It's one thing for a church in a big city like Dallas or Atlanta to tackle the ticklish topic of sex. It blends in with the urban scene.
It's another thing when a small-town congregation puts up billboards with the phrase "Great sex: God's way" on rural highways to promote a sermon series. You can't even legally buy beer in Cullman County, and a preacher is talking about S-E-X on Sunday morning?
Daystar Church, whose congregation has grown dramatically under pastor Jerry Lawson, has run up against the sensibilities of a conservative north Alabama community with a monthlong focus on sex.
Sex just isn't an appropriate topic for church, some say, and others are upset over the church's signs, which advertise the sermon series and accompanying Web site.
"It's really stirred up the people here," said Good Hope town clerk Joann Jones.Evangelist Roland Belew, a self-described fundamentalist and former trucker who now preaches at a truck stop, said the whole idea goes against the teaching of New Testament apostles.
"Paul said preach the Gospel," said Belew. "Talking about sex ain't gonna get nobody to heaven."
The controversy is a bit ironic considering the church's overall point is about as straight-laced as they come: That God intends for sex to be enjoyed solely within a heterosexual marriage, and that anything else -- adultery, pornography, homosexuality, even "sexual arousal" outside of marriage -- is sin.
Churches have been talking about sex and sexual purity more often. In November, the Rev. Ed Young of the Fellowship Church based in Dallas drew nationwide attention by challenging married couples to have sex for seven straight days in the name of strengthening marriages.
But an expert who tracks evangelical Christianity, Larry Eskridge, said few are addressing the subject as directly as Daystar.
"It sounds like an example of one of those church-growth, market-savvy campaigns going out to an area where you wouldn't normally see it," said Eskridge, associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College in Illionis. "I could see where in that particular setting, that could raise some eyebrows."
City Hall has gotten a few complaints about the church's sexy signs from a handful of people like Belew, 71, who preaches in a trailer off Interstate 65.
Even the 22-year-old mayor, Corey Harbison, worries that the "great sex" message will force parents to talk about the birds and the bees with inquisitive young children before either is ready.
"I understand what they're trying to do. I get it," said Harbison. "(But) some people just aren't ready for that. Good Hope is just a good old, country town."
Lawson, the pastor at the center of the debate, said the purpose of his sermons and the billboards was to get Christian parents talking to their kids about sex before they learn too much immorality from TV or playground buddies.
"I think some people are kind of missing the point," said Lawson.
Lawson is the lead pastor at Daystar Church, which is affiliated with the Church of God and draws about 2,000 people on Saturday nights and Sunday to its $5.7 million campus on a hilltop beside I-65. People come from as far away as the northern suburbs of Birmingham, 45 miles to the south.
The church's attendance is slightly larger than the entire population of Good Hope, which has three other churches in its town limits and five others within a stone's throw. The community is a mix of farm homes, middle-class subdivisions, mobile home parks and a few McMansions.
Daystar was a country church called Glory Hill Church of God when Lawson arrived nearly nine years ago. The church "relaunched" itself in the pattern of an urban megachurch in 2002 -- there's Starbucks coffee in the lobby and video screens everywhere -- and took off.
"In the next seven years 100 people became 2,000 people," said Lawson, who sports the hip, young megachurch look -- short hair, a goatee and dark clothes, minus a tie.
The church has a second-hand clothes shop for needy neighbors, and Lawson said it sends out 100 volunteers at a time for local work days. Members even are trying to raise $10,000 to put new sod on the baseball field at the local high school.
But it's the "great sex" series -- timed to coincide with Valentine's Day -- that got people talking about Daystar. More than anything, people noticed the blue billboard along Alabama 69 with the "GreatSexGodsWay.com" Web address beside a drawing of a bride and groom.
Belew worries that vulnerable teenagers will get the idea from the sign that God says it's OK for them to have sex.
"It's a delicate subject. Preach the word of God and people will live right and get right," said Belew, who has a big wooden cross and U.S. flag in his front yard.
The mayor said some longtime residents already were a bit leery of Daystar because it's gotten so big so quickly, drawing members from other cities and dwarfing everything else in town. The focus on sex -- particularly the billboards -- turned some off even more.
Lawson said his sermons are more than marketing at Daystar, which dreams of opening satellite churches in big cities. The church needs to be out front on the topic of sex when even kids' TV shows depict illicit relationships and homosexuality, he said.
"It comes down to God saying the most healthy place for sex and the only right place for sex is within a marriage -- one man, one woman, and one marriage," Lawson said.
Ed Scarborough's landscaping company is almost directly beneath one of Daystar's "great sex" billboards. He doesn't go to Lawson's church, and he likes the idea behind the signs and the sermons. But still ....
"For Christian people I think it's portraying the message God sent in the Bible," Scarborough said. "But I do wonder if a non-Christian would get it."
On the Net:
Daystar Church: http://www.daystarchurch.tv
Source: AP
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I think this is great It's about time the church start to talk about sex. Everything in the world today is centered towards sex TV, Commercials, Sports, music. Also I think that Teens today know more than there parents think they know. Teens are having sex at 13. So it's about time we start to give God's view on Sex it's in the bible. Plus these fundamental bible belt folk are like pharisees they always hiding stuff. like they have no sin. Praise God 4U pastor Lawson. Continue doing God's work.
Praise God Pastor! get the right info about sex God's way to the people. His people are desroyed for lack of knowledge.
This message is throughout the Bible. One can argue whether it should be posted as advertisement on a public billboard. That argument is settled, we know how to advertise, it is the world that doesn’t get it. If the porno industry can do it, why can’t the people that have the right message. If the church membership is not dwindling because of it, keep it up. If it is adversely affected, stop it. It is only advertisement; pick up Plan A, because the message is out.
If the message had something pertaining to the bible about sex then there is nothing wrong with the way he is preaching it. Sex is discuss all day everyday around the world so why can't he preach the right thing about it. That is why alot of people and children are lead wrong about sex because of the way they are taught about it on the television, radio, books, movies, and through friends. I see nothing he is doing wrong
It is sad to see what is happening over the country and what is allow in the pulpits to lead a people. If the whole word of God is taught then people would want to live right and instruct their kids in the ways of the Lord. This spirit of lust has enter the churches through hirelings that are there for the money. Not truly concern for the people. A true shepherd would lead and guide you through the Holy Ghost. Look what has happen to other preachers that started down that path. They are now divorce and planning their next marriage. All this in the name of Jesus. These ministers were teaching such ungodly things to couples. Telling them to leave Jesus out side the bedroom and that you could cuss and do all kinds of perversion. Then tell them it was O K because the bedroom is undefiled in marriage. The reason that the scriptures is telling you this,it is that you are married so then your bed is undefiled because out side of marriage it is adultery and fornication. Pray, fast, and read your bible and know the word for your selves. WE are living in a time that many deceivers are deceiving and being deceived. Try the spirits and see if they are of God. It is time that we return back to God repent of our sins and he will heal our land. Our country needs God! I want to encourage all of Gods people to study to show themselves approve of God rightly dividing the word of truth.