The Distinction Between Influencer and "Be Imitators of me, as I am of Christ."
And the perverse incentives that drive the former
Recently, the much disgraced and desperate to regain relevance Mark Driscoll tweeted the following:
God has bypassed the church pulpit and given His gospel to influencers, politicians and podcasters, and it’s because most pastors have become useless motivational speakers.
On the surface, Driscoll is justifying his own turn to “influencer” and “podcaster” after the disgrace of his ministry, as well as riding the popularity of numerous right-wing theologically and political conservative figures who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time tweeting, making YouTube videos, and publishing podcasts. And on that level his claim is perverse and wrong. God has not “bypassed” pastors. There are many faithful pastors preaching the gospel. If anything, many of the “influencers” he has in mind are motivational speakers, they just are motivating people toward self-improvement through a political agenda!
But on the other hand, Driscoll’s comments resonate with some realities that must be reckoned with. For one, I have heard from pastors across the country for years that they have struggled to disciple their congregations when 24 hour cable news and talk radio disciples them 6 days out of the week. That concern has only dramatically accelerated through the proliferation of YouTube and podcasts and social media. A pastor may have 45 minutes to preach a sermon a week; meanwhile, influencers, politicians, and other lifestyle gurus have hours of access a day to their congregants.
So what? You might be asking. Maybe these influencers are bringing insight into people’s lives, and in some cases that’s true. But without discernment and prudence, the temptation to be pulled into an ideological bubble is tremendous. The algorithms promote this. In addition, these influencers are outside of our communities, where as our pastors know our local context and needs. Influencers and lifestyle gurus are great at making sweeping generalizations (like I often do), but they cannot replace the wisdom of your local pastor (please do not replace your local pastor with me).
But the major distinction I want to focus on is the modern Internet “Influencer” and a model for imitation in Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1), particularly as pastor or elder.
The Internet Influencer has certain qualities and perverse incentives:
They are inspired to promote themselves, their brand, their image, and their name.
They are drawn to controversy because the algorithm favors and rewards it.
They are addicted to audience capture, the need to please certain audiences.
They have a perverse incentive not to apologize, correct mistakes, or go against their “side.”
They tend to calcify into a narrow ideology.
They are rarely held accountable, except by mobs.
They tend to spend more and more time engaged with producing, commenting on, and critiquing content.
They tend to sell swag.
Social media platforms are perfectly built for their growth.
On the other hand, Pastors and elders have a different set of qualities:
They are called by Christ to share the Good News of the Gospel to all creation.
They pursue the purity and peace of the church, avoiding division and controversy except when absolutely necessary for the health of the church.
They are called to avoid “ear tickling” and teach the “hard sayings” of Scripture for the sake of the souls of their congregants.
They are biblically commanded to repent and apologize when they have sinned, and they are not obligated to withhold criticism from Christians or people of any political persuasion.
They are held by a firm doctrinal, creedal, biblical foundation, but they also understand the mystery of faith
They are rightly held accountable for their teaching by sessions (sorry if I sound presbyterian here) and presbyteries. Mobs are irrelevant.
Although some may be called to write songs, articles, or books, there is no general call to produce content. Only to preach the gospel and administer the sacraments.
They have no swag to sell.
Social media is a gross fit for their purposes.
It seems to me that a number of pastors have felt the worldly pressure to cross over into the influencer space, and I don’t believe this is healthy for their ministries or their souls. The incentives to do this are significant. There are already AI programs that will take your sermons and turn them into branded social media content. But as we have seen, this is not what pastors are called to do. It draws unnecessary attention to the pastor as an image rather than the pastor as a vessel for God’s use.
I’ve talked a lot in the last few weeks about the “vibe shift,” and there’s some things to be excited about. But one thing to encourage is that we all focus on discipleship in local contexts from local pastors and elders. An influencer, podcaster, and (certainly not) a politician will not know your struggle, no matter how much they seem to empathize. They cannot hold you accountable.
There is a place for learning from those outside the local church. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be writing this. But it always must be a supplement to the local church. And any movement primarily driven by online lifestyle gurus, whether secular or religious, cannot give us the human love and discipleship we need to grow and mature in our faith. They can, however, manipulate our emotions and sell us a lot of swag.
Do some pastors need to preach the gospel more faithfully? Yes. But I suspect what Mark Driscoll means by the “gospel” in this tweet has little to do with Christ crucified for our sins, and more to do with an anti-woke, anti-progressive “gospel,” which is not the gospel but an agenda. What he has in mind is that pastors should tickle the ears of whatever prevailing political trend is favorable at the moment. This is certainly what podcasters and influencers do. But that is not the job of pastors. The job of pastors is to be faithful to preach the gospel in and out of season and administer the sacraments. Which doesn’t mean that they must stay neutral to injustice in the world, but it does mean that they allow God’s justice to drive the preaching and pastoral prayers, not the whims of the trending topics on Twitter (whether right-coded or left-coded).
If someone were to ask me if I identify as “thirdway,” I would tell them “no.” I don’t think that’s the right way to look at political divisions and our posture and orientation toward God’s justice. My goal is to be oriented toward God’s justice, and I will seek to follow that were it leads. In general, I think it aligns with a certain definition of traditional conservatism, but I am not afraid to critique where I see it necessary. This is why I would make a bad influencer.