“It sounded to him like the noise of too many mouths that talk and too few minds that think.”
― Lisa Unger, Heartbroken
There is nothing more tasty in times like these than to be a person with a really big platform. Which is easy to come by. More and more, anyone anywhere can build a stage and find an audience. Not many of us will earn a physical gathering of listeners but all of us can easily muster a digital one. As Christians we all have important thoughts to share, and if we could draw a mass audience to hear them, why wouldn't we? It'd be a missed opportunity not to, right? My unpopular feeling is the risks outweighs the potential good. I believe our greater concern ought to be more about having a robust output ethic, than creating an audience.
Don't worry, I see the irony in myself - a person with a writing website - discussing this topic.
Which is why I'll share my own journey on this matter.
I've been writing in journals, word docs and blogs for as long as I could put pen to paper. It's an outlet I enjoy. And I've found great delight and meaning in the process. Although I have no idea what the future holds in terms of my writing, I hope to make much of Christ in the small ways I use this gift today. So for now, I write here. But when I first started a previous blog about 17 years ago, I told no one about it. My husband was the only soul who knew it existed, and even he rarely read it. That started to change later on as I began sharing certain posts on Facebook, but not much. Which in hindsight is a gift, because when I look back on my early writing, boy am I embarrassed. There is nothing quite like the tone-def confidence of the youthfully idealistic Christian.
And it is this exact journey of writing and looking back that haunts me into submission today. I still desire to write and share and add reasonableness into the world. But I also desire not to look back with regret. It is grievous to discover your past work was mere arrogant hubris. I am truly grateful to God that He never gave me a wide audience when I was too young and thought I knew everything.
Because as it turns out, I don't.
Here is the great difficulty though, everyone has an audience now. You have one if you are active on any of the main social networks. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok give us a throng of folks we can preach to, shout at and rant to about everything we feel in the moment. But that's not all. If there is anything the pandemic normalized the most, it is podcasting. Now anyone can grab a friend or two and start an opinion podcast for yet another personal audience. We can blog (guilty), start a YouTube channel and become a social media influencer all at the same time. And with it we gather a crowd to spectate whatever it is we want to share.
These spaces are a platform in the public square. And we all want one. Which is dangerous. Why? Because when pedestals are high, falls are painful. It's hard enough to get it right when only a few are listening. It's so much harder when the reach is significant.
But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.
James 3:8-10
Having a podcast or YouTube channel or blog is not inherently wrong. Obviously, or I wouldn't be writing now. And I also listen to an obscene amount of podcasts (really, too many, its a problem). I love learning from wise, educated and humble people through any medium I can get my hands on. I steer clear from opinion or pundit influencers, but there is much value in hearing experts talk about an area of expertise and then learning from it. There are so many wonderful mediums for us to receive wise counsel and teaching from knowledgable people all over the world. It is a gift.
But it can also be a curse. There is a flip side to this coin. James' warns strongly of the human tongue. Which ought to make us take pause and think through our own personal reasons for attaining wide platforms.
The danger behind it all lies deep within our own heart. Often, we need these outlets because of our insatiable desire to weigh in on everything. We can't help but let our restless tongue flap about something we have no business discussing. Yet we must. And once we attain an even greater audience, we can't leave them waiting. Quantity over quality. It's dangerous to gather a group of likeminded people together and pump out content for them constantly. Why? Because thoughtless meanderings about untrained subjects will at some point turn into rants about opinion. And with the shifting sands of culture, weighing in on every menial issue will not age well. All it does is enhance opportunity for gossip, hearsay, slander and malice. For Christians, hypocrisy lies in wait.
It's in our human nature to do this.
Fools vent their anger,
but the wise quietly hold it back.
Proverbs 29:11
Most of us aren't experts but just young-christian-me with mediocre blogs. Lots of ego disguised as "truth-telling". It is so easy to preach to a choir about everything we know they want to hear for likes and subscribes. Ovation clicks are dopamine hits from strangers. Then before we know it we're just another teacher with a platform of people that love the way we tickle their ears without challenge (2 Tim 4:3). Our flesh is way too weak to handle the weight of glory that comes with much applause. And worse still, we train our listeners/readers to turn away from their ordained church authorities and look to their preferred online authorities for affirmation. The stakes are high at that point.
Too many have gotten a platform, having never been affirmed by professors or publishers or elders. And there is a reason why this can be so harmful.
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
James 3:1
As I've thought about this over the last many years, my writing has become less frequent. The racket of ideas and the never-ending onslaught of hot-takes became too much at some point. And I just couldn't add to the noise any longer. So I stopped. I was dry from not writing and dry from not wanting to. The problem though is that I still loved to write. And by God's grace, through a healthy break, it became clear to me that I have full autonomy and freedom in Christ to do it. We are free to make and create and curate. This is, in fact, the way God made us as image-bearers of Himself. And what He has gifted His people to do - they should do. Which was relieving for me to relearn all over again.
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
1 Peter 2:16
However in my learning about what true freedom in Christ is, I understand now more acutely how much I need wisdom to know when to speak and when to shut up. Lest I use my freedom for evil. I now have many more break pads when I write. And I have a whole new rhythm and output ethic to help with the haunting reality of possible regret. I never want to speak when I shouldn't.
Although I rediscovered my purpose for writing and fully know there are times for me to use this freedom. I've also learned, it is not a freedom I get to flex always. My voice does not need to be added to every topic. And it better not be done in haste. There are too many warnings in Scripture for that. So now I have a writing practice that includes a lot of self-reflection in the form of Matthew 7:5, time, prayer meditation and Scripture study before I hit publish on any post. And even then, I've deleted posts upon further reflection. In fact most of my writing has gone unpublished. Which means this rhythm of writing makes content creation and audience building move at a glacial pace. But that's for the better.
Let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance—
Proverbs 1:5
It is just too easy to put out quickly produced, provocative idea's that I feel deeply in the moment, in the name of freedom, that may rile a crowd yet splinter my brothers and sisters in Christ. It's been done to death. On the other hand it sure is a lot harder to stay silent, learn, listen and seek guidance from wise people before ever writing a word.
We are drawn in to these temptations because of pride, envy and self-centredness. And we must wrestle those demons out of us. Theres is no doubt that sin is at hand with this issue. However I think there is more to it than that.
I also think we just want to be heard and understood. And the reason is because we have lost safe community to work through our struggles and concerns. The church is fractured. And the fragmentation began long before the pandemic put its knee on the body of Christ's neck. We've been in a community crisis for awhile. And now more than ever, all we want is to be known and loved.
Deeply.
We're just seeking it in all the wrong places.
You see we don't need any media platform. We actually just need each other. In real life. We were made for connection and care and the identity crisis we face as a church could easily be solved by the family of God acting like the family of God. I know people with no platform. And somehow they aren't starved for affirmation like the rest of us. But when they are, their wisdom and maturity prompts them to go find it in more healthy places. Like community and service.
We could do that too. And we could also create an output ethic for ourselves in the name of Christ that better reflects our convictions of faith in Him. We could restrain ourselves for the sake of unity if we wanted to do the hard thing instead of the easy thing. And we could let humility, courage and reason guide whatever platform we may have.
But let's first ask ourselves why we want the pedestal at all. God see's every word written, every spoken conversation and every internal thought. He knows our motives, our intentions and every aspiration.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Hebrews 4:13
Which is why the stakes are high. All things will be uncovered one day. And we will have to live with some of the things we say and write for the rest of our lives. As the body of Christ, we must take stock of ourselves in times that tempt us to climb onto a platform and speak our mind. Who are we speaking to and why?
Remember, dear Christian your greatest audience is of One.
And His opinion alone will be the only one that matters in the end.
Jessica is married to, Central's Family Equipping Pastor, Chris Ross, and they have two children together. She loves writing about scripture and Christian culture and desires to teach others to live in the way of Christ.
You can find more of her writings on her website - HERE