Listening to: Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
Martin Downes is posting on the cult of celebrity preachers.
An aspect of this cult that I feel like venting about is the Q&A session which seems to be part of every Christian conference.
People gather and hear the preachers expound the bible. Then for an hour or more they are then asked for their wisdom on everything from daily bible reading, to operational management, to evangelism, to the latest theological fad or even to relationship advice (apparently most questions at Banner of Truth Youth Conferences are on this... I wouldn't know).
This seems to be a classic case of the halo effect. The Economist describes the halo effect as:
the phenomenon whereby we assume that because people are good at doing A they will be good at doing B, C and D
Just because someone is a good preacher does not mean that they are the good at prayer, evangelism, strategy or anything else. These questions are worth asking, but lets get the people that are good at them to talk about them.
we gave Reeves 10mins for clarification questions last saturday which seemed useful.
ReplyDelete...i remember Carl Trueman declining to answer questions on the new perspective or something as being out of his field of study at an RTSF conference a few years back. Gained instant massive respect. Doubtless he could have blagged a fairly stunning answer but helped us all much more by not.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff does come out of Q&As/panel discussions... I know from experience. I did really like Mike Reeve's answers that you posted as videos the other day. Questions on what has been preached are particularly helpful, but generally Q&As tend to be too long and too unfocused IMHO. I've seen a few American conference audios posted on the web where there have been 9 talks and 3 panel discussions. I'd rather have a unfamous missionary, a Christian in the workplace, a teanager in school and a pensioner all answer questions on their experiences and requests for prayers.
ReplyDeleteBut it was a bit of a rant. I must resist posting these things more generally.
Peter Mead came and preached simply and profoundly from Luke 10-18 on the ucl houseparty this weekend, and the feedback was all "he's so normal". He really was preaching to equals
ReplyDelete