The perils of our favourite mp3 preachers

The internet is like everything in our world.  It is a great example of the skill, ingenuity and intelligence with which God has gifted man and his incredible creative ability.  It is a phenomenal force for good.  On the other hand it is also a great example of the ability of sin to take something good and twist, taint and turn it into something corrupting, contemptible and confining.

There are lots of ways this is seen; a disconnect from the real in favour of the virtual, a hunger for community that it can never fulfil, a sense of unfavourable comparison to the polished lifestyle others project, an overload of information which gradual erodes our ability to dwell and meditate on things and so on.  But I wonder if one of the most insidious and dangerous is the mp3 preacher.

You see your favourite mp3 preacher is not and was never intended to be your pastor.  Nor was he
intended to be someone that you constantly compare your flesh and blood pastor to unfavourably.  The joy and the problem of our mp3 preacher is that they are not real.  They are real in the sense that they exist, they are real people in a real church context but that is not your context.  They are not real in the sense that they are not preaching to you, you are not their flock, they are not your shepherd.

I'd be the first to admit that the internet gives us access to great preachers, we can click and hear a Keller, Carson, MacArthur, Palmer, Wilson and so on open up the scriptures and learn from them.  There is a phenomenal benefit to be had in doing so, if you looked at my podcasts you'd see that I listen to them too.  But the danger is when we compare the mp3 preacher to our pastor.  You see our pastor is flesh and blood, we know him and all his failings and weaknesses in a way we don't know the mp3 preacher.  We know the reality of the disconnect between what our pastor preaches and our churches reality, we know his highs and his lows. And if we listen with a critical spirit we can easily find ways to compare our pastor unfavourably with our mp3 preacher.

But here's the thing your mp3 preacher doesn't love you.  He hasn't committed to pray for you during the week, to study God's word to teach you and those around you in your context in your congregation, he hasn't committed to visit you when sick, grieving, suffering, or celebrate with you in your joy.  He has not been called to pastor you, he has been called to pastor the church where those mp3's were recorded.  But God has called you to be in your church listening to his servant, your pastor, opening up his word in your context.

We need to make the most of the wealth of resources we have but not at the expense of our sitting under the authority of the leaders and preachers who are called to pastor us.  Don't let sin infect your use of God's gift of resources and erode your love for your church or your joy in sitting under godly leaders.

Am I an eagle or a turkey?

A friend of mine once said "It's hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys."  It's a quote that comes to mind from time to time, particularly when I see someone who claims to trust, love and follow Jesus doing something which to my mind undermines the gospel.  But then I have to take myself in hand because of the arrogance of that position, it assumes I'm the eagle and not Christmas dinner in waiting!

I can't help but wonder if often we think like this.  We look at other Christians and sigh or wring our hands, or more likely, today, take to our keyboards and vent via keystrokes.  We are quick to assume the worst of others, quick to pass on what sliver of information - however patchy or sparse - we have heard to others.  Slow to think the best or reflect on what someone else's struggles reveal about our own hearts.  

The internet simply makes that tendency worse.  We are overloaded with information which we don't seem to filter in the same way, rumours and innuendo swirl unchecked and at the speed of fibre optic without sources being verified.  We tend to read one side of a story or account without checking the other, and we tend to assume to worst.  And then the internet cuts our response time; we don't have to take time to think about things or to find out more, we don't draft and redraft we simply comment or post or tweet a response, without editing or filtering or time given to sleep on it or consider it.  What we wouldn't say in a group of 8 or 9 friends because it isn't fully thought through or we would say and they would help us think it through - challenging  and questioning us - we say on-line because it feels more impersonal.

When we hear of someone else's struggles with sin, be it pride, a lack of humility, or a perceived harshness our first response ought to be to examine our own hearts for those self same things.  I know when I hear of it in others often it is in my own heart whether I have recognised it or not.  Secondly these things need to be dealt with in relationship, if I don't know the person I probably shouldn't comment but entrust it to others God has placed in their life to do that.  I certainly want to take time to pray reflectively through what I am reading.  I want to ask questions; why is this here?  Who has posted it and why?  What good does it serve?  Is it advancing the gospel or weakening it?

And I want to pray.

Father, forgive me for my prideful tendency to assume the worst of others and blindly the best of myself.

Father, expose and reveal my sin and then help me hate it as you do.  

Help me never get comfortable with it or become blind to it.

Thank you for using _______ to show me my need to repent and of grace again.

Thank you for continuing to work in me despite my sin as you remake me in the image of your son.

Amen