Drew Marshall, a local radio host has initiated the inevitable: Preacher Idol. A competition based on the wildly successful American Idol franchise now seen in many countries across the world.
Knowing the title alone would cause a stir, Drew defends his game this way:
"If you're a Canadian Evangelical Christian who is theologically afraid, embarrassingly politically correct, and lacking any sense of fun or a capacity to engage culture, then YES, this is a very bad thing for you to be involved with. But if you're a pastor and you are scared of being involved with Preacher Idol, primarily because of the use of the word "idol"?? It must be tough to be so hemmed in by - donor based - pay check ministry! Please don't succumb to the politically correct insanity of pandering to the potential "squeaky wheel gets the grease" conservative power brokers in your church?"
Well.
Last time I checked the Lord had quite a few negative things to say about idolatry that did not involve conservative power brokers. Strangely, it is the exposure of "pulpit idolatry" that Marshall promotes as one of the contest goals. I would suggest he is going about it in a remarkbly backwards fashion!
A quick glance of the website reveals Marshall has little respect for preaching. And the fact that 4 of the 5 finalists are women confirms this.
It is not Preacher Idol that will fix the noise of "preachers, [who] week after week, somehow succeed in taking the most amazing and dynamic book in the world and slaughtering it with 45-minute diatribes leaving the congregation salivating at the thought of lunch at the local Swiss Chalet or Mandarin!"
What Marshall needs is to hear some real preaching. May I suggest John Piper? Or the young man that preached at my church tonight!
Yeah, too bad that I missed hearing Paul preach tonight on evangelism in the book of Acts. Some time... :) Did you record the message?
ReplyDeleteNick
Hey Nick!
ReplyDeletePaul did a great job of showing us some very practical points on how to evangelize one-to-one from Philip's evangelism of the Ethiopian eunuch. I think it will be online by Wednesday on sermonaudio.com/gfcto or you can get there from our church web page www.gfcto.com
I am no fan of Drew Marshall but if you think that the fact that 4 of the 5 finalists are woman suggests that he does not respect true preaching you should investigate the ministry of Fleming Rutledge http://video1.cathedral.org/wmv/fr080309.wmv or http://media.asburyseminary.edu/audio/chapels/kentucky/2008spring/02262008-low.mp3 what you hear might surprise you.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Steve Rowe