Episode 207: Courageous Pastors: The South with Josh Laxton

Hole in My Heart Podcast

We are so excited about this:

Today, we are launching a mini-series interviewing three pastors from the South, the West Coast, and the East Coast on how they went from conceptualization of a sermon series on human sexuality to actualization. Why?

In 2019, Barna shared the results of a study that said three of the top four things pastors feel both pressured and limited to speak on are related to human sexuality.

If pastors feel so limited and yet pressured to speak on this, how in the world do they do it? Instead of hypothesizing, we put the microphone in front of three pastors who did it.

First up: A pastor from the U.S. South, Dr. Josh Laxton. We ask him:

• What is unique about his culture (he is from the South but currently preaches in central Florida)?
• What was the conversation like within his church to prompt the sermon series?
• How did he prepare his leadership team?
• What elements were critical to have within the sermon? Why?
• How did it go?

//Highlights:

• “One of the reasons why people inside the church or outside the church have a difficult time digesting what pastors say is how they approach saying it: They don’t approach [challenging topics] with tears.” —Josh Laxton
• “Through the 2000-year history of the church marriage, family, gender and sexuality has always been primary [doctrine] but because of the cultural context was what it was you didn’t even think about it. But now that we are living in this post-Christian, post-Christendom type of culture now we have to clarify: This is what we’ve always believed.” —Josh Laxton
• “I know that the call to pastoral ministry is not only the call to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection, but to participate in his suffering... Part of that suffering is leading through very tough and messy issues and situations.” —Josh Laxton

//Question of the Week:

What is your nickname and how did you get it?

//Do the Next Thing:

• Hear the sermon Josh preached here
• That Barna study? Find it here
• Hear Laurie and Josh’s conversation about his sermon on *his* podcast here
• Find more about Josh here: www.Joshlaxton.com or on his IG: Joshlaxton1
• Join the episode conversation on FB here
• Watch the episode on YouTube here