I said I wasn’t going to write a post on this, but I’ve been seeing so many things going on lately, that I felt I needed to at least talk about it a bit. Usually I talk about the positive things that social media has to offer. But, lately I’ve been noticing that some of the negative things have almost been outweighing the positive. I think a lot of it has to do with readers misunderstanding what is being written, but still, it’s so annoying when you know what you mean, but nobody else does.
The first case I am talking about is when MercyMe’s front man, Bart Millard, wrote “XMas” instead of Christmas, which started a huge uproar from people who wanted to keep “Christ” in Christmas. Here’s that tweet for ya:
If Bart has 140 characters to use on twitter, everybody knows you shorten what you can. Also, I guess those folks didn’t know that “X” really means Christ. People just need to think before they respond. That’s a lesson for all of us. It was definitely a misunderstanding.
On to the next one.
Mark Driscoll has two reputations within the church. One is that he is very over the top and another says he is very biblical. I think he’s both with maybe some inconsistency thrown in there. But, when a leader is in the spotlight it is easy to point fingers at what some else is doing wrong when really all of us have something we need to deal with.
Well, after watching this Avatar video that was posted of Pastor Mark preaching on Avatar, I thought I was going to hell. Literally. I guess that’s where the “over the top” comes in.
So naturally, when Pastor Mark made a comment about enjoying Jay-Z’s music, people went ape-$%^#. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I love Jay-Z. J Hova has rhymes like no other. I do try to get the edited version and fill in words like “love you real good” or “poop”, but him and his band have serious talent. His bassist, Tony Russell and drummer, Tony Royster Jr. are among the best in the world, in my opinion. So after seeing his response to Avatar and then seeing that he enjoyed Jay-Z’s music confused everyone, including myself. Then Pastor Mark came out with some feedback in the form a post after everyone was calling him out.
Here’s an excerpt from that post:
Now, if he would have posted that in the first place maybe people probably would’ve gotten that, but again it’s that twitter rule of 140 characters or less. Some people are saying that the post was released just because of the way people reacted, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I think that’s what he thought all along about Jay-Z. I also think he means what he’s saying about Avatar in the post- that it’s a well done movie and it’s not a sin to see the movie, but it is if you adopt the hindu behaviors portrayed in the movie. I will say that with all the things he has said over the years about relevant topics including culture, The Shack, stay-at-home dads, and yoga and the way they are always perceived wrong, he might need to find a different way to communicate effectively, though. Matt Chandler even pokes fun at the way Mark communicates here. Not many people can do what Mark does and I’m guessing he’s reaching someone out there, so not much of us can say stuff. I mean, I’m guessing people have come to know the Lord through his ministry, just maybe a yelling God that I’m not used to, but maybe some people need that. That would definitely be some interesting data to see.
All this has me trying to think of life before social media, when we didn’t know what everyone was doing and everyone’s random thoughts. Whether we like it or not, social media has given each of us a voice. Either to put out a thought or idea or to lift up someone else’s idea or bash them for being wrong. The thing I know all of us kept thinking while seeing all of this going on is “What if this same effort that is being put into bashing people for their thoughts was out into building clean water wells or finding other ways to help other countries that are less fortunate and their people who really need it?”
Whether you agree with what Bart did with XMas or Pastor Mark’s views and how he communicates those, I’m pretty sure they both know Christ. Oh, and Rob Bell. That might receive more comments than Driscoll and Millard combined. 🙂
Haters gonna hate.
Some of you might disagree with my opinion on those, but writing XMas or yelling and playing things on the safer side is better than playing it on the less strict side, even if life will be a little less exciting.
The only thing with that is that could make people outside of the church think that Christians can’t have fun, which is totally not the case. Whatever.
What we need are people who keep leaders in their prayers.
Those are my thoughts and most of this is me writing while thinking out loud.
I know you have been misunderstood because everyone has. I remember the last time it happened to me. I was telling someone why it’s important for a church to be relevant and up to date. They thought people should go to church for Jesus and not worry about the material things in the church. That was quite a discussion that I will leave for another blog post…
So, what point were you trying to get across the last time you were misunderstood?
Well said, Adam.
In answer to your closing question: I am a bit hesitant to tell you the last time I was misunderstood for fear that I will be misunderstood. 😉
ha! well played
Well said, Adam.
In answer to your closing question: I am a bit hesitant to tell you the last time I was misunderstood for fear that I will be misunderstood. 😉
ha! well played
Nice.
Nice.
Couple of things….. I understand we are human…. and they are also but it is a bit of a cop out for people that are in leadership roles to make AVOIDABLE mistakes and then cry…. hey I am human. The greatest leaders have always taken their lumps with out being arrogant about it. Trying a little humility when you are approached by a brother or sister in Christ with a question or even and indictment about our actions should sound a lot less like. “Who does this person think they are? …. judging me and all” etc. (That attitude is actually judging them back) If we know something that they don’t that X actually stands for the First letter of the Greek word for Christ… we should let them know if they still have a problem with it then you have been gracious in their exhortation and you can move on. It will most likely resolve itself in a whole lot better fashion than just saying hey its my right (which is true) I have freedom in Christ (which is true) or something that is combative in nature, regardless of the tone that is taken by our brother or sister. I actually passed on information to one of the people that responded to Bart with links to the explanation of X. Their response after reading it was much more subdued than prior. We can be condescending if we choose but it is not the way Christ would have us respond. I hear a lot of people taking way to much pride in their freedom in Christ, and saying that Christ accepts me the way I am (which is true) but he does not intend to leave us that way! They also say things like hey I am just keeping it real (which may be true) but if you sinning openly and being proud about it and unrepentant about it is keeping it real then we have to re-examine what scripture says. (I don’t think that using Xmas is sinning or what Mark did is actually sinning, what I am referring to is more of a commentary on how far people are taking their freedom in Christ… openly cursing and other things.) Bart had 50 characters unused in his tweet he could have fit Christmas if he had wanted to. Mark could have written his post with a whole lot more though behind it. There is an art to effective communication and it starts with the tool that is being used. You can’t show someone a diagram over a phone call, so to yell at them incessantly about why they can’t see what you actually mean is ridiculous and certainly not the trait of a good leader. Mark should have used a better medium to express his real intentions behind his statement or not said it at all. Facebook gives you nearly 4 times the characters to get your point across and he has that medium as well, or it could have been an in depth blog post. Bottom line leaders have a responsibility, if they choose poorly they will eventually not be leaders it is just how that seems to work out. I am a fan of Bart and am on the fence about Mark he has made similar poor choices in the past and in all of the chatter that is out there I am selective on who’s voice I allow through. There are somethings that are better left unsaid. My dad use to tell me all the time, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and let people think your stupid the to open it and remove all doubt” Well now that I have broken that rule let all those that mis-understand me let it fly.
i love hearing opinions from the most popular side. thanks for that man
Couple of things….. I understand we are human…. and they are also but it is a bit of a cop out for people that are in leadership roles to make AVOIDABLE mistakes and then cry…. hey I am human. The greatest leaders have always taken their lumps with out being arrogant about it. Trying a little humility when you are approached by a brother or sister in Christ with a question or even and indictment about our actions should sound a lot less like. “Who does this person think they are? …. judging me and all” etc. (That attitude is actually judging them back) If we know something that they don’t that X actually stands for the First letter of the Greek word for Christ… we should let them know if they still have a problem with it then you have been gracious in their exhortation and you can move on. It will most likely resolve itself in a whole lot better fashion than just saying hey its my right (which is true) I have freedom in Christ (which is true) or something that is combative in nature, regardless of the tone that is taken by our brother or sister. I actually passed on information to one of the people that responded to Bart with links to the explanation of X. Their response after reading it was much more subdued than prior. We can be condescending if we choose but it is not the way Christ would have us respond. I hear a lot of people taking way to much pride in their freedom in Christ, and saying that Christ accepts me the way I am (which is true) but he does not intend to leave us that way! They also say things like hey I am just keeping it real (which may be true) but if you sinning openly and being proud about it and unrepentant about it is keeping it real then we have to re-examine what scripture says. (I don’t think that using Xmas is sinning or what Mark did is actually sinning, what I am referring to is more of a commentary on how far people are taking their freedom in Christ… openly cursing and other things.) Bart had 50 characters unused in his tweet he could have fit Christmas if he had wanted to. Mark could have written his post with a whole lot more though behind it. There is an art to effective communication and it starts with the tool that is being used. You can’t show someone a diagram over a phone call, so to yell at them incessantly about why they can’t see what you actually mean is ridiculous and certainly not the trait of a good leader. Mark should have used a better medium to express his real intentions behind his statement or not said it at all. Facebook gives you nearly 4 times the characters to get your point across and he has that medium as well, or it could have been an in depth blog post. Bottom line leaders have a responsibility, if they choose poorly they will eventually not be leaders it is just how that seems to work out. I am a fan of Bart and am on the fence about Mark he has made similar poor choices in the past and in all of the chatter that is out there I am selective on who’s voice I allow through. There are somethings that are better left unsaid. My dad use to tell me all the time, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and let people think your stupid the to open it and remove all doubt” Well now that I have broken that rule let all those that mis-understand me let it fly.
i love hearing opinions from the most popular side. thanks for that man