Minor Christian Celebrity!

My friend Graeme absolutely made my day today! I got to the office and received a little button (badge) in the mail, which reads "Minor Christian Celebrity".

This little joke goes back to Blackstump 2006, when Mike Pilavacci spoke about the whole 'Minor Christian Celebrity' thing and how God brings you down to earth pretty quickly. If you're interested, email me and I'll tell you the story. But anyway, after Blackstump this became a little bit of an in-joke for those who were there. Afterwards, my dear friend Pete made me a t-shirt with "minor christian celebrity" written on it, and I was telling the crew from NYMC all about it. They found it as funny as I did.

It's so funny isn't it? That "Celebrity" has even infected the church... that we think that once we become "celebrities" we've made it! If people know our names, and talk about us in some way, we're suddenly special - or more important - or more scarily - more impressive to God. But doesn't the bible say "by your fruits you shall be known"? I mean, for some people, their fruits will be changing hundreds of lives through their preaching, but for others, it might be changing the lives of one or two people by the way you live out your life... it isn't about numbers or fame, it's about people, and allowing yourself to be used by Christ to impact lives.

But Graeme's pressie got me thinking you know - about where my life could have gone, had I decided not to return to The Salvation Army. Many of you know the decision for me to leave the Army was a painful one (the sort of pain I would not wish upon anyone), but because of it, I got to experience things I would NEVER have experienced without the time away. One of those things, was Blackstump - and the opportunity to preach at church, festivals and speaking in schools.

To be really honest, there is a bit of me that misses that. Not the speaking so much (I speak every week at Extreme Kids & Extreme Kids Live & Extreme Soldiers)but the things that go hand in hand with the preaching. I miss the community that develops when you're preparing a sermon, or for a festival, or for a seminar at a school. It's a unique group of people that you get to be around. And afterwards, because for some reason Preachers are held in such high regards (aka minor christian celebrity status), people wait to speak with you and you get to hear some really interesting stories from people you would never get to meet if you weren't preaching. These stories have impacted my life more than you could imagine - and often, I feel I've received more than I've given out!

Deciding to return to the Army, was a step away from that world. You see, the preaching opportunities outside of our church, probably won't happen now. The school seminars certainly won't (though as I wrote the other day, I'm going to be pushing that a bit more so that I can get young female preachers back on the agenda in the Salvos). It was a hard decision, because for the first time, I had to say "I'm willing to give up myself for the God to use me in the Army - give up my hopes, my dreams, my hurts - to be His servant, where I'm sent".

So in essence, I've kissed my wannabe "minor christian celebrity" days goodbye. Now I'm not saying that we thought or felt that we were celebrities - in fact we (by we I mean myself and one of my closest friends, who is one of the most gifted preachers I know and hopefully is getting more opportunities on the circuit - Praise God!) would often say "Anyone who thinks Preaching is a glamour gift, has never done it!" - if anything, the gift of preaching & teaching was more often a burden than it was a glamourous life (do you know the responsibility placed on you when you're teaching God's word!!!!). But whilst it was a lot of fun going to schools, festivals, bible colleges, churches and the likes, it was nerve wracking and a huge responsibility.

But mostly what I miss is the preparation of a sermon - the journey God takes you on before you preach. It's always a journey of pain, and self-discovery - God doesn't let you preach something you haven't lived. So I miss that journey so much.

But the really strange thing is, I'm so at peace with leaving it all behind. I'm so blessed now, God has given me a group of children to invest in, and is taking me on a journey with them.

I guess what I'm saying is that if I never become a Minor Christian Celebrity, that's okay. I want to be known by my fruits purely before God, not before man. And I'm praying that God looks upon the way I live my life in our local community, with our small but growing church, and says "it is good". And what could be better than that?