An Uncomfortable Issue

Last year our partner publication ChristianBibleStudies.com conducted a simple online poll, asking readers, “Have you ever struggled with an addiction?” When the numbers were reported, everyone was surprised. Over half of the respondents said they are currently battling or had previously struggled with an addiction.

We wondered if the response would be different among Leadership readers. We posted the same question on LeadershipJournal.net and Out of Ur. Hundreds of church leaders responded, and once again the outcome was startling. More than 50 percent acknowledged having a destructive vice they could not shake.

Although our online poll was not a scientific survey, it is consistent with what other studies have found. Our culture, including the Christian subculture, is hooked. Alcohol, pornography, tobacco, drugs (prescription and illegal), gambling, gaming, sex, media. The list of addictive behaviors has never been longer, and they have never been easier to find.

For our interview with Craig Gross, Brandon O’Brien and I traveled to Las Vegas. It was my first visit to “Sin City,” and I found it to be aptly named. Walking along Las Vegas Boulevard after dark is like entering the belly of the beast. Your eyes are accosted by electric sex in every direction—jumbotrons with nearly nude showgirls, billboard trucks advertising “Girls Direct to Your Room,” and dozens of neon-shirted men offering free rides to a nearby strip club. Directing your eyes down at the pavement offers no respite. The sidewalks are littered with thousands of cards featuring images of topless women and 800 numbers.

They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But that’s no longer true. The vices once identified with Las Vegas are now accessible everywhere through the web. While walking along “the Strip,” I realized I was experiencing the Internet in a three dimensional form. Something as innocuous and kid-friendly as M&M World is across the street from Diablo’s, where a red-skinned girl with thigh-high leather boots offers you “a wicked good time.”

The advent of the Internet, and the proliferation of vices in our culture, means our posture as churches needs to adapt. Bret Johnson, a pastor in Las Vegas, says every church leader “needs to approach ministry as if they live in Las Vegas, San Francisco, West Hollywood, or Amsterdam. Every city is now sin city.”

Rather than assuming the individuals and families entering our churches are relatively healthy and functional, the assumption should be the opposite. Most of us are hooked on something. Most of us are fighting a secret battle. And that applies to those behind the pulpit as well.

This issue of Leadership makes us all a bit uncomfortable, but it also will challenge your assumptions and give you hope. Transformation and growth are not only possible in a culture of addictions and vices, but absolutely essential.