I opened up my e-mail box and in it was this e-mail from J Lee Grady:

Christian TV Needs an Extreme Makeover
We need so much more than canned church services beamed from La-La Land.

You might be shocked to know that I don’t watch a lot of Christian television. With my hectic schedule I don’t have time for too many talk shows. I do watch broadcast news, PBS documentaries and an occasional movie on AMC. When I am in total couch potato mode I’ve been known to watch reruns of Boy Meets World and America’s Funniest Home Videos with my kids.

But my children aren’t too fond of religious broadcasting, and I can’t blame them. I would rather sit in traffic and listen to my favorite worship music than watch a group of slick-haired evangelists gab about the importance of tithing. Who came up with this odd programming concept, anyway?

“If we get back in touch with reality, people will tune in by the millions.”

I know there are some great Bible teachers on the air today, and TV pioneers Marcus and Joni Lamb of Daystar Television are taking remarkable strides to improve the image of Christians in the media. (You can look for Charisma ’s cover story on the Lambs in two weeks.). But let’s be honest: While television is an incredible way to spread the gospel, Christian broadcasting today is a vast wasteland of missed opportunities.

I’d like to offer a few suggestions on how Christian TV executives could stop turning off viewers.

1. Get real. People are looking for authenticity, not hokum. When unbelievers see Christians on TV they need to know we have real human problems as well as practical answers. They don’t need to see religious masks, hear pat answers or be forced to decipher sappy religious lingo.

We must be as professional and sophisticated as possible when we go to the masses. National television is no place to be cheesy, flamboyant or weird.

2. Reset the clock. This is 2006. Much of Christian TV needs an extreme makeover. The gospel is timeless, of course, but that doesn’t mean we will attract a big audience if we package our message in an outdated style.

My generation is not going to watch a Christian version of Hee Haw or The Lawrence Welk Show .. I know of one prominent pastor who refers to typical Christian television as a “Granny Hootenanny” because the sets, music and preaching don’t appeal to anyone under 75. Christian networks need to hire some people under 30 and let them invent a new broadcasting formula.

3. Give us some substance. I realize that some people watch Christian TV instead of going to church. (That is actually a very scary thought). But since many of us already attend a worship service at least once a week, Christian programs should not be church services beamed from La-La Land. We need more than an inspirational song, canned applause, a sermon and a lengthy offering appeal. Help us apply the Word of God to everyday life!

4. Tone down the begging. Some Christian programs remind me of those mindless infomercials that air at 3 a.m. to entertain insomniacs. Except in this case, instead of movie stars from the 1970s selling face creams, diet shakes or vegetable storage systems, it’s Christian leaders gathering on the same set, night after night, to preach their favorite prosperity messages to one another.

They jostle to the music, slap one another’s backs and remind the audience that God will free them from debt if they charge a $1,000 love gift on their credit cards. Meanwhile, for effect, studio technicians play the sound of ringing telephones in the background (do phones still sound like that?) and they show an electronic board with a rapidly changing number of “available” phone lines.

Will someone please make them stop? This is bad advertising for the gospel. These people make it sound as if God is constantly running short on cash. Here’s an idea: Why couldn’t Christian stations have commercials? I’d rather hear from the eccentric local car dealer every 15 minutes than endure an hour of telethon torture.

5. Have some integrity. What really grieves me is that a network will put any old preacher on the air if he can wow a crowd. Never mind that his theology is toxic. Forget that he left his wife and married another lady a week later. He can sure get the people to shout—and to open their wallets!

I won’t be a guest on many Christian talk shows as a result of this article. But I hope someone out there in TV land is listening—and is willing to make today’s programming relevant to mainstream viewers who certainly are not going to find Jesus while watching CNN, HBO or MTV. If we get back in touch with reality, people will tune in by the millions.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.

The entire Christian media needs to reform, overhaul, and change. However, it will take more than an obnoxious metrosexual guy destroying a house and it will take more than putting seven strangers on an island, in a tour bus, or in an apartment.

It will take real people talking about their real problems in their real life.

I do not believe that ‘reality tv’ shows are real. If so, why are all the camera shots so perfectly taken with no ‘vibrations’ of the camera and no problems with makeup and lighting. Look at the television show C.O.P.S., the cameraman struggles with running with the action of a car chase or a suspect that has broken free from a police officer and you see the vibrations of the camera as he runs. You don’t see gala lighting effects nor have the police officers and crooks visited the wardrobe and makeup rooms prior to filming. You don’t see the same crime scene reshot numerous times before the perfect shot goes down.

We need to see real people talk about their reali life’s real problems. We need to see how the single-parent is making it and how God is doing it and not by sending in $66 a month for 12 months to receive the Psalms 66:12 blessing. We need to see normal families with only 2 children that consist of boys that are boys and girls that are girls talk about their Christian walk instead of Republican six-homeschooled kid, feminized dad, masculined ‘stay-at-home’ mom (who sells every MLM scheme after 5 PM) who lives in the Thomas Kinckade house of light. We need to see singles struggle with relationships and sexual purity talk about their struggles instead of kissing dating goodbye or going off looking for a Christian batchelor (or batchelorette) show to find their spouse. We need to see true financial advice for people who do not have the $50,000 disposible income to invest in the stocks and bonds market.

We need to see shows by real people who live with real neighbors in real neighborhoods who really understand life instead of these sheltered televangelists in their well-guarded subdivisions and their Jesus Jumbo Jet at their disposal. We need to see the real people talk about their struggles of sending their kids to public schools with the crack man on the corner and the pusher on the playground dealing with the bully in the bathroom. We need to see them discus overcoming financial obstacles when the kid gets sick, daddy loses his job, the refridgerator is empty, the rent and utilities are due, and the car breaks down. We need to see how neighborly they are when they have to deal with the neighbors that have lots of company on the weekends, the neighbors that party until 2 AM, the neighbors that you hear shouts from and see the wife the next morning with additional makeup on her face, and the neighbors that don’t cut their bushes or do not mow their yard regularly. We need to see if they talk to the neighbors or view them as the ‘sinners’.

We need to see shows of real Christians who are excellent musicians, actors, craftsmen, engineers, schlors, etc. and not the Christian banker or the professor of a Christian college no-one has ever heard of. Let’s hear from a Christian who repairs plumbing all day, collects the trash, works on a production line, drives a delivery truck, crunches numbers, provides service and support to customers, assist their dentist in filling a cavity, reads water meters, in the military, fixes your car, tests life saving products behind a closed door, and audits a bank for proper accounting.

We need to see people who got propserous by hard work, dilligence and ingenuity that testifies of faith without the use of words instead of a faith turned formula, cheating their employees, or a MLM for the masses. We need to see people publically express their outrage when a church puts an ATM machine in the lobby, when a Starbucks franchise is in the church, when a fanatic bombs an abortion clinic in the name of God, express outrage when Christians do stupid things for a publicity stunt that does not exalt Christ, and abhor and expose spiritual abuse within the body of Christ. We need to see before and after medical reports, x-rays, MRI’s, cat scans, and ultrasounds of people who are truly healed in our own city instead of reports of thousands of healings in the Third World that can not be documented and verified.

Please. No more faith checks, no more 119 dollars a month for 99 months to receive the Psalms 199:99 blessing. No more AK-47 in the spirit. No more ‘spiritual terrorist’ rants. No more ads for mega-feces colon cleansers, mega multivitamins, or super pure holy water from miracle springs. No more if we do not get the money, we will go off the air and/or God will kill us (if you don’t get it, go off the air). No more God’s politics rant of a utopia if we vote the right people in office. No more hurry up or you will miss the mega blessing. No more cheezy imitation of a secular advertising campaign. No more blaming the death of other Christians who disagreed with you because of secret sin, lacking faith, disagreeing with them (equated to disagreeing with God) and not praying hard enough or reading the Bible long enough.

We need people who will show us how they overcome with God no matter who the government is and not blame everything on the Democrats or the day Roe vs. Wade took place or when prayer was out of the public schools. We need people who put their faith and reliance on God instead of politicians and mega apostles. We need people who go onward and forward instead of finding the ‘bias’ with the news media while expressing their opinions as ‘truth and unbiased analysis’. Come now, face it. You are equally biased with your presentation from the opposite extreme.. We need to promote ‘us’ wanting to help ‘us and them’ instead of ‘us’ versus ‘them’.

We need to see televangelists who are willing to drive Chevrolets and Fords, fly commercial airlines and experience a TSA checkpoint with no more chek mix and half a can of coca-cola on the three hour flight, stay at the Comfort Inn, and eat at Applebees and properly tip the waitress instead of leaving a gospel track. We need to see televangelists who will walk with common people at a Wal-Mart instead of being surrounded by the Pentecostal Pistol Packed Posse while shopping down Rodeo Drive.

We need to see televangelists who will give an altar call, who will actually perform expository preaching instead of God’s Official Perspective on washing your hands, HR Bill 109, and what happens to those who disagree or do not send them money. We need no more Christian movie reviewers’ harping on the 12.456384634895 references to profanity along with the 8.3 with a bar over the three references to violence. We need sermons throughout the year instead of political speeches called sermons in October and sermons on tithing only when we need a new building or a bigger Lexus in the driveway.

Not only do the televangelist needs a taste of real life, the pundits of religious right radio that preaches ‘right wing politics’ (aka a sermon) from the ‘left end of the dial’ need the same taste. The christian book and magazine authors need it also. The ones who brag about increasing our (and their) pocketbook may need to hear our voice via our pocketbooks saying ‘no more’ and the Neilsen ratings saying ‘no more’. The ones bragging about the need for a Political Pentateuch need to hear ‘no more’ of your politics and ‘no more’ politics behind suppressing other Christians who disagree with you.

Instead of this, we need to see a little more of this.

We do not need another Christian Disneyland. We need to see examples of real Christians who properly behave at Disneyland.

We do not need another law passed. We need to see examples of real Christians who are blessed and thrive when laws work against them.

We do not need another ‘got Jesus gimmick’. We need to see examples of real Christians who speak and demonstrate Christianity by their actions and use words only when necessary.

We do not need another threat alert. We need to see examples of real Christians who overcome the threat.

We do not need another paranoia inspired rally. We need to see examples of real Christians with peace and persistence.

We do not need another ‘you are gonna miss the blessing if you don’t respond’ plea. We need to see examples of real Christians who choose to miss the christian television show and pleas with God in the darkest hours.

Not only do the televangelist needs to Bust the bubble, we need to also Bust The Bubble

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