Well Known or Well Thought Of?

I can't help myself- I find the "AI Effect" fascinating. You may not know it by this term, but I suspect you recognize it. When I watch the first stage of American Idol (AI) where they do auditions at US cities, I am not seeing anything new - mostly a steady stream of remarkably bad singers (or can't singers) who believe (can they really be serious?) they are THE NEXT AMERICAN IDOL.

I don't know what diagnosis to give this - is this a delusion? Or do they suspect, in the secret recesses of their hearts, that Simon just may be right, despite all their invective to the contrary? Can the antics these people with marginal talent (I am too kind!) are going through be anything more than just that, antics?

I think the answer lies in understanding the "AI Effect," which is a transcendent longing to be well known. Grown men and women who ought to know better are willing to make a spectacle of themselves in the hope that, for at least a few moments, they will be seen and heard by millions. For many contestants, this force is so powerful that it overwhelms their ability to ask a simple question: For what am I well-known?  Because of the AI Effect, a vital connection escapes them. They are not well thought of, and their efforts have only succeeded in EXPONENTIALLY EXPANDING THE CIRCLE OF THOSE WHO THINK SO!

The AI Effect can be observed in many venues around us, notably You Tube. The local church is not immune to it. It is easy to think that the challenge before us is to be well known. We could invest lots of dollars in an advertising budget and publicity campaigns to "put CBC on the map."  But of much greater significance is the question, "For what are we known?" Churches in our community have become well-known, but for the wrong reasons, most of them related to schisms and splits. Our challenge is not to be well known but to be well thought of. Our energies are well spent when they are directed at becoming people worth knowing, people with whom an association is genuinely beneficial, precisely because we are servants of God.

Jesus once addressed a church in Asia minor with these words, “I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1). This church had a reputation; it was well known; it was regarded as a "church on the map." The sad and sober reality was captured in this assessment: The church in Sardis is dead!

I plan to focus my energies on being someone worth knowing because I make God look good. How about you? Do good in the name of Jesus to all with whom you come in contact. You might not be known by millions, but those who do will consider it, and the God whom you serve, a blessing.

Comments

[Jeff]

It's interesting, and a little uncomfortable, when people come up to me and tell me that they enjoy hearing me on the air, that they listen all the time, etc. For whatever modicum of celebrity I have, I ultimately want to just get off the air, in the background, because it really has no inherent value for God. I'm left in a room by myself for seven hours a day, can't leave the room and just do what I do. I think I understand why God has me in this spot right now, but I really hate that what I do can, for other people, define who I am.
But whatever...I want to honor Christ. Numbers may come, but I'd rather deal with the quality than the quantity.