As our team has been planning I’m getting really excited for the spring BASICcon coming up in April. The theme of this one is Love Is _____. We’ll be having real conversations about singleness, dating and God in today’s culture.
The main reason that I’m anticipating what God is going to do at this conference is because of recent statistics I’ve seen. According to a study by the National Association of Evangelicals, 80 percent of unmarried evangelical Christians between ages 18-29 admit to having had premarital sex. Eighty percent. And that’s just one of the many statistics I’ve heard that signals the issue of remaining sexually pure in college is one of the biggest challenges Christian students are facing right now. If these studies are accurate then that means there are a lot of people out there who will need healing before they can cultivate healthy relationships and make it to the altar.
Thankfully, the stigma of talking about sex in Christian circles has begun to fade and more people are starting to speak up. Last May, 29-year-old Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones spoke about the difficulty of being a virgin into her late twenties in an interview for HBO, saying it was the hardest thing she’s ever done in her life — “harder than training for the Olympics.”
While it’s important to focus on the issue of sex because of how prevalent it is in our society, I think it’s equally as important to discuss with students how to have healthy relationships and what the Bible says about love. At BASICcon we’ll be examining the questions: how do I find the right one, how do I make a relationship last forever, and where does God fit into love, sex and dating.
I want to encourage you to start talking with your students about love, relationships and sex in the weeks leading up to the conference. While it may be challenging at times, discussing these topics in smaller, more private settings with people they trust will allow students to begin opening up and start getting any needed help. I also trust that the Lord will use these times to begin stirring something up so their hearts are prepared for what He wants to work in them throughout the weekend.
College is the time when students are asking questions and need Godly mentors in their lives. Students are looking for people to talk with about these issues so I want to challenge you to be that person by starting the conversation and genuinely loving on them. Campus ministers more than anyone else need to be talking with students about love, sex and dating.