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The Church of the Rock to sponsor summit on pornography
By LINDA M. LINONIS
POLAND
Pastor Reid Lamport of The Church of the Rock is prepared to do battle in the war against pornography.
He began last year with an in-church meeting of male parishioners. This year, he plans a “Pornography and the Christian Man Summit” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the church, 7025 Luteran Lane. He contacted some pastor friends to get involved and sent information to Mahoning Valley churches.
“For the first one, I felt the need to address it with the men of our church,” Pastor Lamport said, adding it opened a dialogue and demonstrated a need. He said the summit –“a high-level meeting with the Lord”– is intended to assist all men in the battle against sexual lusting.
Although pornography affects all men, not every man struggles with temptation. The summit will incorporate all men, those who struggle and those who don’t. “We need all of our brothers in Christ to unify and do battle for one another. If I struggle, then I want someone to have my back, support me, keep me accountable, and pray for me,” Pastor Lamport said.
Pastor Lamport emphasized “the battleground starts in the mind. If you lose that, you lose the battle of the flesh.” Pastor Lamport said the subject is not for the Sunday-morning pulpit. “We can preach about the sin of sexual lust but in order to present strategies against defeating the temptation, as well as offering encouragement to those who struggle in this area, a more informal setting is necessary. That’s the purpose for this Tuesday’s summit.”
“But,” he emphasized, “we can no longer pretend Internet pornography doesn’t exist or that Christian men are somehow immune to it.” The topic must be addressed in the church because it affects the church.
Statistics show that 50 percent of men who say they are Christian have viewed pornography, at least once, in the past seven days, the pastor said.
The pastor said Internet pornography is alluring because it is “easily accessible, affordable and anonymous.”
“It’s difficult for men to talk to their wives about this issue because most women would rather not deal with it, and you can’t blame them,” he said. “Women aren’t wired like we are. They’re wired emotionally for the most part, whereas men are wired visually. So our wives aren’t able to relate to what we’re going through.”
That’s why this summit is so vital. It gives all men the opportunity to address the issue with other men. “We’re able to relate to one another,” Pastor Lamport added.
“So many things can trigger lust – TV, catalogs, pop-ups on the computer – it doesn’t take much,” he said.
At the first summit, the pastor said, the church partnered with Covenant Eyes, an online accountability software company that offers safeguards to deter men from visiting pornographic sites.
He explained that software is loaded onto a man’s computer and other devices, and any time he visits an adult-rated site, a message is sent to his accountability partner’s email. “Just knowing that someone else can see where you’re searching is in itself, a deterrent,” he said. At the upcoming summit, Covenant Eyes information will be available.
Pastor Lamport said it is shocking how widespread pornography is in society. Using information from Covenant Eyes, he said pornography is a $20 billion-a-year business worldwide. He added that 20 percent, or 2 of 5 Internet searches involve porn. By 13 years old, more than 50 percent of boys and 33 percent of girls have seen “hard core and violent” pornography.
“For boys, it presents a perverted and distorted way of seeing God’s creation of women,” he said.
The senior pastor said pornography “affects families, churches and the community,” he said, adding “pornography is not confined to one demographic ... all men, including pastors, are susceptible.”
Before answering a call to the ministry, Pastor Lamport was an educator for 37 years, the past 25 years at Poland Seminary High School as a special education teacher and football and softball coach. He founded The Church of the Rock, which is nondenominational, in 1999 and the church on Luteran Lane was built in 2005. For information, call the church office at 330-757-8863.