This weekend I fell down a rabbit hole by accident and this Monday morning I feel like I’m climbing back out as I begin my week… and I’m disgusted by it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The rabbit hole I fell down was online ministry applications, websites, blogs, and those who make and run them. The disgust is the facades we create to showcase them.<\/p>\n
This is complicated though. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to put the best face on your ministry, product, or website that you possibly can. There’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself.<\/p>\n
I think I’m more so concerned about some of the statements we make and the ways we try to “sell” ourselves, our work, or our products and services.<\/p>\n
We say things like, “We minister to half a million people online daily!” or “Join 300,000 subscribers who believe in what we’re doing!” and so on.<\/p>\n
But… really?<\/p>\n
Do we really “minister” to that many people? Do we really have that many people who are on board with us? Are they on mission? Are they truly edified? Encouraged? Equipped? Empowered and sent out by us?<\/p>\n
And, where do we get these numbers from anyway? Twitter followers (cheap and meaningless), plus Facebook likes (all noise), plus email subscriptions (open rates are less than 2%), plus blog traffic (not counting bounce rates), all added up into one number for the sake of looking successful?<\/p>\n
Or what? What does it mean!?<\/p>\n
Besides, could you define for me what “ministering” means to you, please?<\/p>\n
I’m just… I think… “disgusted” by it.<\/p>\n
I will admit that I have a tendency to lean into these facades\u00a0at times as well. I can throw around big numbers to people who I know don’t know any better about what it means. If I tell my family, “Yea we have 10k+ followers on Twitter”, for one of my blogs, they’re going to be impressed. But, only cause (1) they do know<\/em> they can’t get 10,000 people on Twitter to follow them anytime soon, and (2) they\u00a0don’t know<\/em> that it’s not terribly hard to do if they do start working on it for a year or two (even if they don’t\u00a0buy<\/em> fake followers<\/em> to pad the stats \u2014 which is a thing, yes) and that Twitter followers almost never add up to anything of any value for anyone! Really, really, really<\/em> close to never<\/em> worth anything<\/em>!<\/p>\n But, it sounds great if you say it to someone who know no better!<\/em><\/p>\n I guess the question we have to ask then is, “Why do we feel compelled to speak like this then!?”<\/p>\n What is it doing for anyone? Do we really believe that’s going to give us credibility? Will it cause some people to say, “Oh wow I must be missing out and this is really going to bless me if I get involved?”<\/p>\n I dunno. Maybe it really does work on some people. Probably some. I think most people \u2014 the people we’d want to have join with us \u2014 have strong bolognese detectors and they’re going to see right though it.<\/p>\n Even if some of the stats are true, we must ask ourselves: “If all of this were really true, would I really need to tell someone about it, or would it just speak for itself?”\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Is there any person or ministry that I really trust and feel edified by and view as successful who continually tells me they’re successful, they reach many people, that others trust them?<\/p>\n No. No there isn’t. I can’t think of a single one that does, or would need to with anyone.<\/p>\n That question enlightens my own thinking and then, inevitably, actually causes doubt in regards to these other people and ministries and products that tell me this stuff without more clarity on what it means.<\/p>\n I think that we could toot our own horns, if we believed it to be genuinely helpful, but if it were, then we’d toot them in a way that also said, “Here is exactly how we get these numbers and what they actually mean. Now decide for yourself what you want to do with it.”<\/p>\n And, all this from a marketer and public relations guy. I fully believe in marketing and advertising and framing things in their best light. I do.<\/p>\n I believe Jesus even does this! I just believe there is absolutely zero false facade and misleading in it. Never, ever, anything of the sort.<\/p>\n So, not only am I convinced this sort of vague, false-facade-like “framing and presenting” of things actually works against us and undermines our credibility, making us look desperate or shady, but I’d also go so far as to say that I can’t imagine how God would bless it.<\/p>\n That… seals the deal.<\/p>\n It’s disgusting. It’s ignorant.<\/p>\n We should be better and do better.<\/p>\n I get that’s it’s a dog eat dog world online. It’s all so noisy and everyone has idea they think are better than others and we’re all\u00a0fighting for very short attention spans. I get it…<\/p>\n We’re also fighting our sinful and selfish nature of wanting to be praised… even if it’s through our work that we receive our praise. It’s all the same.<\/p>\n It’s all no good. It’s a sneaky and misleading pride that fools even ourselves. A humble, wise, and mature Godly person will see through it every time and it will actually work against us.<\/p>\n I’m not saying I’m that Godly person, I’m saying I’ve seen and heard it happen from Godly people who saw straight through someone’s bravado and presentation, and I’ve been rightly alarmed by it.<\/p>\n Embarrassed, even. Equipped, thankfully. Humbled, hopefully.<\/p>\n I believe we can talk about our products and services in ways that enlighten, strengthen confidence, and persuade. It can be done. But I just believe it will look and feel different than most of what I see online.<\/p>\n