A New Gig

When pursuing the path of spiritual growth, we must remember that ultimately the Word of God is our source of absolute truth.  There are a number of excellent Bible teachers, some of whom are presented on Faith Radio and through Faith Radio On Demand, who teach God's Word and help us to grow.  And, there are others who could be considered commentators - those who post on the Internet and generate content that is intended to provoke thought.  Many are excellent sources, but many are not.  That's why we always have to return to the Word, so that we can discern what is good and what is not.  The Bible says in Hebrews 5 (ESV):
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Carl Trueman is a Professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, a well-known writer and commentator, a purveyor of Biblical truth - he'll be a featured speaker at next year's Colson Center National Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee.  

He wrote a piece at the First Things website almost a month ago that generated quite a bit of discussion.  In the article, he took credit for a phrase, "Big Eva."  He stated that, "at the time I intended it to be a humorous but pointed reference to a specific phenomenon: the rise of big conference platforms and the promotion of certain speakers—which I called 'celebrity pastors'—that supplanted or subverted the role of local congregations, ministers, and denominations in shaping church policy."  It has come to be, as Trueman points out, "used as a quick and lazy smear for any well-known figures of a previous generation that a particular X-man happens to dislike."  He did clarify that he wasn't calling out well-known pastors, but pastors who "leveraged their public platforms to exert influence beyond their church, thereby weakening it."

He contends that the era of Big Eva may be waning, morphing into what he calls, "Gig Eva," playing off the concept of the tech-driven "gig economy."  He says, "In Gig Eva, anyone with the time to spend living online can become a celebrity without having proved himself beforehand in any real service to any church."  He notes, "Big Eva gurus were accountable only to each other. Their heirs in Gig Eva are accountable to nobody. To put it another way, both tend to marginalize the actual church by making their own platforms and declarations the source of all wisdom, but Gig Eva has only intensified the problem that led me to coin the term 'Big Eva.'”

Of course, as Trueman points out, "The economics of social media are different, and this is reflected in the culture of Gig Eva: Building a platform on X, for example, involves constant transgression of boundaries, hence the emergence of Gig Eva personalities whose trademark behavior ranges from attacking the leaders of Big Eva to rehabilitating Hitler." He says that, "Gig Eva launches full-frontal personal attacks but does so from the safety offered by tech platforms that have no place for that pesky prerequisite of personal competence."

Again, be careful whom you choose to listen to - or read.  The foxes who traffic in anti-Semitic rhetoric while claiming to be Christian influences have infiltrated the evangelical henhouse.  But, there have been other foxes over the past few years - one had to do with promoting critical race theory, resulting in attempts to shame those who did not see their point of view and buy into the Marxist viewpoint of dividing culture - and the Church - into oppressors and oppressed.   The LGBT agenda has been promoted in some churches to the extent that same-sex attractions and even actions have been normalized and accommodated.

And, some in Big Eva have been responsible for these infiltrations.  Leaders who either obviously or covertly invited these philosophies into churches, corrupting the minds of their flock.  That is where the online influencers and social media voices have an opportunity.

Erik Reed, Senior Pastor of Journey Church in the Nashville area made some excellent points on X.  He contends that, "here’s a lot Trueman gets right. He’s got his finger on something real."  Reed adds: "But he—and the many cheering the piece—are missing something crucial: the people he critiques also have their finger on something real. Namely, the many ways Big Eva leaders failed to provide clarity, conviction, and courage on the major issues of the past decade." He added, "As we entered the Negative World, they carried progressive steering wheels on their backs."

So, we have a situation in which the appointed gatekeepers have, in some instances, failed to protect the sheep, so a class of undershepherds have emerged - some are reckless, ill-informed, but others are grounded in truth and devoted to building up the body of Christ by speaking truth.

Michael Clary, Lead Pastor of Christ the King Church in Cincinnati, writing at the Center for Baptist Leadership website, states. regarding those who would be classified as "Gig Eva:" "I’m thankful for them because they amplified my puny voice before anyone ever heard of me."  Clary added, "Yes, Gig Eva guys are often edgy and unrefined. They don’t have big budgets and editorial staff, but great movements are built on the strength of conviction. They aren’t usually top-down movements, driven by institutional elites, but are bottom-up, grassroots movements. The gatekeepers know this and don’t very much like being outgunned by the punk rockers of evangelicalism."  

He adds: "In the meantime, the 'Gig Eva' guys I know will keep plodding ahead. They will continue to build new institutions because Big Eva gatekeepers deem them too “controversial” for their own. They will continue to pastor their churches, reform, write, speak, record, post, and grow because they are confident that they have a message worth hearing that will bless and strengthen the body of Christ."

I am thankful for the platform that God has given to me - while I don't "mix it up" on social media, I have been entrusted with precious air time, provided by our listeners, in order to encourage and exhort believers and hopefully bring truth to unbelievers.  I am devoted to truth, and appreciate the high-profile, carefully-selected Bible teachers we feature each day on Faith Radio.  I don't consider them to be "Big Eva," in fact, in our desire to be a trusted source for truth, we have attempted to stay away from those who are building platforms and who tow the institutional line, and by so doing, embraced teaching that runs afoul of orthodox Christianity.

But, I quote regularly from those who are considered to be "Gig Eva," so I rely on them to help apply the principles of Scripture to our culture today.  That is a principle that is important to me, and a driving concept behind my program:  we must learn and grow in the Scriptures, but we also have to allow Biblical truth to determine our worldview and how we respond to the world around us.  That's why I attempt to highlight current issues, because I believe the Bible has something to say to us today about the times in which we are living.  We have to consider what we are bringing to the culture - and online media today represents a frontier through which the Lord is speaking.  He wants to use all of our voices in order to proclaim His truth.