The Case for the.Sex.Talk

It was 1996 in Pickering, Ontario – in a Church room full of high school students – I delivered my first talk ever. I talked about music & media and how our faith plays a role in this. 10 years later I found myself speaking 45 times per year while still teaching full-time with the Toronto District School Board. I left teaching that year and have been speaking full-time with Worlds Apart ever since.

In his book “Holy Discontent”, Bill Hybels talks about how everyone needs to find his/her “Holy Discontent” (those things that continuously bother you) and to walk into that space. That has been the theme for all of my talks for 19 years. Every few years I would add a talk which now has grown into Self Harm, Dating, Men, Sex, Mental Health and most recently Pornography.

Last year we had the chance to film my talk called the “Walking Wounded” which talks about a Christian view towards people struggling with mental health issues. How can we have a Biblical yet utterly practical response to those of us struggling with all forms of mental health?

At this time, I am looking at filming “the.sex.talk”:

Why: Present day statistics show that 70-80% of young Christians adults have had sex before they got married. This means that we need to rethink completely how we engage students in this conversation from a standpoint of parents, youth groups and the greater Christian community. What a tough time to grow up being a teenager. So many questions and so little answers from parents and the Christian Community. We cannot continue to be silent on these issues of sexuality.

How: “the.sex.talk” helps lay the foundation–equips and empowers parents in how to help their kids get a Biblical worldview of healthy Sexuality. I usually say the talk help kids get a Biblical Sexual Ethic. It goes through all of the areas we need to talk about to begin this conversation in our homes. We must break the cycle of failure by addressing head on these conversations.

Goal: The goal of this project is that through this talk it will help create a culture where Christian parents and their teenagers are equipped and empowered to have this conversation–resulting in better and healthier choices in the area of sex for their teenagers.

It was a few years ago that I began to hear from parents about these growing struggles. With society around us growing ever so sexualized how were parents to respond. More recently the Ontario government came out with a new Health Curriculum with a ton of new material on sex. Hundreds of letters flooded in to me asking for help.

“What is a Christian parent to do with the new sex education curriculum?”
– Parent in Toronto –

I was being asked to come into churches and schools to speak to parents about the new curriculum. I would always push back a bit and say that we as Christians are not against sex education. We must as parents have these tough conversations with our kids. Many parents would say to me that they don’t even know where to start. I have taken the past year to create a talk for Parents I am calling “The Sex Talk: Parents and Leaders”. It is a talk to help empower and equip parents in the areas of helping our kids create a sexual ethic (connect their faith with the area of sex).

“How do I actually teach my kids to have a Biblical view of sex? Where do I start?”
– email from parent of teen –

As a speaker I am able to speak about 100-125 times a year. I am unable to speak at every church and school in the country. My last filmed talk “The Wounding Embrace” is being used in churches from California to England, from Vancouver to St. Johns. I receive emails from people using the DVD or Digital download to help equip people in their churches to help people with mental health struggles. I feel now is the time to film the Sex and the Porn talk.

Ask: I would like to start by filming the sex talk. We have raised about $7,000 for this project already but need to raise the remaining $6,000.

$8,000 – for filming and editing of the talk. It is the editing of the talk that is very time consuming as we need to incorporate a professionally designed Keynote presentation throughout the filmed talk. It gives people the same experience as if I was speaking live at their church or school.
$2,500 – Trailer for promotion
$1,000 – Creating Master copy of DVD, Creation of Graphics for DVD jacket and cover.
$1,500 – printing of 1500 DVD’s. The Talk is also put online on VimeoOnDemand.com
Total funds – $13,000

This talk would help parents and students with a framework for how to have a Biblical Worldview in these areas. Due to the growing importance and requests for this talk–I can’t physically deliver it in person to all those who need to hear it but by filming the talk–imagine the local, national and international impact it will have on our teens.

It is hard to raise funds for a small non for profit. We are cut out of applying for most grants from foundations as we don’t reach their $250k minimum income. As a charity that has been around for almost 19 years we are not looking at raising funds for day to day operations but raising the funds specifically for this project. I presently speak over 100-125 talks a year that pay for all of the overhead costs of running Worlds Apart (office, equipment, salary etc.)

If you would like to chat more please contact me at the email below. If you would like to make a donation please follow this link – https://www.canadahelps.org/dn/15850

Thanks for your consideration.
Brett Ullman
Executive Director of Worlds Apart (worldsapart.org)

Contact:
brett@brettullman.com
brettullman.com
905.626.4297