Ask the Pastor: What About Internet Pastors?
Ask the Pastor is a regular column at Every Reason to Believe where pastor Reagan Marsh answers a variety of reader questions about ministry, Christianity, the church, and more…all from the perspective of the pulpit. You can find all of his articles here.
What About Internet Pastors?
How should Christians think about the concept, “My pastor is ‘Celebrity Pastor Smith,’ whose church is 8 states away”? It seems to have risen in popularity in recent years, and people seem to think that watching an online sermon video or livestream is sufficient spiritual nourishment for their soul.
I’m profoundly thankful for the many blessings that are afforded to the Church today via the internet.
Ours is an age with an embarrassment of theological riches which our forefathers couldn’t begin to imagine accessing: free online articles, ebooks, podcasts, sermons, lectures, apps, and more, all on-demand, 24/7. I use these tools frequently and gratefully.
If your primary spiritual formation—the dominant influences in your soul and thought—come from those who do not know your name, you should tremble.”
But if your primary spiritual formation—the dominant influences in your soul and thought—come from those who do not know your name, you should tremble.
Let me say that differently: if you consistently discount or dismiss the words of those who care of your soul, in favor of the words of those who speak only on your device, you are sinfully proud: self-reliant, self-willed, self-interested.
Your view of Christian worship, the human soul, and the very nature of the church is warped and unbiblical.
No church or session (team of elders) is infallible; there are always points where any given body of leadership should grow and sharpen.
The internet offers the subtle attractiveness and ready availability of men who far outpace your local pastor in biblical knowledge, theological acumen, verbal polish, and the flourish of charisma.
But those who know your soul watch over it and will account to God for you (Heb. 13:7, 13:17).
They see you, but that “big name” will never know yours. They pray for you, walk with you, counsel you in your distresses, discipline you in your sin, instruct you in your need, serve you in your worship, guard you in guarding the flock, and teach you the Word of God that you may see its beautiful Lord on its pages.
“We are shaped Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day as we come together under the ordinary means of grace to hear ordinary men of God care for ordinary souls in light of the anything-but-ordinary gospel of grace.”
This comes in the context of the gathered body: the family of God, the sheep of his pasture, the household of faith. The saints walk together in this life as “members of one another” (Rom. 12:5).
We are shaped Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day as we come together under the ordinary means of grace to hear ordinary men of God care for ordinary souls in light of the anything-but-ordinary gospel of grace.
Unless there is significant error—on the level of straying from the safe pastures of the Apostles’ or Nicene creeds, or losing sight of foundational biblical and confessional matters—submit yourself to God’s providence in giving you to the care of your elders.
Heed their counsel, submit to their oversight, apply their teaching, and be thankful that the God who sovereignly called you by name has given you men who know it and hold it dear.
Reagan Marsh, MATS, MDiv (eq.) is founding pastor-teacher to Reformation Baptist Church of Dalton, GA. A certified biblical counselor, Reagan took MATS and MDiv study at NOBTS and SBTS, and is a ThM candidate at CBTS researching Hercules Collins’s pastoral theology under Tom Nettles. He has served in gospel ministry since 1998 and he writes and contributes to numerous Christian publications.
Image Credit: Benediction of the Pope on Easter Sunday by Unknown (1880s). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 60.611.31.
Thank you for reading this article about internet pastors.