Pastors, Criss Angel, and Humanity part 1

I know. Confusing title. Read on…The first episode of Criss Angel’s “Mindfreak” season 3 aired this week. It was OK. Not great, but ok. I really don’t have any respect for magicians who present themselves as some sort of “other being” with “powers.” My favorite magicians are the ones like the Houdini, David Copperfield, and Kreskin who insist (or insisted) on communicating their humanity. After all, your mother taught you, “beware of strangers” didn’t she? Performers like Angel send out a message that they are NOT one of us. Patent artificiality is not appealing to most people.It bugs me when magicians do that. But can you guess from the title of this post what bugs me even more? Pastors who do this same thing. Or anyone for that matter. You can layer your life with a polished, fake version of yourself that doesn’t really exist, or you can choose to be the person God made you to be. You communicate your humanity by being yourself. Artificiality rarely pays off with people. Yet, we see pastors all the time present themselves as a more enhanced, confident version of their real self.I met a pastor like this one time. He was speaking at an event to a large crowd and everyone seemed to be dieing for the guy to just go away. His talk was terrible, he came across as a jerk, and he just put all kinds of walls up between him and his audience.BUT, then I went to a smaller breakout seminar he taught. There were only about 20 people in the room and during this time together, his real self showed up. I instantly saw an improvement! He relaxed, just spoke plainly, and shared with sincere passion about his topic. He treated us with warmth and charm…the night before he was a completely different person.The contrast between these two experiences with this guy were a shock to me. But there is a great lesson behind it. When I saw the real guy, behind the curtain, I saw a likeable human being who I could connect with. He blasted away the walls that are generally between a speaker and an audience.And, as pastors, that is just our challenge. Churches have been putting up walls between the church and people who need Jesus for way too long now. We have to quit playing the “I don’t have any sin” image and start being a regular person. Oddly enough, they just want you to be you. Reveal yourself. Be transparent. Be real.How do you do that? More to come soon. I figured this blog is way too long already. Check back next week for tips on how we can reveal our humanity and be real!