Not Our Own (Gender, Sex, and Sexuality)

What does an antiquated book like the bible have to teach us about gender and sexuality? A lot, actually. We have much more in common with the first-century church than you might think. Notions of sexual orientation, differing gender expressions, and unhealthy understandings of masculinity and femininity were alive and well in the time of the New Testament. While our culture’s modern categories would be foreign to people living 2,000 years ago, 21st-century Americans would be the ones blushing if they suddenly found themselves peering into the oversexualized Greco-Roman world - the very world in which Paul and the apostles were planting scripture-teaching, gospel-preaching, disciple-making churches. And just like those church plants, we need the Lord’s help. For five weeks, The Village is going to carve out time to bring clarity, compassion, and good news into honest conversations about gender and sexuality. We know that voices get loud when these things come up. We also know that loud voices aren’t always the best ones, even (sometimes especially!) when they’re coming from the church. That’s why we want the loudest voice to be Jesus’ - not merely to the world around us, but mostly to and through us, his people. This class isn’t about preaching to the choir. Nor is it pointing fingers outside the church walls. In each session of Not Our Own, our hope is that The Village would be spurred towards its own spiritual maturity in these matters. Why? Not to win arguments, but to fight for the integrity of our own witness as a gospel-formed community on mission to make, mature, and multiply disciples of Jesus.