Throughout my years in college-age ministry I’ve learned a lot of things. But there is one struggle that I’ve realized about this stage of life, that is unfortunately rarely talked about or dealt with in the church. The subject of homosexuality is bigger than we might think. I just had someone open up to me again about this.

If you have not talked about this subject in your ministry you may be missing a core struggle of your people!

Most people don’t deal with this subject in much depth because they don’t understand the issue. But trust me on this one…there are MULTIPLE people in your ministry struggling with thoughts, engaging with this on the internet, or fully embracing a relationship at some level. You have to gain some insight into it.

If you haven’t heard of anyone struggling with this in your ministry – careful, this is going to blunt – you’re not a safe person. You might think you are, but if nobody’s let you into this struggle in their life there’s something missing. Either you’re not spending enough time with people, or you’re wrongly being perceived as unsafe. Maybe it’s an unwarranted perception they have of you. Maybe they wrongly think you’ll condemn them. Maybe they wrongly think you’ll abandon them versus walk them through this sin issue. Or, maybe they wrongly assume you’ll betray their trust and let others know.

Whatever the case, if you want to be effective in college ministry you have to change the perception. Teach on the subject biblically with grace, humility, and honesty. Most know deep down it’s a sin issue, but that doesn’t help them practically know how to deal with it. Nobody chooses to struggle in this way, but pretty much everyone has cried out to God hundreds of times for Him to take it away. And, unfortunately, too many don’t have anyone they can trust to walk them through the struggle – leading them to biblically mature conclusions.

If you’d like a little more insight into this issue, CollegeLeader has an article written by one of my former students. I think this gives some insight into the mind of someone who struggles, some of the things that helped him, as well as gives some very practical things to do/be aware of. If you’d like to read that, click here.