Weeks ago, while viewing the tweets of people I follow, I discovered that twitterer “PhilCooke” (media consultant, author, and founder of “The Change Revolution” blog had offered his latest book The Last TV Evangelist: Why the Next Generation Couldn’t Care Less About Religious Media free as a pdf download for one day only.

I “bit” on the download offer and decided to download the book and add it to my list of books and split my time reading all these books. What ended up happening was that I ended up spending more time reading this book while temporarily placing aside the other books until I finished this one.

There were two things that attracted me to the book:

(1): The Product description of:

An Insider’s Look At the World of Religious Media…and What’s Coming Next! Religious radio and TV has built massive networks, launched global organizations,and generated billions of dollars in donations. It has allowed Christianity to reach more people in this century alone than the rest of history combined. But that impact has come with a price. Sex and money scandals, political controversies, and the prosperity gospel have taken their toll on the perception of Christians in the culture. Religious Media has Alienated a Generation. TV evangelists with fake hair and gold furniture, tasteless programming, and hard core fund raising pitches have reached embarrassing levels, and young people today want nothing to do with it. But a New Revolution is Happening in Religious Media. With more than three decades of experience in both faith-based and secular media, Phil Cooke explores what it will take to reach the next generation, before the entire industry experiences total collapse.

and…

(2): The frequent visits to the author’s blog via RSS. Even though I sometimes disagree with some of the ideas presented, I do have a high level of respect for the author and his blog because his blog is addressing an interesting spectrum dealing with the pros and cons of the mingling of Christianity to media and showing us a side that would many years ago never be seen.

The author does a very good job of discussing the fake hair, gaudy sets, cheesy music, outdated fashion styles, and pleas for more future mismanaged money and how that has turned off a new generation of “millenniums” from even tuning in to the point of having to change not only the presentation (without compromising the Gospel) but how we pushed the content into the newer media avenues such as cellphones, twitter, facebook, Internet, apps, etc.

The author has realized that the newer generations do not look at newspapers, magazines, and go as far as to block out the religious channels via their remote controls on their HDTV. They use the Internet via their netbooks and cellphones to socially network, view videos on YouTube, and have portable, short, and concise content that can be easily read and understood in a very short period of time. In fact, these same people do not have land line telephones, they use these same cellphones and netbooks to converse via IM and e-mail, and pay bills online via e-commerce or automatic bank drafts. In other words, they rarely open their mailbox nor visit a post office thereby rendering old methodologies of communication such as phone calls, donor letters, and junk mail ineffective.

In fact, these same people are more likely to purchase their Bibles and what Christian music and books they need from Amazon.com (for their mp3 and kindle) than their local Christian bookstore. They are more likely to skip church on many Sundays and instead download a video sermon on their laptop and take their portable device to Starbucks and listen / view the sermon over a latte, mocha, or frappachino. In fact, many do not even watch Christian TV when at home nor listen to Christian radio in their car on the way to work. They get their video and music from YouTube or subscribe to a podcast via their iTunes account.

Their mode of media and communication is portable while the previous generation’s method of communication and media is stationary.

How do we motivate the stationary generation to become portable missionaries in their hometown to outreach the lost and disciple the baby Christians? How do we get the portable generation to increase their attention spans to stay stationary for a longer period of time to listen and meditate on the words of Christ for at least five minutes?

How do we reach this new generation of portability without giving them the same gaudy mindsets while at the same time not re-create the “new gaudy via new technologies” and another “new Christian Ghetto, bubble, or bomb shelter” with another new realm of Jesus Junk of a bluetooth headset with a cross silk-screened on it?

This is the same generational mindset that will not work at a fast-food joint, a department store, or serve in the armed forces (unless they absolutely have to) because they have to wear a uniform that stifles their individuality and pigeon-holes them into being a “brainwashed corporate clone”. This is the same mindset that according to a new survey I recently read, are turning down jobs from employers in the midst of this recession because their employer has policies prohibiting their personal cellphones, bluetooth headsets, netbooks, mp3 players, and laptops in the workplace and also have corporate internet filtering / management productivity solutions that prohibit access to news, Craigslist / eBay, sports, mp3 file sharing, iTunes / Zune Marketplace, audio / video streaming from either a radio station, XM/Sirius, YouTube, Vimeo, instant messaging protocols (AIM, Y!, ICQ, etc.), online shopping, and social networking sites like Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook.

I have the same question that the author has as I have seen the same ministries turn their respective Internet pages into the mirror images of their television and radio shows with the same gaudy aesthetics (even the Flash is overkill), stale programming, yelling about how the “DEMONcrats” are stealing the country, sermons geared around pleading for money, and “profit pimping” via the selling of their books and DVD’s.

The “word of Faith” cowboy and his pink haired “cupie-doll” wannabe wife birthed the satellite tv network known for the gold furniture and the Gone With The Wind southern plantation appearance that eventually birthed their current purple “cluttered” looking web page.

The reality is that it’s not enough to change the format of the television and radio shows. Their attitude towards the Internet must change. I am afraid that in order to bring in the change, some of these well established ministries may have to experience the dinosaur mindset and eventually become extinct. Have we gone from one stage of gaudiness of a “word of Faith” cowboy and his pink haired “cupie-doll” wannabe wife to the present gaudiness of the feminized “butterfly kissing” Republican looking dad with the supermodel “Barbie” wife with the six home-schooled Precious Moment figurine looking kids raking the leaves in front of their Thomas Kinkade looking house in their Sunday clothes? If the change that the author mentions does take place, will the new gaudiness years later be the bluetooth headset or the media driven web page design with static pictures?

The author is correct that the mentality of the gaudy set, uniformed singing band, stale messages, and fake hair has to go from the corporate boardrooms of these ministries and he offers good solutions from such concepts as pleas for more money to more mismanage must be replaced with “cause giving” with proven physical and tangible results. “Cookie Cutter Christians” with perfect lifestyles must be replaced with real and authentic people who survived, prospered, and years later are still surviving and prospering after the TV cameras and fifteen minutes of fame have left and their effectiveness for raising money has came and went.

The previous generation wanted results in terms of numbers and money. Today’s Christian wants to see results in terms of tangibly measured change in the lives of people.

Today’s Christian wants to see a truly changed life from addiction to freedom still working years later. Today’s Christian wants to see an impoverished people group changed from poverty and anarchy to working industriousness / diligence with an established justice system of law and order in place. Today’s Christian does not want to give to get back, but to give in order to give back more when signs of reform and progress is evident. Today’s Christian does not want a sermon to be another home shopping infomercial for “washed up” celebrity endorsed products that make real people fake (and fake people more fake) or another covert political rant written by 501c3 loophole lawyers, they want a sermon to be based on the inspired Word and voice of God that will exchange ashes for beauty, mourning for the oil of joy, and the spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise.

If they want to see poverty and anarchy, they will stay home and watch another documentary on NatGeo. If they want to watch an infomercial, they will stay home and watch home shopping floozies broadcasting from QVC. If they want to discuss politics, they will stay home and watch CNN…..

or Tivo these shows and watch them at their convenience after they get back from the breakfast house, bookstore, Starbucks, or the gym.

But as the author promised on discussing the insides of major Christian media ministries, the author delivers by revealing (without giving names) some of the harsh realities that takes place within many major Christian ministries such as

cut-throating over small amounts of money to damage long-term partnerships.

nit-picking over ‘issues’ that were never issues (swallowing elephants and choking on gnats

saving money was more important to the point that if reducing the quality and presentation was needed, it was done

change may lead us to compromising the Gospel and eventually to the mark of the beast

change in generational leaders that want change but fear doing so in the name of losing money still received based on “daddy’s legacy” instead of the anointing of God

The author is 100% correct and I think he even held back because of some of relationships he may still have with some of his clients. One of the endorsements at the front of the book seem to imply that same mindset by stating:

We love The Last TV Evangelist, but if we published it, we would
jeopardize our relationship with too many TV ministries.

A Major Religious Publisher

If that ringing endorsement is true (and I believe it is), then is the crux of the problem really the aesthetics and technology? Or is additionally rooted in either an “old guard mindset” that feels threatened or is it rooted in an ‘once thriving ministry with original good intent and purpose’ that eventually ended up being more hungry for money, power, and control instead of being hungry for God’s word and souls to be saved?

In summary, the book is a clarion call for reform that is so desperately needed within the industry of Christian media and I highly recommend this book for reading to those who are open with change and are fed up with the status quo that wants to retain their control and make two-dimensional mass-produced Christian Clones who know more about who to vote for in the next election than knowing the Scriptures to become authentic disciples of Christ. The change in the quality of the presentation of true Biblical Christianity needs to start from the major television and radio ministries and work it’s way down to the local church on public access television with the blurry VHS camera with poor audio quality. It needs to extend from the major Godly web pages to a “rogue and pirate, reforming, post-political” (in the eyes of major Christian ministries) blog like mine. It needs to move away from reactionary copycat Christian ghetto alternative sites for every famous secular web site to innovative original content with quality audio and video consisting of non-condescending speech and non-covert hyper-political overtones. It needs to move away from rapture ready movies starring washed up bit-part actors turned Christian that I “left behind” many years ago to real-life stories where Christians reached out to the downcast and brought hope, life, and the Good News of the Gospel to that individual. The change that is needed must be total and widespread and not just another lackluster effort to ‘just do enough’ to look as if we change but the mindset of maintaining control is still the same.

We were never supposed to war against culture, we were instead supposed to engage and live in culture. PERIOD!

The shift in media is here to stay and the Christian media outlet that can shift into higher quality media content without theologically shifting away from the Gospel while at the same time do without the condescending speech, semi-annual “Raise-A-T(h)ons with the same two fundraisers (Munsey and Murdock)”, cheezy rapture movies, calls for boycotts, infomercials for mega-vitamins / detoxifiers / colon cleansers, caricatures that strut on a stage like roosters, pleas for more money promising money in return, and hyper-political overtones will be the big winner in the long run.

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