Two things have crossed my desk in the last few hours. The first was an invitation to participate in the "Act Like Men" conference. The second was the news that one of the headliners at that conference had purchased his way onto the New York Times bestseller list. For a cool $200,000, his ministry purchased copies of the book he wrote so that the numbers of copies sold could be artificially inflated to the point that the author would receive recognition as a best selling author.
What is wrong with this picture? How authentically can such a man teach other men to live up to their God-given responsibilities? My gut feeling is that it will not make one bit of difference to those who sign up to attend the event. He's a celebrity. All the other speakers are celebrities. So who cares what moral failings they might have personally - they're celebrities. It will be a terrific event because they are celebrities.
My intention is not to be bitter. My intent is to poke a hole in the belief in our churches that somehow, that which is done by a celebrity is more meaningful than that which is done by the rest of us. If only a celebrity would share the Gospel, more people would receive Jesus. My dear friends, that is a lie. The statistics through the years still show the same old truth. Somewhere between 80-90% of all those who come to trust Jesus do so because God used a family member or a close friend to share the Gospel with them. We may never be a celebrity, but our good God still has a work for us to do.
What is wrong with this picture? How authentically can such a man teach other men to live up to their God-given responsibilities? My gut feeling is that it will not make one bit of difference to those who sign up to attend the event. He's a celebrity. All the other speakers are celebrities. So who cares what moral failings they might have personally - they're celebrities. It will be a terrific event because they are celebrities.
My intention is not to be bitter. My intent is to poke a hole in the belief in our churches that somehow, that which is done by a celebrity is more meaningful than that which is done by the rest of us. If only a celebrity would share the Gospel, more people would receive Jesus. My dear friends, that is a lie. The statistics through the years still show the same old truth. Somewhere between 80-90% of all those who come to trust Jesus do so because God used a family member or a close friend to share the Gospel with them. We may never be a celebrity, but our good God still has a work for us to do.
Comments