Over on the Ref21 blog a few weeks back Carl Trueman posted a short series on Christian celebrity, which ruffled some feathers. (The series starts here)
I felt Trueman landed some good punches in this sequence, but was also off target in a few places. For instance, this suggestion is an interesting one:
Market conferences on the basis of content not speakers. Send a clear signal - from the design of the webpage to the wording of the fliers - that it is what is to be said, not who is saying it, that is important. Indeed, maybe one could be really radical: do not even let people know who is speaking; just tell them the titles of the talks. "Ah, but then no-one will come!", you say. Well, if that is true, then the case for saying that conferences are all about idolising celebrities would seem to be irrefutable. For me, I believe many people would still attend. They will want the encouragement and the fellowship and the battery recharging. If your organization has a reputation for excellence, people will know that you will have assembled a great team even if you do not tell them the names.
Where I think Trueman is off target here is in failing to see the importance of names. Firstly, if “your organization has a reputation for excellence” that means your organization has a name and people attend because of the name. And the name it has will be because of the names associated with it. Why do people go to Acts29 conferences? Because they like Mark Driscoll. Willow Creek conferences? Because they like Bill Hybels. Newfrontiers conferences? Because they like Terry Virgo. And so on.
Secondly, we should not overlook the fact that the Bible is a book of names – hundreds and hundreds of them. Clearly names are important to God, and the name that someone has is important. The way we know someone is by their name – not only a label of, “this is Mr S-and-So” but “the person known by this name represents this.” So I don’t see the problem in going to a conference because of the names that are there – the names represent something.
However, the promo video that has just been released for next years Together for the Gospel conference got me thinking that Trueman might be right in some important respects.
In this video there is no reference to content whatsoever. It is all about the names. They are good names – names I would like to hear preach, and have heard preach, and whose books I have read, and blogs I have followed. But it does seem a little odd – when you think about it – that we so value name over content.
Perhaps we do have a celebrity problem? Perhaps we are getting a little too Corinthian?
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