I live in Moscow, Idaho and my town has something of an infamous name amongst a certain stripe of the Christian faith. And as one dust-up follows another kerfluffle, I often spot a certain amount of internet chatter weighing in on how the leaders here are heretics, or just after popularity, or aren't preaching the gospel but building brands, etc.
Honestly, I can see why that could be your take-away. There are thousands of people who only know these men from their online presence. That's all they see. And just like when you're forced to view a room by peering through a keyhole, that can lead to some odd perspectives. And the particular perspective I want to focus on here is the "they're concerned with politics rather than the Gospel" charge. Closely related is the "they're just building their own brand" charge.
Here's why I think this perspective is bouncing off one too many funhouse mirrors. The amount of content and counsel coming out of this town is mind-boggling. It's probably more than anyone with an actual day job can keep up with (that's aimed at you, Examining Doug Wilson). And many a man or woman could be forgiven for thinking from afar that all this online presence is the only thing these men do. After all, that's all you ever see online--and you see a lot of it. It looks deliberate and blatant. Obvious marketing appears to be involved. "If I were him," the thought runs, "I'd be doing a lot more local work rather than all that posturing."
But there's a catch. It assumes that your powers and capacities are the measure of what's going on. But these men are blessed with more gifts than most of us have in our little fingers. And for them, it is not an "either/or" to be an internet presence or a local-focused Christian. They have figured out how to do both. Their families and congregations are their first loves. Their mass media work--books, blogs, channels, conferences--are from their overflow, not their mainspring. As a matter of fact, most of these men, if not all of them, would probably tell you that they consider their online/out of town ministries to be the minor part of what they do. That they deliberately plan their travels to worship with their own local body on Sundays. That they carve the time to write all those words out of the hours when most of us are kicking back with The Mandalorian. That if their families needed their attention, they would be the first to take a leave of absence from the online scene (if not abandon it altogether).
There are also lots of safeguards that may be invisible from afar. These men have churches, elder boards, and flesh-and-blood friends who hear them out regularly and keep them accountable. This is part of the reason they often don't care about feedback from weird people online that they don't know. Why would they? Everyone cares more about those who are close to them. And those of us who are close to them see a lot of fruit--the kind that Galatians talks about. This is not really about ego or insecurity--they simply have something to say that they think many men far away will find interesting. So they say it as loudly (or perhaps "broadly" might be a better term) as they possibly can.
So be thankful for what they do online, even if some of it is occasionally dumb, silly, or easily misunderstood. It's a gift they send all of you out there in the wilds. And what sort of person are you if you spend all your time criticizing a free gift, or wondering about the motives of those who gave it?
