Hey friend, welcome to Job with Julie, hosted by me, Julie Slattery.

This podcast is supported by you, our listening community, and we are an outreach of the

nonprofit ministry, authentic intimacy, which is dedicated to helping people navigate sexual

issues from a biblical perspective.

You know, one of the main challenges in our day is that

churches don't know how to express a biblical and loving stance on sexuality. On the one hand,

they want to present a welcome door, a friendly face, just compassion to people who might be

struggling with any kind of sexual issue. They want to invite

people to come and learn about God and learn about his design for life, including sexuality.

But on the other hand, it's so critical that we're clear on what the scripture teaches on

issues of sexuality. And so churches are really struggling with, how do we do both?

Is that even possible to be both compassionate and loving and biblically solid? Well, joining me

to answer that question is Pastor Evan Wickham. Evan pastors a church in San Diego, and for the last

eight years, he has been striving alongside his church staff

to try to get this right. Now let me just let you know this conversation of biblical sexuality

and church culture is such a difficult one and there's a good chance that Evan might say something

or I might say something that you disagree with. But I feel like we really need to have

these conversations with people who are leaning into the scripture, leaning into the leading

of the Holy Spirit, that we need to be unified as we pursue what it actually looks like to walk

out and teach a biblical sexual ethic in today's day and age.

The research is showing that somewhere between 20 and 30% of Gen Z's identifies LGBTQ.

So this is not a sign-blind issue.

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