex and the City

Tim Keller on ministry in global urban centers:

People living in urban centers are not only very sexually active but also very insistent that their sexuality is nobody else's business but theirs. Even strong Christians will be tempted to be sexually active in various ways that can undermine or destroy their spiritual effectiveness. Ministry implications include the following:

• A lack of prudishness in talking about sex. A strong teaching emphasis on the Christian understanding of sex, in which sex was designed for lifetime
• commitment and community building instead of personal gratification.
• Teaching that is smart, sensitive, irenic, nuanced, and carefully assimilates existing cultural narratives about freedom, identity, and community within the confines of biblical teaching.

More on "More Information Might Surprise You"

Below is an example of my point in last weekend's message that more information might surprise you. I said that you might be surprised by what many people who attack the reliability of the Bible believe in and don’t believe in. If you knew their assumptions about life, you might be more careful about agreeing with their conclusions on Scripture. This is from a review of Bill Maher's film attacking faith (of all kinds), Religulous:

He also loses credibility by sheer fact that he is Bill Maher—an ardently liberal, slightly greasy elitist with a penchant for condescension. Maher doesn't help break the "out of touch liberal" stereotype when he smokes pot on camera, for instance. And on Larry King Live in August, Maher exposed his amoral approach to life when he defended John Edwards' extramarital affair, saying, "people like new; you can't stop human nature." This "anything goes" view of adultery is doubtless not an opinion many people share with Maher.