Ravi: The Aftermath in Tweets

From (HarperCollins Christian Publishing)Thomas Nelson and Zondervan

From author Lee Strobel

Zacharias Trust (UK organization equivalent to RZIM) via journalist Ruth Graham (the full statement referred to is at this link.)

I have assumed that readers here are already following the story and there is no need to go over the details here.

However, if you need to know why this is news this weekend, Christian journalist Julie Roys has a report on the findings.

Spiritual implications for you and me: Thinking about the impact of all this became the springboard for Friday’s devotional at Christianity 201.

---

Numbers 32:23b CSB: “…be sure your sin will catch up with you.”

---

 

The Ravi Story

Last week we ran a series called Short Takes which meant I did not have an opportunity to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, nor do I feel that every blogger needs to pontificate on every breaking story. (See the first two items in Wednesday’s Link List if you’re not familiar with what was reported.)

Today however, I have the luxury of having had a week to consider the impact of the reports as well as — a full week later — the first direct reply from Ravi himself.

I think the first question to be answered, if not today over the long haul, is that as scandals go, was this the real deal or a bit of a tempest in a teapot? I would argue that Ravi Zacharias will survive this with his ministry reputation more or less intact.

Academic credentials do matter. Last summer (2016) we took some fun pictures of me “lecturing” at Trent University and in the chapel at Tyndale College and Seminary and a few other places. It was a lot of fun standing behind the podium and “speaking” at those fine institutions. Truth is, both were taken on Saturdays and there was no one in the audience. We’d all like to think our accomplishments are larger than they are. (We never did anything with those photos.) So saying that you were granted “visiting scholar” privileges at a prestigious UK school is probably legit if someone did indeed arrange for you to attend lectures there. But it gets dicey if you know that “visiting scholar” is actually a very specific title; the word itself implies the granting of a scholarship.

Furthermore, the relationship between affiliated schools — a key factor in a couple of elements of Ravi’s [former] biography can often be complicated. For example, my undergraduate degree is from the University of Toronto, but it is a federation of colleges; mine was Victoria University. If I had returned to graduate work at Wycliffe College to work on a masters degree, I would also have been part of the Toronto School of Theology which is the federation of theological colleges (including Trinity, St. Michaels, Knox, etc.) all of which are located — wait for it — at the University of Toronto. (And even that sentence is ambiguous; it begins “if I had returned” when in fact I mean returned to the campus overall; if you check, Wycliffe has no record of me.) If I really want to stretch things, I also attended Oxford in England and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, but my time there was quite limited due to the tour bus idling in the parking lot.

It’s easy to embellish one’s record. Or even to want to do so. The first rule of human resources interviewing is to look at the resumé and determine if the prospective employee exaggerated any of their employment or educational claims. True Christian humility would be to downplay any degrees, but in the field of apologetics, some type of academic clout is expected. Years ago, I wrote a bullet-point list of all the things I had done, but probably only about one in ten of those would be elements of a resumé. Those experiences were significant to who I am and what I have to offer, but many of them were unique opportunities that are harder to quantify or document.

As to the sexting part of last week’s story, there are two very contradictory elements which may get forgotten. One is the report that the legal action connected to this originated with Ravi, not with the woman. There is an admission of some type of settlement, but so far, the statement stands that no funds from RZIM were involved. Yes, it’s confusion.

But there’s also that email that had been posted earlier by Julie at Spiritual Sounding Board which quoted Ravi as saying that as a result of the devastation the story could bring he might need to “bid this world goodbye.” I’d like to know more about that one, please; but we probably should just consign that one to the category of your teenage daughter saying, “If anyone sees my hair like this I’m going to have to kill myself.”

…All in all a bit of a mess, but hopefully not a fatal one. To the atheist blogger who did the tireless research which broke the story, I would in all seriousness say ‘Thank you. As Christians we place a high value on transparency and accountability, even when it hurts.’

But to the same blogger I would say, ‘Know this: The thoroughness of your research does not negate the thoroughness of Ravi Zacaharias’ research when he argues the deity of Christ and the proofs for Christ’s resurrection from the dead. If you take down the man, you don’t logically or necessarily take down the truth of his message. There are more of us. There are even some of you who know that the proofs for the resurrection are undeniable. We are human. We are fallible. We fall down. We get back up again.’

---

Links: Rather than place links at various stages of this article, at present you can get everything you need at the bottom of this article at Spiritual Sounding Board. Then click that website’s header to see the most recent posts. The response from Ravi is summarized at this article posted mid-afternoon Sunday (12/3/17) at Christianity Today.

Wednesday Link List

Featured Stories

Churches Without Buildings – “Church attendance and construction boomed in North America during a time when having your own building was expected. For churches, businesses and families. In my parents’ era, owning real estate was a sign of success, status and stability. So churches that wanted to be seen as reliable and successful bought buildings. Often before there was a congregation to fill them. When someone started their own business, they would leave their house to sit in a building behind a desk all day long – even if every aspect of that business could have been done from their house. The brick-and-mortar building meant reliability and permanence… Brick-and-mortar may not be dead, but it is on life-support… The church should be leading the way in this idea… We already lose more churches every year from inability to pay the mortgage than from any other factor.”  Speaking of buildings…

The Ecology of Worship Gatherings – Every so often I find an article that is a few months old that should not have been missed. Such is the case here on the physical space we use for worship: “The very spatial mediums we use to communicate those messages shape and architect us in powerful ways. In fact, as a medium, the literal physical spaces we use may actually subvert the very messages we are preaching. What if the arrangement of spaces are actually speaking louder than what we are saying in our sermons? …  Ecology is the branch of biology that looks at how organisms relate to one another, and to their physical surroundings. If we apply this field of study to our worship gatherings… The premise of an Ecology of Gathering is that the non-living components dynamically interact and stimulate the living components (biotic), creating a living spiritual climate. This climate communicates a message, and over time, this climate controlled message trains us into a certain way of thinking and behaving.”

Pew Research on Religious Growth to 2050 – “In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion…” As to the world as a whole, “by 2050 there will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30% of the population) and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31%), possibly for the first time in history.” The Nones continue to grow also: “At the same time, however, the unaffiliated are expected to continue to increase as a share of the population in much of Europe and North America. In the United States, for example, the unaffiliated are projected to grow from an estimated 16% of the total population (including children) in 2010 to 26% in 2050.” There is much more to the report, presented in text, graphs and tables.

Getting Your Hands Dirty – “I was speaking, learning, teaching, and advocating for mentoring without actually doing it. In anthropology, there are two types of field research: Etic and Emic. Etic researchers make their observations from outside the culture. Emic researchers get up-close to local customs, traditions, and beliefs. Our temptation is to stay on the outside. To be Etic but not Emic. To attend endless conferences, read endless books, buy endless t-shirts. To dump cold water on our heads, take a selfie and hashtag it. To be about the latest ideas, like those on Mars Hill, to be waiting to see something new, like the newest post or picture online. Ideas, when used this way, can be very self-indulgent. All the while, we remain outside the issue, and quite possibly, outside of our own story. But the great ideas – love, justice, intimacy, reconciliation – require something of us.”

CBS Profile of Crossmaker Runs 22 Years Later – On Easter Sunday, CBS ran a profile of a man that was scheduled to appear in 1993. If you’ve driven the interstate highway system, you’ve seen Bernard Coffindaffer’s work: Crosses erected within sight of the freeway. “Coffindaffer has spent his own money on this project — close to $3 million … to buy the wooden poles, to hire road crews, to perform routine cross maintenance.” But the video never aired when he died of a sudden heart attack. Years later, his legacy continues: “There are 48,000 miles of interstate highway in America,” Sara Abraham of Crosses Across America said. “We will have crosses every 25 miles all across America.”

Editorial / Devotional on Christian Maturity– “Jason and I have often wondered what a foreigner or alien would think the church believed if they simply judged us on the books we buy and sell. As I walked through the aisles, I started to worry that they would perceive a church that is weak and powerless, so consumed with our own needs and self-esteem that we constantly battle the same issues, and never become effective agents of God’s mission in the world… Sadly, may of us in America are “grown up,” in that we’ve been serving Christ a long time, but we have not yet reached maturity. Like it says in Hebrews, we should be teachers, but we need someone to teach us the basics over and over again.”

Church History Lesson: The Non-Jurors – “[T]he new order was demanding that all clergy and office holders take oaths to the new king. Many clergy, including some of the church’s greatest spiritual and intellectual beacons, found that they simply could not accept. They refused to swear those oaths, and by dint of that, became non-swearers, “Non-Jurors.” They began a domestic schism from the established church, and ordained their own succession of bishops…They agonized over issues of ecclesiology, and at the same time sought new ways of leading a pure Christian life… you have very likely encountered portions of their writings or hymns. It was for instance Thomas Ken who wrote the famous Doxology.”

When Sharing Your Faith is Costly – The woman in the story works for the government-run National Health Service (NHS) in the UK: “Miss Wasteney had discussions about Christianity and Islam with a junior colleague, Enya Nawaz, and offered to pray with her when she became upset about health problems. She also invited her to church and gave her a book called I Dared to Call Him Father, about a Muslim woman who converted to Christianity. However, Miss Nawaz accused her of trying to convert her to Christianity and made a formal complaint. Miss Wasteney was suspended for nine months while the East London NHS Foundation Trust investigated.” In a story update, the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled against her.

On My Own Blog – A look at what I call Spiritual Recidivism and a review of Did God Kill Jesus by Tony Jones.

Finally… – How younger leaders can gain credibility, from Brad Lomenick who tracks up-and-coming Christian leaders, 11 suggestions. Sample: “Become an expert NOW, even before you need to be. Set a standard of excellence way before you’re the leader in charge who is expected to. That way when it’s your turn to come off the bench you are ready.”

Short Takes

** Some viewers may be seeing a giant space here, we have no idea why, there’s nothing in the HTML code to account for it **

• Ravi Zacharias’ sister wrote him on National Siblings Day: “Dad always thought you would end up in jail.”
• Speaking of Ravi, a book by Walter Martin which he edited made news this month. Originally published in 1965, The Kingdom of the Cults has reached the 1,000,000 copies milestone.
• This 44-second video is a win on several counts: It involves members of the church family, it provides a unique ending to the sermon, and it offers a fresh way to hear the text.
• On March 1st, a new devotional blog launched and because we know what that’s like we want to offer some encouragement to Rhetorical Jesus.
• Have you heard of The Passion Translation? …
• … Unrelated, we have a new nominee for The Worst Bible Ever.
• Thom Rainer’s reason why, in spite of growing local populations, churches don’t jump over the 350-attendance hurdle.
• Oh, oh! We seem to have fallen off the latest list of the Top 300 Christian Blogs. (An oversight, I’m sure; right?)
• Christian Fashion Week. That’s a thing. No it’s not about modesty, rather the organizers “see it instead as an issue of industry ethics and environmental responsibility.”
• A different type of crowdfunding: These are not the type of solicitations that draw headlines or go viral, but browsing this website shows some needs that are very real.
• A Vermont man refuses to pay for health coverage, knowing $1 of each month’s premium is directly set aside for abortion funding.
• When churches have silent rules and unspoken expectations.

Wow! We’re trending on Twitter:

Wednesday Link List

This is the link list that the other blogs get their links from after we got them from them in the first place.

It’s a safe bet that neither party purchasing space on the above billboards were aware of the other’s presence.  Or is it?

• Ravi Zacharias responds to the Boston tragedy and all the issues it raises.
• And did you read about the Boston Marathon Saint; the guy who gave away his medal?
  
• In New Zealand you can name your baby girl Faith, Hope, or Charity, but not Justice. It’s one of a number of banned names.
• It’s got endorsements from Eric Metaxas, Ann Voskamp, Paul Young and Russell D. Moore. But is The Little Way of Ruthie Leming a title that would be considered a Christian book?
  
• It’s not every day that a Christian school science test makes the pages of snopes.com, but then again you haven’t seen a test like this one.
  
• Wanna know more about the Apocrypha, those extra books in the Roman Catholic Bible? Check out this podcast. (Click the link that says “Play in Pop-Up.) (Technically these are the deuterocanonical books, the term apocrypha can include other writings.)
• And after adding that I found an article of a type that many of us would never see: A Roman Catholic blogger’s apologetic for the Catholic canon of scripture. (Which is by default very anti-Protestant canon.) 
• If you read Christian blogs, you know the word ‘missional.’ Now here’s a reading list of the top 40 books on the subject.
• Usually writers have to push their publishers for cool book trailers. This 2-minute video for Jon Stuff Christians Like Acuff’s book Start was a gift from a reader.
  
• Quote of the week: “I knew what abortion was before I knew where babies came from. ” ~ Rachel Held Evans writing about a prominent US news story about an abortion doctor that isn’t playing much here in Canada or on the news elsewhere.
  
• Also at RHE, Jennifer Knapp responds to some great questions from readers with some great answers. Sample: “I think it’s often overlooked, is that CCM’s genre is not a style of music, but rather it is a very specific message.” Quotation of the type you’re probably more interest in: “‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ can be an acceptable working environment for some, but has also been used as legitimate financial weapon at times to enforce individual silence in exchange for job security.”  (Also, JK previously here at Thinking…)
• And going three-for-three with RHE (it rhymes, too) here’s an interview she did with Christianity Today.
  
• And for something much shorter than those articles on Rachel’s blog: Greg Atkinson on what pastors can learn from country music.
• Here’s a pastor’s nightmare: When your small church is essentially a one man show.
• Is your church looking for a pastor? Here’s ten signs your search isn’t going well.  Sample: Average time between sending in application and receiving rejection notice: 5-7 minutes.
  
• Catholics are borrowing a page from Mormons, JWs and Evangelicals and doing door-to-door ministry. Advice to participants: Trying to provide too many facts about the Church may cause misunderstandings.
• Here’s a fun 5-minute video for pastors wanting to develop their homiletic skills using a technique called preaching by ear. (A sales pitch follows.)
• And wrapping up our ministry links, should a pastor know how much individuals give financially?
  
• At a certain point (i.e. after the second chorus) this Eddie Kirkland song always reminds me of Coldplay.
• Going to a summer wedding? You might want to look around at a critical moment so you don’t miss the best part of the processional.
  
• Tony Jones loves Greg Boyd (no, not that way) and thinks you should also.
  
• From the people who brought you the Top 200 Christian Blogs list, The Top 200 Christian Seminaries.

Advertisement for Listerine Mouth Wash

Wednesday Link List

Monday was Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and we were away, so the list is slightly smaller. Remember to have your submissions in by 8 PM EST Monday night.

• A friend from this blog’s past, Jim Lehmer, had an interesting item about a unique concept, a U.S. Election Day Communion Service.
• Speaking of politics, on Sunday, over 1,200 American pastors deliberately violated a law forbidding them to address political issues from the pulpit.
  
• From Saskatoon, Canada; the Faith Alive Band, a church worship band, has been getting a lot of buzz for its song Open The Floodgates, but everybody will refer to the song as Let It Rain Down. 
• Two great posts from a forward-thinking Salvation Army officer who lives in my part of the world and is back to blogging: First, witnessing a witnessing at Starbucks (that’s not a typo)…
• … And second, some info about The Dignity Project, the Salvation Army’s response to human trafficking.
  
• New to my personal blog bookmarks is Bob Hostetler’s Prayer Blog in which each post is a prayer culled from a number of eclectic sources — like this one — something he’s been doing since 2005. 
• I’ve mentioned Skye Jethani in reference to the Phil Vischer podcast, but here’s a couple of short videos of Skye teaching, the first of which I was actually the first to view.
• Speaking of SJ, on his other web interest, Out of Ur, we find Ravi Zacharias kicking off a very similar series about defining the gospel.
  
• Author and pastor Timothy Keller’s newest title releases in a month, this time around Every Good Endeavor is a business/leadership book for young professionals. 
• In the meantime, here’s a small — 48  pages; under $5 — Keller book you might have missed. The for The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness link is to a British website, but the book is available to stores in the U.S. through STL.
• Over 32,000 gathered in Wembley Stadium for last month’s UK National Day of Prayer.
• Getting hit by a bus is not usually a good thing, right? Here’s an encouraging story of healing and forgiveness.
• Darrell Creswell tells the story of a brief encounter with a homeless man at a traffic light; a situation that now occurs regularly in North American cities.
• If you ever feel your life is up and down like a yo-yo; here’s someone who can empathize.
  
• Lee Younger has a pretty good definition for young people of who it is you want to marry.
  
• A mention of the Music Box movie here recently got me looking for more by the Sensational Nightingales. Turn up your speakers and enjoy Every Promise in the Book is Mine. We is having church!
  

If you blog on blogspot, you should know that your blog address here in Canada automatically redirects to a .ca ending instead of .com and manually changing links to your blog is somewhat time consuming! We’re just assuming it flips back for our U.S. readers.

Ravi Zacharias Predictions Ring True

I’m currently in the middle of one of those extensive cleanups where you find all sort of things from the past, in this case Connection,  a 14-year old newsletter from Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto.

In the spring of 1998, author, speaker and Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias received an honorary doctorate from Tyndale, and the newsletter summarized his address on the front page:

Five Changes In This Century That Will Change the Future

• the “God is Dead” movement, begun by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
• religious pluralism
• the power to inform through the visual
• the loss of center for cultural molding
  
• the shifting power to a youth culture

Zacharias then suggested that Christians need an apologetic that:

• is seen and not just heard
• is felt and not just argued
• rescues the ends, not only the means

Today, 12 years into that new century we see:

• the rise of militant atheism and a political correctness devoid of God
• pluralism and demographics shifts in Western nations that will move to change laws, political structures and education systems
• the power of screens, visual learning, info graphics; text has been reduced to bullet points or less
• a fragmentation in media that means culture is shaped by a seemingly infinite number of influences
• a world where, even in the modern church, 40 can be too old; though overall power hasn’t shifted to the young so much as to those who can think young, especially in their mastery of the new technologies

While we face challenges Ravi didn’t mention — particularly issues of gender and sexual orientation, the European economic tensions, political instability in the middle east — his words to the Christian university audience were certainly prophetic.

Read some of Ravi’s popular quotes here at C201 and learn more about his ministry at RZIM.

Wednesday Link List

• So let’s start with Ed Young’s Pastor Fashion blog. We’re being set up here, right? Mind you, the fashion blog and Ed’s regular blog contain the same spelling error:  Taking something to a whole other level, is whole, not hole. And that is him in the videos. So maybe this is serious. Besides, it’s not April 1st.
  
• But we’re not being taken at the blog No Longer Quivering, which was one of several established to question the whole “Quiverful” movement, (Check a Bible concordance for context) not to mention Christianity itself.  Lately however, things have gotten even more complicated, as in this introduction to a 9-part post. (Note: the blog is in the middle of a move from Blogspot to Patheos.) How does a former (male) pastor move from repressing gender issues to a full-blown transition? (Did I say this one is complicated?)
  
• With all the drug war violence in the news, six people weigh in on the subject of safety issues implicit in missions trips to Mexico.
  
• And speaking of youth groups, Rachel Marie looks back realizing that something was seriously missing from body image pep talks.
  
• If Christianity is nothing more than a “hell avoidance system,” then obviously it comes crashing down if there is no hell. That’s the subject of Hellbound – The Movie releasing in September.
  
• On the world stage, two of the weekend’s religious news stories involved Twitter, in Pakistan and Kuwait.
  
• 36 faculty have resigned from a Baptist college in George over its new lifestyle statement.
  
• Podcast aficionados: Ravi Zacharias guested at John Ortberg’s church on the weekend. Sermon audio podcast is available.
  
• Nominated for four Billboard Music Awards in April, the band Casting Crowns went on to take Best Christian Artist and Best Christian album on Sunday night. Not surprisingly, top Christian song was “Blessings” by Laura Story.
  
• Know someone 15 or older who has left the church?  They may fall into the prodigal, nomad, or exile category.  Here are six things to consider which might minimize the exodus.
  
• On the contrary, here’s a woman who left church around age 16, has lived that much lifetime again, but now finds herself missing God. John Shore responds.
  
• Along that line, what about your friends who say they are Christ followers, but don’t like going to church?  This 3 min vid suggests they’re rejecting the wrong “church.”
  
• Aaron Niequist has released the third in the series, A New Liturgy.  Also, here’s a link to another of Aaron’s projects, the song, “God’s Children.”  I love the line, “God of every class, from the greenest grass, to the underpass.”
  
• From our leftover from April files, the creator of Veggie Tales is planning a new project and it’s not for kids.  Learn more about the Phil Vischer Show.
• Lots of links from CT Inc. today. (I finally opened all those newsletters!) Here’s one by Carolyn Arends on the challenges of the term “literal interpretation.”
  
• I had never actually seen the site Truthinator until Monday. It’s supposed to be “humor,” but after a few posts you realize you’ve never seen so much hate on a so-called Christian blog.
  
• Looking for more reading? There’s eight great links from Saturday’s Weekend Link List.
  
• Finally, if the t-shirt above isn’t exactly what you had in mind for a Father’s Day gift, if Dad thinks the local church choir sounds like a bunch of howling cats, the image below includes a link where you can buy a 8″ X 10″print of the choir in question for only $25.

Culture and Society: Shifting or Imploding?

This is from the blog Pastor Jeff Ramblings. It appeared there as The Cultural Shift

I will turn 52 later on this year. For some of you reading this that makes me very old and for some of you I am still quite young. But my 50+ years have allowed me to see some pretty major changes in the way in which we live. My children still find it hilarious that we only got three TV stations when I was growing up (which went off the air at 11:00pm) along with the palpable sense of excitement we had when we got a fourth station. Those of you my age know exactly what I am talking about. My first computer was an IBM XT8088 with a 10mg hard drive and a 5 1/4 floppy drive which I bought used when I was 28 years old. A friend of mine put a 286 motherboard in it along with a 40mg hard drive and that was all the computer that I was ever going to need.

We can laugh about some of these changes. There are other changes that feel almost cataclysmic in nature and ones that many of us do not see as changes for the better. Ravi Zacharias speaks to some of these in the opening pages of his new book Why Jesus?: Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality.

“Spirituality is writ large in the West as gurus come and go. Perhaps a primary reason for this spread of alternative spirituality and a key to unlocking much of this puzzle for us is our means of communication today. Cultural shifts do not happen in one giant step.

• How is it that a culture that once frowned upon certain sexual practices now frowns upon those who frown upon them?
  
• How is it that from the normal use of language in public broadcasting and in public discourse, so well tempered that even mild deviations were viewed as serious infractions, we now experience on a daily basis entertainment that has moved from the genius of humor to the crassness of shock and vulgarity?
  
• Why is it that the more perverse the story, the greater the audience it draws on television or at the theater?
  
• Why do people create false scenarios in order to have their own ‘reality’ shows?
  
• Who are these icons created by the media of the visual whose belief in some form of spirituality seems real, even if they are made-up for the sell?

Has all this happened because our taboos were wrong or is it that, in a very real sense, we have pushed the Replay button on the saga of Eden and can now look, touch, and taste anything we wish to because we have become gods, determining for ourselves what is right and what is wrong?” (pp. XIII-XIV)

 

Drew Marshall: Losing His Faith?

Drew Marshall,  host of “Canada’s Most Listened-To Spiritual Talkback Program,” with online listeners around the world, has always been upfront about the vagueness and uncertainties of the Christian faith.   If anything, that is the 4-hour weekly radio show’s trademark.

As someone who places a premium on honesty and transparency, I can say on behalf of listeners everywhere that this is a main reason that we tune in each week to the live broadcast, or catch recent interviews online.     While the running joke has been that ‘It’s all about Drew,’ guests from the worlds of faith,  politics and entertainment could not be wrong for suggesting that Drew extracted from them some of the best interviews they have ever given.

But on the final two broadcasts of the eighth season of the program (7/24 and 7/31), things got more severe as Drew suggested that he was at a point where “If God doesn’t come through;” he was ready to “pack it all in.”   Given that the program is broadcast on a Christian station, this type of rhetoric is a little more shocking than the usual provocative material we’ve grown accustomed to hearing on the show.

In an interview with Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, Drew asked, “What makes a good apologist?”  (i.e. someone well versed in Christian apologetics, the defense of the Christian faith.)   Zacharias chose to answer first in the reverse, “A bad apologist is someone who deals with the question.  A good apologist is someone who deals with the questioner.“

Those remarks proved prophetic as moments later, Drew confessed to the ebbing or waning of his personal faith.     Ravi offered him encouragement and told him that such questioning was common among great Christian thinkers of the past.

Still, the nature of Drew’s comments were closer to atheistic skepticism than anything usually broadcast on Christian radio, including Drew’s own program.

It might be argued that Drew Marshall is so steeped in entertainment culture that this could be his version of a “cliffhanger” ending for season eight.  Drew was very non-specific about what need he is facing that he expected God to “come through” on, and certainly did not broadcast any specific emotional, marital, financial or physical problem that he is directly facing.

There is also the question, as to what would constitute the answer he is seeking.   One person suggested to him that then he would have certainty, but no longer have faith.

But it was hard to ignore the desperation in his voice, which continued into subsequent interviews on that program with Darrin Hufford and Jim Henderson.   While we didn’t catch all of the 7/31 broadcast, the theme was strongly evident in portions of interviews we were able to hear.  (That show goes online on Friday (8/6) as interviews are posted on a delayed basis.)

Another aspect of the “cliffhanger” is, will the radio station want to continue to broadcast a show hosted by a man who appears riddled with spiritual misgivings and, what Philip Yancey calls “disappointment with God?”   Marshall purchases the four hours of time outright and “brokers” the show, selling his own advertising and promoting some of his other causes.

Methinks that God is in the business of “coming through” for us multiplied times a day.   He is answering prayers that we never got around to praying.   He is aware.  He cares.  He loves.   His first response, to say “yes” to everything we ask Him, is tempered by infinite wisdom.

Doubts and misgivings that invade our soul should be shared, yes.   Transparency is something badly needed in the church today.   But there are some people whose platform is so huge that there has to be some kind of gap between their public and private position, or they could bring others down into the depths of their spiritual despair, especially those new to the faith.

Pray for Drew Marshall, that he will find the spiritual assurance he is seeking; and pray for wisdom for Joy 1250 Radio to determine if they have an issue they need to deal with.

Christian Radio in Crisis

The names and faces are familiar as are the names of the various radio programs:

• Insight for Living – Chuck Swindoll
• Turning Point – David Jeremiah
• Thru The Bible – J. Vernon McGee
• Back to the Bible – Woodrow Kroll
• In Touch – Charles Stanley
• Grace to You – John MacArthur
• Love Worth Finding – Adrian Rogers
• Haven Today – Charles Morris
• Let My People Think – Ravi Zacharias
• Bible Answer Man – Hank Hanegraaff

Notice anything?   No, I mean besides the fact they’re all male.   (And all American.)  This is in every sense of the word, an “old boys network.”   Chip Ingram may still look young in his publicity shots, and James MacDonald may open with a cool David Crowder theme song, but exceptions aside, Christian radio is playing host to an older generation of radio preachers, which isn’t the generation they need to attract if the medium is to survive.

You may wish to suggest that maybe it’s just time for the medium to die off.   After all, look what YouTube has done to the hours people formerly spent watching broadcast, cable and satellite television.   The 42″ screen has unexpectedly lost ground to the 17″ monitor.    The plasma screen may be high definition, but the next generation would rather program their own visual channels, even if the images are jumpy, grainy or pixelating.

But is there an opportunity being lost?   Last time I checked, cars still come with FM radios.   It’s still the medium of choice if you’re caught in a traffic tie-up looking for an alternative route.   It’s still what you’ve got if the iPod battery fails or one of the earbuds isn’t working.   And it’s weather forecasts are still reasonably up-to-date and free-of-charge.

No, the problem isn’t with radio itself.  The problem is that a new generation of pastors doesn’t want to fuss with purchasing airtime and building that kind of media ministry.   Keeping the multi-site satellite link working weekly is enough technical challenge for one week.   The demographic they see on Sunday morning grew up with time shifting anyway.   They can PVR their favorite program and view it anytime; so they don’t need some guy on radio telling them, “Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow at 6:00 PM…”

I’ve never understood why an audio cassette version of the VCR never happened, but then I’ve never understood why for years, push-buttons allowed people to find AM and FM stations with pinpoint accuracy in their cars, while at home they had to slide a “dial” back and forth.   Even today, some digital tuners still offer frustrations unknown to driving with preset stations.

Furthermore, today’s younger pastors don’t want to start a branch of their ministry that might start bleeding red ink, which might lead to the type of on-air begging that has tainted the Christian radio medium.

No, radio just isn’t at the forefront for a new generation of Christians.   They know more about Francis Chan than Francis Shaeffer; they prefer Andy Stanley to Charles Stanley.    They download Rob Bell, discuss Greg Boyd’s take on the Gospel of Luke,  and work out to the latest Craig Groeschel sermon from Lifechurch.   They discuss the latest interview available at Drew Marshall’s website, debate the latest pronouncement from Mark Driscoll, and tell their friends about Pete Wilson’s sermon download page.

None of this is lost on Christian radio ministries.   Weekly podcasts from Focus on the Family, Greg Laurie and even John Piper rank among the top ten each week.   They’ve taken their content and propelled it forward into the new media.

Which brings us to the point of all this.   The proprietors of the new media need to make their content backward compatible.   All of this great, next-generation communication of the Good News, and so very little of it being heard over traditional broadcast frequencies.

Some visionary person needs to create a radio outlet for the vast number of sermon podcasts being created each week by younger leaders in a new era of multi-site, emerging, missional, or just plain newly-planted churches.   It’s time the computer-less, broadband-less, or those simply out-of-the-loop got to hear what some of us are already enjoying.    And personally, I think an older generation of Christ-followers would appreciate having some fresh new voices at the table.

The content is already recorded.    The radio stations already exist.   Let’s introduce the two to each other.   Before it’s too late for Christian radio.

Related post on this blog — A fictional story about Pastor Boone, who gets offered some free radio time and instead of just putting his church service on the radio…

Related post on this blog — My proposal to make Worship Network’s Sunday Setlists into a weekly Christian radio show.

Related post on this blog — This  links to a USAToday Religion story on how Christian radio is dealing with the new economic realities, attracting younger listeners, and keeping donations coming.

Related post at The Church Report — James Dobson and son Ryan Dobson are teaming up to launch a new radio ministry.

Appendix — Arbitron Podcast demographics worth knowing — and these go back to 2006! —