Celebrity Sevvies

We love them. They fly in, preach up, then fly out. They are on fire for Jesus. They speak passionately. They are linguistically delicious and spiritually soothing. They are funny. They are bold. They have maxed out Facebook accounts. They are good blokes.

They are the international (mostly US based) speakers that have made the headlines at our camps and conventions that past ? years in Oz and Kiwi land. Some come twice or thrice in the one calender year. Youth directors believe (by their actions) that these guys are the drawcards that will spiritually charge the youth – giving the connotation that the locals can’t do the same. Not for the big events anyway. Is this true? Are our local speakers duds? Is this a bad thing? Is it our consumeristic approach to church and addiction to programs that has led us to desire more of these speakers?

OK, so I’ve been a bit cynical in the past. Perhaps I was just jealous of the frequent flyer miles they’re clocking up. Perhaps I wondered why God hadn’t given me the gift of verbosity and clarity of diction which they possess. Perhaps I wish we’d spend more time training Theo students and our current pastors in the art of preaching. Perhaps the listeners need training in how to listen/receive the message.

The One Project is in Sydney town this weekend and sees the return of some familiar and popular faces. It’s a somewhat pricey gathering that will see us refocus on the One (Jesus) as the centre of everything we do. Do we need these guys (and gals) to come all the way from the states to tell us this? I don’t know, but what I don know is this: it will do us good. Jesus is the one we need at our centre, as our focus, as our all, living within, guiding our steps. And these guys sacrifice a lot to come and share Him with us: long plane trips (initially exciting but anything over 5 hours takes its toll), jet-lagged bodies in a foreign country, pressure from the expectant and the cynical audience to deliver the goods, people lining up after their sermons to take another piece of them, and time away from family.

So thank you ladies and gents who fly across the globe and sacrifice much to deliver relevant and passionate appeals about our Creator’s love and plans for us. Whilst we should learn to be less dependant on you, we love you for the part you play in our discipleship experience. And may we talk less about how good/bad you were and more about what challenge or encouragement God shared through your words and actions.