NEW BEGINNINGS CHURCH A little sex talk to spice up sanctuary

The church, which is set up in a mall, seems to have drawn few complaints.
TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
WINNIPEG, Ontario -- Even by contemporary liberal standards, the black metallic roadside hoarding makes for an unconventional advertisement for a church.
"Sex," blares the sign in large fluorescent letters. "Live Chat Room."
Below is the name of the church -- New Beginnings -- and a cellphone number for anyone interested.
But the Rev. Ivor Grant, the pastor at this nondenominational Protestant church in a shopping mall on the southern edge of Winnipeg, is unapologetic about the shock tactics he is using to entice people through the door.
"Our aim is to connect with people who would not normally visit a church, who would not darken the doors of a church," he said in an interview.
"What we want to do is to say that God has an interest in our sexuality. God invented it. Clearly He had an understanding of what could give us pleasure."
The Rev. Mr. Grant's approach to his faith is certainly unusual in a city with a strong religious bent.
"People love sex. They are interested in sex. They think about sex. It's used in movies, music, advertising," the 42-year-old pastor explained. "We live in a sex-obsessed society. For the church not to talk about it seems to make us irrelevant."
His style and convictions
Mr. Grant, who was born in Jamaica and immigrated to Canada many years ago, said he draws his inspiration from the Rev. Tommy Nelson, a Baptist pastor in Texas, and says that no other church in Canada has properly addressed sex and the Bible.
Last year Mr. Grant held classes on anger management. This year he decided to concentrate on a course about sex in the Scriptures.
For six weeks he delivered sermons each Sunday addressing various aspects of sex in the Bible. He's running an evening class he describes as "blunt and explicit."
The bread-and-butter of his study classes is the sensual Song of Songs, the famous but frequently ignored book in the Old Testament that gives a sometimes explicit, sometimes allegorical, description of a lifelong love affair.
According to Mr. Grant's interpretation, whole verses are devoted to the act of lovemaking.
"For 2,000 years the church has basically allegorized the Song of Songs. They've said what this book is really about is Christ and the church, it's not about a man and a woman having sex," he said.
"But when you begin to read the book, you begin to think, 'No! There's something else going on.' Female body parts are mentioned. When you understand Hebrew poetry you realize male body parts are mentioned, too.
Has a traditional side
In many ways, Mr. Grant is traditional in his teachings, despite his novel approach to drawing newcomers to his church. He believes that sex before marriage is wrong. He is against abortion.
But he also believes that the Roman Catholic Church was misguided when it decided -- in 325A.D. -- to ban priests from having sexual relations. (The ruling was later extended to banning priests from marrying.)
And he says that because of his methods, the word of God is getting through to people who wouldn't otherwise be interested. Eight newcomers, all women, have joined his 50-member congregation since the sex-talk classes began.
Mr. Grant said his unorthodox advertisement has drawn a couple of complaints from people who found it inappropriate for a church.
Most accept church
But he said the only conversation that made him uneasy was a suggestion that the Christian church should not talk about sex because it could offend aboriginals who had been abused in church-run residential schools.
Otherwise, he says, the community has been broadly supportive.
In the mall where he preaches, the signpost was met with a shrug. "I don't have a problem with it -- it's about time," said one woman, who declined to give her name.
Even those who take a more conservative approach were not ready to condemn that of Mr. Grant.
"Their church is looking for a way to attract parishioners. Whatever they need to do, I suppose, as long as it's within the bounds of decency," said Erwin Warkentin, general manager of the Mennonite Foundation of Canada, which has offices in the same mall.
"So far I haven't seen anything that would cause red flags. Yellow flags perhaps but not red flags."