A Lutheran pastor in suburban Detroit looking for creative ways to discuss sex with his congregants has some people hot and bothered with his most recent tactic.
Epic Church Pastor Tim Kade, 40, kicked off the first Sunday in Lent with a sermon entitled, “The Greatest Sex You’ll Ever Have.”
He plans to focus on sex — topics such as frustrations couples face in their relationships and how to talk to kids about sex — every Sunday through April 1 at his Rochester Hills, Mich., church. Some sermon titles include: "The Bedroom: Battleground or Playground” and “Porn: What's the Big Deal?”
"Sex wasn't invented in a dark alley behind a porn shop," Kade said in a statement dated Feb. 20. "It's part of God's design and the Bible is very open and frank about sexual matters. No matter what your situation may be, we are looking to give straight answers and practical advice that can be used in our everyday lives."
The church looks to tackle issues that couples and families find difficult to address.
“It seems that many people bottle up the sex conversation, which can often lead to bigger problems down the road,” Kade said.
But the way he's promoting this sex series is through a controversial 45-second video on the church's Web site, www.epicwired.com.
The video includes two pairs of feet poking out of the covers, empty shoes laying next to clothing, motel signs and phrases like, “Is your sex life a bore? A chore? Feeling like you want more?”
The church's Web site also states that a goal of the church is to no longer include “long boring sermons filled with terminology you don’t understand, [but] just messages that relate to real issues in your life!”
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's English district has been fielding e-mails and phone calls from area churches upset what they say is sexual permissiveness displayed on the Web site, The Detroit News reported.
Click here to read The Detroit News story
"Maybe the Epic Church went over the edge of good taste in terms of the Web site," Bishop David Stechholz, district president, who oversees 160 parishes in North America, told the newspaper. "That had a few people pretty upset."
While the video is themed with frustration, despair, jealousy, loneliness and adultery, it asks the question at the end: “Do you have an open mind?”
"He's trying to do an important thing," Stechholz told the paper. "He wants to bring about a thorough discussion on sexual intimacy from God's point of view."
Epic is affiliated with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which tends to be a biblically conservative branch of the Lutheran Church.
FOXNews.com's Kevin McCarthy contributed to this report.
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