sex180

you wanted to know what in the world “sex180” means. We’ll get to that in a minute.

you thought the cover looked better than the other books about sex (yep, Tim totally judges a book by its cover too).

you liked the word revolution.

your mom/dad/grandma/youth pastor gave this book to you.

Whatever the reason, you’ve made it this far. You opened the book to this page. We’ll definitely try to live up to your expectations for the rest of the book. (By the way, we’re really impressed that you’re reading the introduction.)

But before we start, you need to know a few things.

First, who are we? We have a confession. We’re both married guys—with kids. Yeah, we know. We may have just lost some cred with you. After all, we’re married. We have sex. And we’re dads, so you might be thinking we have some kind of ulterior motive or that your parents asked us to write this book. BTW, they didn’t.

The truth is, we’ve both made some mistakes along the way when it came to sex. This book isn’t penance. And we’re not expecting you to be perfect. But if we had both seen God’s heart behind what he says about sex earlier in our lives, we would have made some different choices. We might have ended up with a few less scars.

We’ve seen up close what happens when we think about sex completely on the outside—when it’s all about what we can and can’t do—and totally miss God’s heart and plan. We’ve also seen how the wrong view of sex can mess up a lot of other people’s lives too.

And we’re not off the hook here. It’s just as important for adults to understand what God thinks about sex as it is for students. It doesn’t take much looking to see proof of that in our culture—or maybe you see proof in your own family.

We live in the same world you live in. We have to click the remote, delete the emails, and try to remind ourselves that what God says about sex isn’t what we hear and see every day.

But we don’t have to deal with rainbow parties, friends with benefits, “are you hot” websites, and all the other junk you deal with.

Our generations have really messed up the world for yours. We don’t want you to make the same mistakes—or worse. We believe there’s a better way to think about and do sex—God’s way.

We know who you are. One thing that draws people to what our culture says about sex is the fact that it seems to acknowledge something most Christians ignore: we’re sexual. It’s part of how God made each one of us. God made sex. He created it to bring two people together in a binding way that is both mysterious and awesome. To ignore the fact that you have desires and are curious about sex is about as real as reality TV. We believe God made those desires a part of each one of us, and we want to get to the heart of why he did. Then we can better understand what it means to explore and live out that part of our lives in a way that is both honoring to him and beneficial for us.

One-word answers don’t cut it anymore. We definitely want to give props to organizations and people who have worked hard over the years to get students to start thinking about sex in a way that’s different than what our culture has been feeding us. They’ve done a great job of challenging people to talk about sex when most people preferred to remain mute. They’ve shown people what it means to connect your beliefs to your sexuality. They’ve even shown teenagers who want to wait that there are a lot of teens out there who are just like them. But the reality is that some teens with pledge cards and promise rings are having sex. “No” and “wait” just aren’t good enough anymore—we want to know why. Sex isn’t just about what you do or don’t do.

New math. We’re not offering a formula—“Follow this plan and you’ll live happily ever after.” Life doesn’t work that way. Neither does faith. It’s not about following all the external rules. It’s about getting face-to-face with God, so close that you see his heart. There’ll be advice in this book. We’ll tell you stories of people who are living out a sex180. But the truth is, you’ve got to own this stuff. You’ve got to understand it on a whole new level. The church answers aren’t going to cut it when you want to be so close to your boyfriend or girlfriend that skin-on-skin seems like the natural next move. But you’re never going to own it until you understand why God says what he says about sex and you begin to see his heart behind his words.

Sex180 T-shirts, bumper stickers, necklaces, tattoos—not going to happen. This isn’t a fashion revolution. This isn’t a trend or marketing campaign. Revolutions aren’t about bracelets and rings. Revolutions aren’t about rallies. Revolutions are about people who are passionate about something, so passionate that it affects the way they think, feel, and act. Then it affects those around them. Revolutions start in the heart, then move outward.

Are you ready to find out more?