Authenticity is a huge buzzword in Christian circles these days, as younger generations clamor for a faith and church that is real and not afraid to be who they are, in all their glory and shame. But one pastor recently decided to take authenticity to a whole other level. This Sunday, beginning at 9:00 PM, Pastor Troy Gramling of Flamingo Road Church in Cooper City, Florida will become the naked pastor. Not THAT kind of naked… the transparent kind. Pastor Gramling has had webcams set up in his house, car, office and a hotel that will be displaying his life 24/7 over the internet on www.mynakedpastor.com for all to see. Not just for a day or two – for the next FIVE WEEKS (thanks to Monday Morning Insight for the tip).
Now, I know many preachers and teachers who have used the line “What if your life was being displayed on a big TV for everyone to see? How would that change the way you lived?” in their messages on integrity and holy living. But this is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone take that question seriously and sign up for the opportunity (let alone bring their wife and three kids along for the ride)!
I see Pastor Gramling’s experiment in authentic living as a creative harnessing of the interest generated by two recent phenomena. One is the heightened awareness of fallen clergy. While I am sure there were always pastors and clergy falling into immorality and out of their jobs, with the rise of the Internet it can sometimes seem like there is a new one every week. On a national level, think of Ted Haggard, Colorado megachurch pastor and crusader against same-sex marriage, having a secret affair with a male prostitute. And on a local level, think of Modesto Reyes, the 52 year-old pastor of Iglesia De Dios “Cristo te Llama” Church in Hartford, who recently was arrested for sexually assaulting an eleven year-old girl whom he impregnated. Clergy scandals can’t help but contribute to a growing suspicion that any preacher who seems to have it all together must have a lot of dark secrets hiding in his closet.
The second phenomenon is the increasing opportunity for and interest in voyeurism. Popular television has exploded in the last decade with reality show after reality show, giving us the opportunity to watch complete strangers interact in all manner of living situations and competitions (think Big Brother or Survivor). And anyone who owns a webcam can broadcast their lives for all to watch anonymously on the Internet. And believe it or not, more and more people are watching.
Enter the Naked Pastor.
So what is to be gained from this experiment, besides increased publicity for Flamingo Road Church? For one thing, Pastor Gramling will be preaching a five-week series on Sundays based on his personal struggles during the experiment, with titles like “I Fight,” “I Get Angry,” “I Get Tired,” “I Get Insecure,” and “I Get Tempted.” His hope is to share about his struggle to live with integrity, while at the same time living it out for all to see. On the one hand, this five-week experiment will reveal that although he is a pastor, he is human and imperfect just like everyone else, that he also loses his temper with his kids, fights with his wife, and gets tempted in various ways. And by doing that, his experiment will hopefully bring more glory to the God who does not dismiss imperfect people but uses them to do His good work. On the other hand, it will also hopefully combat the cynical belief of many outside the church that pastors are simply charlatans preaching one thing but living the opposite. With the cameras rolling, Gramling will have five weeks to show the world that he is not perfect, but that he is also not a fraud.
So what is your reaction to this experiment?
I have a few thoughts. The first is that I could NEVER see myself doing this at this time in my life. My second thought is, why not??? I know that I would be beyond embarrassed to have my private moments out there for all to see at this stage of my life. In many ways, I feel like I struggle too much with trying to live up to some sort of standard that I’ve set for myself – a man of God who always puts God first and never gives in to sin; a husband who knows how to lead his family and communicate well with his wife; a father who doesn’t lose his temper with his children. Maybe I could pull it together for one day, but no doubt five weeks of constant scrutiny would reveal me as the selfish, lazy, un-Christlike man that I so often am. I’m afraid that if the webcams were on 24/7, people would be calling for my resignation by the end of Week 1!
At the same time, this is what I’ve learned about failure and the struggle to live up to the standard we’ve set for ourselves – 95% of you can relate, and the other 5% probably don’t have any standards for yourself. I have always found it refreshing and hope-inspiring to hear someone talk about their failures. If you are walking closely with Jesus or successfully leading some church or ministry, I praise God for that. But I also know that deep down, I need to know that there were times that you struggled and failed in your efforts to follow Jesus or lead that church or ministry. I need to know that your life hasn’t always been lived at some spiritual level ten stories above my head, because that gives me hope that despite my failures and struggles, God might bring me to that place someday as well. And when I get there, I hope that I don’t get amnesia about all that He had to bring me through to get there, so that I might give that same hope to those looking up to me.
So I say give a round of applause to Pastor Troy Gramling for his experiment. In many ways, I feel like this man has thrown down the gauntlet: Don’t talk about being real unless you’re not afraid to have people see you at your best and at your worst. Don’t preach about being a church that loves people as they are unless you’ve actually seen people as they really are. And don’t talk about authenticity unless you’re willing to put a webcam on your life 24/7.
What do you think of the experiment? Would you be brave enough to do the same in your life?
Write a comment