Authentic Intimacy Leader Summit: Integrating God’s Heart for Sexuality into Ministry

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Authentic Intimacy Leader Summit at WinShape in Rome, Georgia, held December 8-11. Authentic Intimacy is a ministry founded by Dr. Juli Slattery, Christian psychologist, author, speaker, and podcast host, devoted to teaching and restoring God’s design for intimacy and sexuality. The Leader Summit was designed to provide gospel-centered, practical formation for ministry leaders engaging in the work of sexual discipleship.

The gathering brought together pastors, therapists, ministry leaders, educators, and nonprofit professionals from across the country, each carrying a shared desire to lead others faithfully in an area that is often avoided or burdened by shame. 

Why We Attended
One of the areas Relationship IQ provides curriculum for young adults is healthy physical intimacy. As we continually seek to grow in how we lead and engage young adults around complex and deeply personal topics, we saw this summit as an opportunity to learn from one of the leaders in the field of Christian sexual ethics and discipleship. 

On a personal level, I found the Authentic Intimacy Leader Summit not only influential in equipping me with language and tools to hold meaningful conversations with young adults about sexuality and God’s heart for intimacy, but also personally transformational and healing.

What Impacted Me Most
One of the most powerful takeaways from the week was the recognition that everyone carries a story of sexual brokenness to some degree. Whether through emotional pain, heartbreak, betrayal, sexual abuse or trauma, addiction, confusion around desire or singleness, questions about sexuality, or harm caused by unhealthy or shaming conversations about sex and relationships, these experiences shape how we understand intimacy and ourselves.

Dr. Slattery framed this tension through three narratives that shape how we understand sexuality: the cultural narrative, the purity narrative, and the biblical narrative, each of which influences the personal stories we carry into our relationships and ministries.

The cultural narrative, common in today’s society, teaches that our bodies are our own and that sexual expression is a personal right. Desire is viewed as something to be pursued, and physical intimacy is often equated with love or connection. The challenge with this narrative is that it removes God from the design altogether, stripping physical intimacy of its deeper purpose: to reflect God’s intimate, covenantal love for us.

The purity narrative, which has emerged in some Christian contexts, emphasizes abstinence but often frames sex as bad, dirty, or dangerous outside of marriage. This narrative can unintentionally communicate that those who fall short are “damaged goods,” leaving many to carry shame into marriage or confusion after experiences of abuse. It can suggest that sex somehow becomes automatically good and enjoyable after a wedding day, an assumption that can cause deep pain and silence for many couples.

The biblical narrative, however, offers a more holistic and redemptive vision. God designed sex as a beautiful metaphor for His covenant love: faithful, sacrificial, and unconditional. Marriage is not sustained by feelings and romance alone, but by a love that chooses, day after day, to commit and lay down one’s life for the other. Within this covenantal framework, sex is meant to deepen intimacy, strengthen trust, and cultivate safety, reflecting the steadfast love with which God pursues us.

Of course, this vision is not one that everyone automatically internalizes or lives out perfectly. We all come with different histories and lenses through which we hear these truths. Many of us, including myself, carry pain and brokenness connected to physical intimacy, which can make it difficult to trust that God’s design is truly good and healing.

Beauty in the Brokenness
One of the most meaningful lessons I walked away with is that there is beauty and sacredness in our brokenness. God does not ask us for perfection; He asks for our hearts. He does not disqualify us when we ask questions or take steps backward. Instead, He invites us to bring our confusion, pain, and longing into the light.

Dr. Slattery writes that “God does not waste our brokenness. When surrendered to Him, our stories become places of healing, not only for ourselves, but for others.” That truth deeply resonated with me.

I was reminded that vulnerability is not weakness, but something freeing and empowering. When we are honest with God and with a safe community, shame begins to lose its grip. We no longer feel the need to hide our past; instead, it becomes a part of our testimony. God delights in our honesty. He already knows our thoughts and questions, and He desires for us to bring all of our thoughts so that we can depend on Him.

Looking Ahead
I’m deeply grateful for this experience and excited about how the insights and language from Authentic Intimacy will continue to shape the work we do through Relationship IQ. We’re already thinking intentionally about how to integrate these frameworks into our campus presentations, especially in how we talk about desire, boundaries, and God’s design for sexuality, and how we can use this language to guide more thoughtful, honest conversations with students.

My hope is to help young adults engage their sexuality not with fear or avoidance, but with curiosity, integrity, and trust in God’s design, seeing their stories not as something to hide or fix, but as something God is actively redeeming and using for good.