Line Upon Line

I found the following item from Charisma News Service, while going through my email early this morning.

Christian "American Idol"-style Talent Show Coming to TBN

Best known for its televangelists, Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) has announced plans for a Christian version of the popular "American Idol" TV show. "Gifted" is scheduled to debut in October on the world's largest religious TV network. The Wright Entertainment Group, is part of a joint venture with Matt Crouch, son of TBN's founders, to search for a singer with a divine voice.

"God gives us so many gifts, but we reach for the one with the prettiest wrapping. In a world where MTV dictates trends and pop stars become idols, Christianity seems to be wrapped in conditions and judgments. It is our goal to wrap God's message--His love--in acceptance, and in a way that blends seamlessly into 'pop' culture while still upholding the values we, as Christians, value most," Wright Generation's mission statement reads. Crouch said that "quality programming is what Christian broadcasting has been waiting for desperately."

The new show will be "the first time ever that a Christian show would rival the quality of network broadcast production," he said. A summer bus tour to 11 TBN stations is planned, where auditions will be held for solo singers, ages 18-24. Contestants will perform gospel or contemporary spiritual songs.

Is It Just Me?

Now, is it just me, or does this seem like a really bad idea?

Dr. Joseph Chavez, Sr., Pastor of Phoenix Inner City Church in Phoenix, evidently doesn't think so. He's almost giddy at the thought, saying,

"What a powerful and positive message this is sending our community of believers around the world! To have Trinity Broadcasting Network lead the way in crossing over dynamic programming and motion pictures while creating a visible presence in a secular marketplace that has been closed for so many years is outstanding. We rejoice with TBN and WDC in this awesome collaboration."

Dr. Chavez is rejoicing, and I am grieving. Go figure.

In my humble opinion, the search to find the "most gifted" singer will only encourage envy and jealousy, and who knows what other carnal things. And I imagine there will be heartbreak and tears and disappointment along the way, too, as the "rejects" are tossed aside. We can only hope they'll be let down "easy." How about:

"Sorry, dear sister, you're not as good as the rest.
You have failed the ultimate 'gifted' test.
You don't measure up, so you're out of here,
But, remember, God loves you, so be of good cheer!"

Coincidentally...

I subscribe to A.Word.A.Day, an email newsletter that features a new "word" each day. Today's word is "zany." Zany is defined as, "amusingly strange, comical, or clownish." How apt--especially after reading about TBN's "Gifted" competition. Many things have been done through the years "in the name of Jesus" and "for the sake of the Gospel"--but this, my friend, has got to be one of the zaniest of them all!

The King James Version of 1 Peter 2:9* might be appropriate here, "But ye are a...peculiar people." Little did the apostle know just how peculiar we would become.

God save the Church.

think on these things...

2 Kings 17:13-15 (NLT)
Again and again the Lord had sent his prophets and seers to warn both Israel and Judah: "Turn from all your evil ways. Obey my commands and laws, which are contained in the whole law that I commanded your ancestors and which I gave you through my servants the prophets." But the Israelites would not listen. They were as stubborn as their ancestors and refused to believe in the Lord their God. They rejected his laws and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and they despised all his warnings. They worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They followed the example of the nations around them, disobeying the Lord's command not to imitate them.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4 (NLT)
Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn't talk to you as I would to mature Christians. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk and not with solid food, because you couldn't handle anything stronger. And you still aren't ready, for you are still controlled by your own sinful desires. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn't that prove you are controlled by your own desires? You are acting like people who don't belong to the Lord. When one of you says, "I am a follower of Paul," and another says, "I prefer Apollos," aren't you acting like those who are not Christians?

Philippians 2:3 (NLT)
Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.

*Note on 1 Peter 2:9: In our modern language, to be "peculiar" means: "to be odd, queer, weird, or different in a quirky sort of way." But the word, peripoiesis, translated "peculiar" in the KJV, actually means, "purchased or acquired." We are a people who have been acquired by God through the blood of Jesus Christ. We are His possession." Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary says "peculiar," as used in the phrase "peculiar people" in 1 Pet. 2:9, is derived from the Lat. peculium, and denotes, as rendered in the Revised Version ("a people for God's own possession"), a special possession or property. The church is the "property" of God, his "purchased possession" (Eph. 1:14; R.V., "God's own possession").