Preaching Mature Themes in the Bible — The Journey

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How we teach the whole counsel of God in the context of family-centered corporate worship.

Preaching Scripture with Mature Themes

At The Journey we value worshiping during our service with the entire family. Parents are responsible for the discipleship of their children, including training and modeling for our children what it looks like to worship with the gathered Body of Christ on Sunday mornings.

We also value preaching the entirety of the Bible in our services. We are strong proponents of verse by verse expository preaching. Each book is one unified narrative and each part contributes to the whole. As a church we are called to preach the “whole counsel of God.”

We recognize you might be wondering then how we handle certain mature passages in the Bible. The Bible includes depictions of our fallen sinful nature. It does not shy away from recording cruel or even perverse acts by fallen human beings in the Story. These stories are not intended to entertain us, but are intended to reveal just how desperately our need for a Savior is. Parents understandably, as primary disciple-makers, desire be the ones to introduce their children to these mature themes in age appropriate times and ways specific to their child.

Therefore, in an attempt to ease any anxiety our parents or guests may experience about preaching these passages we want to explain our philosophy of preaching these passages.

Philosophy of Preaching Mature Themes

We will never go into explicit or technical explanations of an explicit action.
We will emphasize only what is necessary to understand the meaning of the passage over explaining the actions in the story. We do not need to do a play by play of the action. For instance, in Genesis 34, we may emphasize that the sin committed against Dinah was violent. Or in passages about prostitutes such as Joshua 2, we will emphasize that they are people who violate God’s design for marriage. Or in passages about circumcision, we will describe circumcision as the sign of God’s covenant with the Jews. It will be the parent’s responsibility to explain the specifics.
When referencing these actions in the text we will either use the language the Bible uses (“he knew his wife”, “he went into” his wife, or “he lied with”, or another indirect way of saying what happened and only when it is absolutely necessary to understand the message of the passage. When using Biblical language, the full meaning of these words may not be apparent to a child who is not familiar with the action it is referring to. Ie: In Genesis 34 we will say Dinah was “humiliated [ESV]”, “defiled”, or “attacked”.

Encouragement to Parents

As a church we believe that having conversations with your children about difficult topics is important to their discipleship journey. We encourage parents to not be passive about these discussions but proactive, preparing your kids for these sermons or having follow up discussions with your children.

We also encourage parents to begin having conversations about God’s good design for sex from an early age. Foundation Worldview founder Elizabeth Urbanowicz recommends starting to have conversations around age 4. This does not mean having extremely detailed conversations, but enough to be able to navigate an increasingly sexualized culture with an awareness of God’s good design.

Regarding why we should have early conversations with our children she says,

“The first reason is based on what my friend Hillary Ferrer from Mama Bear Apologetics calls the "Expert Theory." This theory suggests that whoever speaks to us about a topic first naturally becomes the expert on that topic in our minds. We want ourselves to be that expert for our kids—not their friends, the media, or the world. The second reason is that we want to frame the topic of sex positively from the start. If we wait to talk to our children until after they’ve heard misinformation from other sources or encountered confusing situations—such as seeing a same-sex couple or someone presenting as the opposite gender—their first impression of sex may be negative. Since the biblical worldview presents sex as something good within God’s design, it’s important to set a positive foundation early on.”

Here are some helpful videos you can watch to learn how to explain passages with mature themes to your children.

A Word of Understanding

We also understand that for some of our youngest children, some issues are so grave that it may require the wisdom of Casper Ten Boom when his daughter Corrie asked him about topics that were too big for her:

"And so seated next to my father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, "Father, what is sexsin?"

He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case off the floor and set it on the floor.

Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?" he said.

I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.

It's too heavy," I said.

Yes," he said, "and it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you."

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to either Pastor Mace or Pastor Steven.

The Journey Church Houston

P.O. Box 7109
Houston, TX 77008