Watch Out For Unhealthy Influence
If you are someone who uses social media, or who spends much time online, you are likely familiar with the concept of “influencers”. According to the helpful community of Wikipedia, “A social media influencer, also known as an online influencer, or simply influencer, is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates.” There are many online influencers, and for every successful influencer, there are dozens of people trying their hand at becoming an influencer. After all, there are big bucks to be had in the influencer world!
Among the Christian community, we have our own sets of influencers. You may find that a friend or two is commonly reposting words or videos to their social media from the same source. That source is acting as an influencer. And hey, influencing folks can be a really good thing. We each have hopes to influence people in our lives to hear and respond to the Gospel. And there are some of the more well-known Christian influencers who have set out to have that same sort of Gospel impact on a large scale. That’s tremendous!
But I want to give a simple warning about a particular type of influencer that I think is someone to watch out for. I saw this kind of message pop up online significantly around the time of Charlie Kirk’s death, but it was not the first time I’ve seen it, and it won’t be the last time. The message is this: “If your church didn’t do _________ this Sunday, walk out and find another church.”
In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death, the line was “If you church did not mention Charlie Kirk this Sunday, walk out and find another church.” But at other times I’ve seen it said that you should walk out if your church didn’t pray for this particular situation, if your church didn’t speak out regarding that particular social issue, if your church didn’t talk about this upcoming election, etc. If you go looking you could probably find a reason, every single week, why some influencer thinks you should consider leaving your church.
Is that healthy? No, that’s not healthy. I believe this is an attack by Satan, the very real enemy of our souls and of the church, who wants to bring harm, disunity, and distrust into churches and relationships. If there is something that is concerning in a church you attend, it is not a healthy response to simply walk out the door and never come back. A healthy response to a concern is to look for an opportunity to speak with a pastor or elder. And it is important to come into a conversation seeking to understand, rather than seeking to scold or criticize. To come humbly, to ask what drives decision making on a particular issue. And to recognize that there might be more than one way to see a particular issue or decision in the church.
As always, be careful which voices you let influence you. And make sure the most significant voice influencing you is the Lord’s voice, through regular intake of His word!
Pastor Ryan Donovan
Categories: Evergreen Connection