Orland Evangelical Free Church | Will Young People Heed the Telespirit?

After World War II, the idea was to get the largest possible audience for Christ through mass media. Evangelicals embraced TV wholeheartedly and the word "telecast" became a kind of ministry status symbol. The massive crusades of evangelists like Billy Graham were broadcast to millions, and indeed many came to Christ.

This moment was the apotheosis of revivalism, a set of methods with a dubious record.

In the early 1800s, at the peak of the Second Great Awakening, revivalists like Charles Finney traveled the countryside drawing large crowds. They used the emotional dynamics of crowds skillfully, creating an impression of a supernatural move of the Spirit. But when the revival ended, most of the converts reverted to hard living.

Today many younger people view TV evangelism, with its even more sophisticated manipulations, as inauthentic. They have become jaded by seeing too many weepy souls whose eternal life never made it past the stadium exits.

There are several other factors behind this growing rejection of revivalism.

The reformed movement, with its emphasis on the sovereignty of God over people's salvation, has given theological reasons why the revivalists' converts so often wilt in the sun. The revivalists seem to spend so much time on theatrics that the source of their authority shifts away from God's word. What the reformed movement has not supplied is a renewed vision for evangelism.

The emergent church movement has pounded the fakery of revivalist methods, losing no opportunity to deplore the TV-ness of it all. This group seeks a return to an authentic relational dynamic in churches. But it lacks a coherent theology, or even a telling critique of contemporary society. Ironic attitudinizing is not enough.

The internet is still another factor. As a medium, TV is receding from its position of comprehensive dominance to a merely significant presence. Younger people live in the customized world of the home page, not the standardized world of the telecast.

For myself, I would be a happier man if I never heard another revivalist. The populist rant leaves me cold. The oily, canned mannerisms appall me, frankly. I detect behind these tactics a disreputable appeal to people's self-complacency. For all their sound and fury, I just feel these performers lack guts.

The way the gospel will succeed today is likely through the witness of a community, not a performer. Local strength is desperately needed, not more telecasts. And I would define local strength as a church's fluency interacting with individuals. Can a church adopt individuals, disciple them, deal with them in their personal niches?

The church that has this strength will spread the gospel.