Getting Porn Users Plugged into Church
Two churches – one with a technological edge and another you may call a porn outreach expert – have partnered to help online users searching for porn find a community of support instead.
LifeChurch.tv and XXXChurch.com are hosting ThePornEvent.com beginning Sunday to provide those with a pornography addiction a non-threatening and anonymous environment to deal with the challenge.
The May 23-28 event is designed not just as a video presentation on how pornography affects men, women, and children but as a venue where visitors can have one-on-one conversations about their struggles.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"We want to make sure we're not just getting content out there. It'll be interactive," Bobby Gruenewald, pastor and innovation leader at LifeChurch.tv, told The Christian Post.
Already, LifeChurch.tv is using Google ad words (such as "xxx") to connect people to its Internet campus where they can find someone to chat or pray with.
"We have a lot of people coming to church online that were initially looking for pornography," said Gruenewald.
But through ThePornEvent.com, the church is being more intentional and specific in addressing a problem that many churches are still uncomfortable talking about.
"We continue to think that pornography is a significant problem and kind of a significant trap for people that are searching for a lot of meaning in things that won't provide it," said the innovation leader.
"I think for a long time the church wanted to ignore the issue or assume that it didn't happen in their context yet there are pastors and staff people, and not just lay people, that deal with pornography issues," he noted. "It's the type of thing that typically happens in private and in secrecy and so as a result of that, unfortunately it goes unaddressed and untalked about in so many environments."
Churches, he said, really need to step up and encourage a level of transparency that allows the issue "to not be such a secret and dark issue but something that can be talked about."
With 20,000 weekly attendees and some 80,000 online attendees, LifeChurch.tv has definitely come across persons dealing with challenges in their marriages where an addiction to pornography was the root cause.
It's a problem that's pervading every sector of society.
"It's a heart issue," Gruenewald said.
People are constantly searching, sometimes out of their insecurities, to fill a void or to find significance. And that search isn't anything new, he added.
Pornography may just be becoming a greater outlet for that search because of its increasing accessibility and availability, he noted.
ThePornEvent.com will run as 25-minute online experiences just before LifeChurch.tv's 45 online church services – which are conducted by volunteers from around the world. Organizers aim not only to tackle the issue of pornography but also to give people, who do not have any faith background and who are simply searching for porn, the opportunity to connect with a church.
Pointing out the significance of leveraging technology and meeting people where they are, Gruenewald explained, "We're actually taking the truth to where people are at and not simply asking people to put a suit on or dress on and show up at a building to find more information. We'd rather engage them in an environment that they're already seeking answers in."
Following each ThePornEvent.com session, short-term small groups specifically supporting people who are dealing with pornography will be available for people to get plugged into.
