"Where has the gift of teaching gone?"
My pastor, Earl Marshall, has been blogging for a while and he posted this today:
Many years ago now (once upon a time) I remember musing with Seminary colleagues and students about a day when there would be little need for communicating pastors because the Christian celebrity talking heads would be beamed in to a congregation near you. It seems that there is a growing trend toward this style of multi-site teaching. If this truly catches on I wonder what kind of impact this will have on the development of the teaching gift in local church contexts.
Unlike much of what is happening in the US, multi-site/video venue churches are NOT common in Canada. In fact I can only think of two churches in Canada who are using video teaching as part of their Sunday morning programming. I’m sure there are others using video teaching out of need rather than because of mission or intent but The Meeting House and Connexus Community Church are really the only two that I know who use video across multiple campuses as part of their mission.
I’m sure this is a discussion that has come up for you if you’re in ministry, so what do you think? Do you agree? Are we simply inflating the “Christian celebrity talking heads” or are we making use of the best teaching resources we have available to us? Are we developing and valuing the gift of teaching or only leaving that up to the guy on the screen?
I don’t think we have to fear that the “gift of teaching” is not being developed.
First of all the practical expression and application of the spiritual gift of teaching does not begin and end with what happens on a church’s platform on the weekend.
Behind that platform teacher/leader there are dozens… hundreds of other spiritual gifted people exercising and developing their teaching gift with children, teens, college students, seniors… and their ministry is no less significant or developed just because they are not in the limelight.
A passionate, faithful, growing Sunday School teacher is just as important, just as valid, just as obedient in the eyes of God as that pastor of a church of 20,000 with 4 satellite locations.
Where did the current roster of “famous talking heads” come from… where did they develop their spiritual gift of teaching? Was their first experience of teaching when they stepped out in front of all those people and cameras? I don’t think so. They developed their gifts in less glamourous settings, just like the next generation is doing right now.
Whether the concept of multi-site churches is just a popular current trend or something that is here for the long haul… I have no two clues… but I do know that nobody will ever be able to stand before God and say, “Yeah… I didn’t develop the gift of teaching you gave me because there was no opportunity.”
There are, and continually will be opportunities for God’s people to exercise and develop their gifts. That’s what God gave them to us for.
nobody will ever be able to stand before God and say, “Yeah… I didn’t develop the gift of teaching you gave me because there was no opportunity.”
Yeah, there’s wisdom in that.
I’ve got not qualms with the video venue. I mean, trend or not, if it wasn’t impacting people’s lives no one would show up.