The Lord Works in Mysterious Colorways*
/*From Preachers NSneakers, by Ben Kirby
A short while ago I came across an Instagram account that was blowing up called @preachersnsneakers. At first I didn’t know what to think: for those who haven’t come across it, the account posts pictures of megachurch pastors and other Christian “celebrities” with zoom-ins of their designer sneakers and/or various other high end articles of clothing along with the retail cost of those items (which typically is over $500 - $1000 per item). I loved the spotlight PreachersNSneakers put on the actions of those who claimed to not only be followers of Christ, but also leaders and respected voices. Far too often, no matter how pure their hearts and intentions were at the beginning, Christian leaders fall into the trap of pursuing influence and power for its own sake, and I thought it was great that someone was pointing out that rocking $900 sneakers while purporting to take the yoke of Christ upon themselves might be problematic.
And yet…
On the flip side of this, of course is the fact that leaders often have the biggest targets on their backs, and not always for the best reasons. Especially in the Christian community, we love to worship our Christian celebrities and megastars until they trip up, and then we love to crucify them, all while we carry out the same or worse hypocrisies in our own, less famous lives.
So I followed @preachersnsneakers with a small amount of hesitancy, a hesitancy that grew smaller and smaller with each post I saw. As I continued to follow, I noticed that the account rarely took cheap shots or made unfair claims. The account stayed on course, simply noting what Christian celebrities were wearing, and making it clear that these items were, as the account creator Ben Kirby puts it, “worth as much as a mortgage payment” for most of their followers.
PreachersNSneakers, The Book
This in mind, when Kirby announced that he had written a book, I grabbed my copy quickly and tore through it. What follows is my take on what Kirby nails, what I think he misses, and a few key takeaways for all of us:
The incredible influence of capitalism, consumerism, and celebrity culture in American Christianity
You don’t have to be a Marxist to recognize that capitalism and its symbiotic partner consumerism have deeply embedded themselves in the American Church, mostly to the detriment of Christ’s movement and message. I think this is what makes @preachersnsneakers so spot on: Kirby doesn’t need to say much. By simply pointing out that the people Christ followers are elevating today own and wear things that could literally pay someone’s rent (or two) at least raises questions that we should really be asking on a regular basis: what’s our relationship with money as followers of Christ? Who are we lifting up and why do we do this? Why are so many Christians leaving smaller churches to attend larger mega churches with celebrity pastors and touring Christian bands? Are followers of Christ transforming the world around us, or are we being transformed by the (capitalist/consumerist) culture around us?
Celebrity Culture
Let’s zero in a little more on celebrity culture. In the Christian world, you don’t have to be on the cover of Time to be a celebrity. We have our bands, our pastors, our authors that rise to the highest heights, speaking to or playing in front of crowds of thousands and tens of thousands. And we have the events and conferences that bring their audiences all together, events that require immense budgets to carry out. And for what? Is the Christian movement doing better today than it was before we filled stadiums and mega church parking lots?
The Art of the Deal
I really love this quote from Kirby, “In time, churches realized that the world of entertainment publicity and marketing could teach them a thing or two.” He goes on to point out that over the last few decades Christian leaders began to focus on conversions as the metric of success, much like Sales VPs focused on how many deals have been “closed” (maybe because the church elected these VPs as our elders and board members?). This is a driver of much ill in the church. I have no problem with evangelism, but calling someone to follow Christ is different and so much more than getting them to check a box or make a statement. A much, much better metric has to be longitudinal, it has to follow a person through the years and seasons to see how they’re growing in Christ. Instead of focusing on “closing deals” as followers of Christ, what if we were more like gardeners, tracking and nourishing the growth of each of our plants, as well as eyeing the health of the entire garden?
Churchome
More from Kirby: “Friends in my own circles are transitioning to a home-church model, where families meet exclusively with a small group of people in homes around town.” This is the first time I’ve seen someone from the evangelical movement talk about home churches becoming the way of choice for today’s followers of Christ. I’m heartened to hear this, and I hope more and more resources can be provided for people to be able to follow Christ without having to deal with the baggage of a mega church.
Culture care vs culture war (Makoto Fujimura)
Yes!
On the Other Hand
Kirby also spends part of his book coming after the “feel good” messages of many of today’s popular pastors as the modern prosperity gospel. I certainly see where he’s coming from, and I don’t think he’s entirely off. But his counter is that we need to focus on the reality of sin and turn people to the Messiah who saves us from hell. I think what Kirby is missing is that there is more to the gospel then Jesus saving us from hell. There’s more to faith and following Christ than obtaining a “Get Out of Hell Free” card. In fact, there’s a strong and much needed theological re-centering in some parts (not enough though) of the evangelical world on understanding sin much more holistically. Sin is not simply actions that we do wrong, it is the full scope of a world gone awry, humanity losing its way and at war with itself and the rest of creation. So, a few key push backs that I think are important:
Move away from an individualized concept of sin which leads to an individualized Savior and to self-focused Christians who ignore the rest of the world around them
Remember the gospel isn’t good news because it saves us from Hell. It’s good because it tells us the true nature of God: God’s purpose for us, God’s unconditional love for us, and God’s plan for all of time
For a really simple yet effective way of visualizing this, check out James Choung’s Big Story
Last but not least: although Kirby does a really good job of navigating this, we can’t ignore the fact that Christians have a problem with crucifying their own leaders/celebrities. Whether it’s right or wrong to have such a thing as Christian celebrities, the church has not distinguished itself in how it treats its own leaders. We make the mistake of worshipping our leaders worse by then destroying them when they slip up. I think both are two sides of the same coin: our leaders are simply humans, just like the rest of us, but when we elevate them and subsequently tear them apart, we forget this. I think the house church movement has a natural antidote to this: no matter how talented or charismatic someone is, in a group of just a few people people get to know each other’s warts and idiosyncrasies, and therefore no one is getting idolized.
One more thing related to the last bullet: it’s critical that as we rightly point out what’s problematic about a Christian influencer wearing a T-shirt that’s worth as much as one of their follower’s mortgage payments, we also recognize our own power and role in all of this. Christian influencers don’t come out of a vacuum. Each follower of Christ has their own sphere of influence, we are each leaders in our own right, and we have a role to play in building something better for the next generation.