Pros and Cons of Being on TV
I majored in TV and radio broadcasting in college and I have been on TV and radio preaching the Word and singing. Yet I’ve never televised our church services at this writing. TV has its pros and cons to be aware of before you decide that you want to be on TV or live-stream your services on the internet.
Pro #1: More People Hear the Word
I’ve ministered to a lot more people remotely than I could ever do live. TV and radio were NOT invented by the devil so that he could wave sin and corruption at you all day. God set the earth up in a way that allows these powerful tools to be used for good or bad, so why not use them for good?
Pro #2: More Exposure
From a strictly “business” standpoint, you get more exposure. You get to have people that you’ve never met come up to you and tell you that they liked what you did on TV. From a natural perspective, more exposure beats less exposure any day! It can lead to more preaching opportunities.
Pro #3: People Who Would Miss Out on the Service Can Still Catch It
If you miss a service that isn’t captured on video, you just plain miss out. If the service is televised, you can go to an archive (in most cases) and see the service anyway.
Pro #4: The Service Can Be Part of an Ongoing Teaching Archive
Even people who weren’t saved when you first preached a message can benefit from it if your services are archived online.
Pro #5: Acting Instead of Complaining
Anyone can complain that Christian TV tends to be shallow, but not everyone does something about it! Rather than complaining about superficial sermons on TV, why not do something to help SOLVE the problem and put some real meat out there in a realm that has plenty of “feel-good” messages that talk only about the blessings that the Lord has for YOU. While such messages are needed as well as popular, people also need to hear about what the Lord expects FROM them, which tends to be a less popular topic.
Con #1: Time Constraints
Many times your TV production has to fit within a certain exact amount of time. The carrier of your content, for fairly obvious reasons, does not want you to deviate from that time. But what if the Holy Spirit wants to keep moving when your time slot is up? Worse yet, what are you going to do when He is DONE moving before your time is up?
Because of the way that I flow, I find it hard to preach under an arrangement that locks me into a fixed time frame, though I have still done it. If I were pastoring and I felt that our services HAD to be on local cable, I’d want to edit it down to the required time afterward rather than having to constantly watch a clock, which is very distracting! But editing is a lot of extra work and it precludes live service broadcasts. Some services can be a lot longer than others when you follow the Holy Spirit. My mode of operation was, “I’m done when He’s done!” I want to make sure that the Holy Spirit can be in charge with me underneath Him, rather than having someone in a media office really be in charge of how much can happen.
Time constraints can force Spirit-filled services to be just as rigid and predictable (and often as dry) as those services where they hand out a printed order of worship that gets followed no matter what!
Maybe you can handle time constraints better than I can, and if you can have miracles doing that, go for it! I just know what’s worked best for me – follow the Holy Spirit and not a clock – and have miracles!
Of course, the flip side is that if you DON’T agree to some kind of time constraint, no one may see you on TV at all and your message will reach far fewer people. Streaming on the internet where you control the service length gives you more leeway than a fixed broadcast slot.
What if your church has multiple services? You have to watch the clock, don’t you, except in the last service? I suppose so, but what can happen is that the second of two services can end up a lot more “Spirit-filled” than the first service because there was more latitude for the Spirit to move in the second service. Even then, if the idea is to keep both services perfectly in sync so that you’ve said the same things and anyone can come to either service on any given week and pick up where last week left off, your second service will in effect have the same time constraint as the first one. Having two services IS a money-saver vs. having a bigger facility that can fit everyone in one service, but “syncing” services and having a hard time constraint in the first service are drawbacks.
What if you’re traveling and the host pastor gives you time constraints? Simple – he has spiritual authority over his services, so you do what he says! ALWAYS. You don’t overstep your time and apologize later with the lie that that the Holy Spirit told you to violate the pastor’s rules. If I feel that I can work within whatever constraints there are, I’ll go ahead. Otherwise, I can decline before making any commitment if I’d feel too stifled by a time limit that I think is too short for the kind of ministry I do.
On the other hand, while preparing short messages is harder than preparing long ones, it’s good discipline. I actually put together a set of 45-SECOND sermons on healing for the radio. Every fraction of a second counted, and it was good practice to have to be that concise to get points across.
Con #2: Temptation to “Nicen Up” the Gospel
You will face temptation to back off of certain “disturbing” themes for fear of alienating viewers. You do not want to be a cowardly compromiser who never treads into topics like hell, sin, repentance, judgment, mortifying the flesh, fasting, suffering persecution, abortion, homosexuality, exhortations to avoid specific sins or other things that no one’s flesh wants to hear about but are still in the New Testament. Being unnecessarily confrontational is no good either, but there can be the nagging thought that stepping on a “land mine” doctrine will cost you half your viewers. Look at the lyrics in much Christian music today if you don’t think that people will avoid tough topics in exchange for greater acceptance and sales. Don’t ever let that be you.
Con #3: Extra Effort and Expense
You will need more equipment and helpers to be on TV. The TV scene is not cheap. This can lead to the temptation to get gimmicky in your fundraising – a VERY common problem in today’s Christian broadcasting world. I’ve cut off support to three ministries that I liked (at this writing) just because I couldn’t stand their silly fundraising stunts. In the most recent case, the issue was “urgent” appeals about the SAME situation, presented repeatedly in reruns over a period of YEARS as if it just came up yesterday.
I did about 100 segments on a cable series that was syndicated to local cable outlets, but I was giving up my Saturdays to do them. (At least we’d tape several in advance at a time.) It was OK for a season but not for an ongoing lifestyle while also working a “regular” job.
Con #4: Temptation to Be Sensational
You can be tempted to “hype” things to attract and keep viewers rather than just presenting the meat of the gospel. I’ve seen more than my fill of “Christian hype.” People could think that you’re “boring” if all you do is feed people the Word. This could lead to the additional temptation of seeking spectacular divine encounters, which is completely unscriptural! An exciting testimony about visiting heaven on the show before yours comes on, or having an angel tell someone what’s ahead for your country in the next ten years on the show after your show comes on would be a much bigger draw. But the day you start pining for such things is the day you’ve set yourself up for deception! No offense to Christian TV as a whole, but I’ve been disgusted by the number of sensational prophecies, often from prominent ministers, that never came to pass. I daresay I’ve heard more of those than ones that actually happened over the years. Everyone got all excited at the time about someone’s extreme spiritual encounter, but what does it say about your ministry when it turns out that what you said would happen never did? A few of us out there actually take notes on the more dramatic recent prophecies and check up on them later, which is quite disheartening (but educational) when it comes to which ministers REALLY hear from God when they claim that they do. (By the way, it’s not the end of the world is someone does miss God, but it shouldn’t be a pattern.)
In particular, the seemingly obligatory “What is this coming year the year of?” prophecies around January 1st can get silly. Let me guess…it will be the year of miracles, the year of the Holy Spirit, the year of revival, the year of breakthrough, the year of spiritual gifts, the year of sudden increase, the year of divine favor, the year of outpourings, the year of unprecedented prosperity, the year of “more,” …just like the previous many years when a similar prophecy was given and we were all hard-pressed to see how that year’s prophecy was fulfilled in any meaningful way. I’ve always assumed that it’s ALWAYS the year of big blessings because every year in this era is the “acceptable year of the Lord” and all blessings are already mine in Christ. Maybe God uses you differently than He does me, but I’ve never seen a need to redefine my ministry emphasis every time we change calendars on the wall, as if God is going to do something new every year that has never before been seen under the sun. People can get healings and miracles EVERY year if you’ll teach the Word and be open to the Holy Spirit’s leading!
The Lord had some fun with my wife when she tried asking Him about the coming year some years ago. She asked, “What is this the year of?” and He said, “This is the year of creative miracles.” The next year she asked the same question and He said again, “This is the year of creative miracles.” She asked the next year and He said, “This is the year of creative miracles.” She said, “But that’s what You always say!” He said, “That’s right – EVERY year is the year of creative miracles!” She no longer asks what the next year will be “of!” He made His point. You don’t have to wait for a special year for something when we’re always in the acceptable year of the Lord!
It is interesting that Agabus, a true New Testament prophet, only foretold a famine and trouble for Paul – hardly happy-clappy material. Jesus foretold Peter’s crucifixion and Jerusalem’s downfall. He prophesied to the church at Smyrna that the devil was going to throw some of them into prison. When you start thinking about them, many New Testament prophesies are quite dire about what the last days will be like, how perilous the times will be, and what judgment on the earth will be like. New Testament prophecy is not always turning to several people in a line and telling them that God will greatly expand their ministries and businesses and bring them money, a house, a spouse, or whatever. I’m not saying that it COULDN’T be the Holy Spirit in some cases, but I’ve seen plenty of such words that didn’t pan out. I suspect that there would be “great fear” of the Lord, as happened in Acts 5:1-11, if a prophecy came forth, “You are now going to drop dead because you and your husband – who just dropped dead, by the way – lied to us publicly about money.”
But doesn’t God tell his prophets before He does a new thing? After all, Amos 3:7 says, “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” That must be true, and that is why God COULD NOT bring Jesus until He had first spoken it by His prophets. The issue is that with the New Testament in place, what “new thing” exactly does God have to do today when He’s already given us EVERYTHING?
Doesn’t Isaiah say that God will do a NEW THING (Isaiah 43:19-20)? Yes, but He specifies in that passage what the new thing IS. It doesn’t mean that God is always doing a new thing every year. In fact, part of why we can believe for healing is that God always does the SAME OLD THING when it comes to His Word – He keeps it! I consider it a possible door to deception when we think that God always has to be doing some “new thing” every year. If it were some essential new thing, the word “prophets” in Amos is plural, so there would certainly not be just one prophet proclaiming some “new thing” that God is up to this year while others who heard it just pick up on it and retransmit the prophecy. There would be multiple prophets hearing from God independently of one another. At this point, I’ve seen so many “what God will do this coming year” prophecies completely fail that it is hard for me to take them seriously anymore. It can be a “drag” to write down everything spoken about this year and then check it all next year to see what really happened. If you try it, it could be a serious eye-opener. What’s also interesting is that some people will seriously not like you if you point out things that their favorite preacher said that didn’t happen – you’re the bad guy and that preacher is still “right” – it really was of God but man must have messed it up so that it didn’t happen. After all, THAT guy just couldn’t have missed it.
So beware of sensational stuff – you’re always safe (though not necessarily super-popular) if you’ll just stick with the Word and not think that you need to have some distinctive revelation (more on this in Con #7 below).
Con #5: TV Makes You Fatter and Drabber and Hotter
You’ll probably look about 10 pounds heavier on TV, but you get some compensation for this by the fact that the place where you’re taping will look bigger than it actually is. You also look drabber if you don’t have TV makeup on. And the brighter stage lights required to make a TV broadcast look good often result in people on the stage getting really hot! You just have to accept some things like that; you can pray “Be it as Thou wilt as I wilt.” Just warning you! In some cases, the studio crew may want to change your appearance by putting on false eyelashes or something. You’ll just have to decide what you’re willing to go along with. Cameras can be brutal on your appearance. No one who works in TV will think you’re a hypocrite if you spiff yourself up – it probably beats looking washed out in front of everyone. This issue was actually credited with swinging a U. S. presidential election when the two candidates appeared in a TV debate. One candidate had a lot of makeup on so that he looked good on television. The other one wouldn’t do anything. Perhaps he felt that he was more “authentic,” but he was also a lot less photogenic on TV and he lost the election!
Con #6: Network Restrictions
If you get bigger, you might be surprised to find that your TV network makes you agree not to say or show certain things. A Christian TV network executive lamented to me that his company’s policy forbade any imagery of people falling over in prayer lines or getting “drunk in the Holy Spirit.” This can result in the Holy Spirit being grieved when you don’t allow Him to do what He wants to do – or your network is too ashamed to show the world what He actually did.
Con #7: Temptation to Have a Weird Distinctive
Your local “media consultant” may urge you to create a “distinctive” – something your broadcast offers than no others do. This gives viewers a reason to listen to YOU instead of all the other preachers on TV. Given that you have unique giftings and a unique ministry, you should identify what your particular strong points are. There’s nothing wrong with promoting your God-given strong suit and running with it.
However, the idea that you are in competition with everyone else for viewers and donor money can lead to preaching weird doctrines that are different from what everyone else says because you didn’t study out the subject enough before devoting a sensational series to preaching your new revelation before anyone else does. Do what you do well, but NEVER compare yourself to other ministries – it’s unwise (2 Corinthians 10:12). From a worldly media perspective, those other broadcasters are your competition, but God help you if you ever buy into that devilish mentality!
You have to be convinced that GOD is the source of your ministry income, not YOUR ABILITY to beat everyone to the punch with new revelations or your ability to do things differently just for the sake of being different. You should avoid hype and sensationalism at all costs, as they will make the more discerning viewers distrust you.
Con #8: Forced Backslapping
A show or network might REQUIRE a positive mention as a condition of being on it, and you’d have to be good with that. “And here’s a shout-out to all our friends watching on Yes Amen Worldwide Network! We appreciate the good people at YAWN who gave us this opportunity.” “Thank you so much for the honor of being your guest on the Unlimited Hallelujahs Outreach Hour! I think UHOH is truly on the cutting edge of what God is doing today.”
The Christian music industry features “forced backslapping” in some festival contracts. You could be one of the performers at this summer’s Mammoth Outdoor GospelFest, but a condition of your contract could be that you must do a positive promo for Mammoth Outdoor GospelFest from the stage in EVERY concert you do for the preceding several months and get no compensation at the festival itself other than publicity for performing at Mammoth Outdoor GospelFest and the chance to sell your “merch” at a table there. (I considered something like that when I first put out a music CD until I read a contract with those forced backslapping stipulations and I decided I wasn’t going to be their free publicity agent. I wasn’t interested in having hats and T-shirts with my name on them to sell at a merch table anyway. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but I don’t’ see Jesus or the apostles having to resort to that to get publicity or funding.) And then there are record company contracts that in exchange for publishing your CD make you run around the country wearing yourself out promoting your CD more than you’re home with your family. There’s a reason why the Bible says that you’re bought with a price and you are not to become a slave of man (1 Corinthians 7:23)! It is possible to become a slave to a media contract, so you have to be careful! Ask a burned-out Christian artist who wishes that he’d never signed his contract that kept him on the road most of the time. One touring Christian artist told me that it had just become another job to him. It wasn’t “fun” anymore. But of course, he couldn’t let on to that in public.
I had considered joining a certain Christian music association, but when I saw that one of its seminar topics was about how to write lyrics to appeal to the all-important female 21-to-49-year-old demographic (or something like that), I decided that it wasn’t my cup of tea. I prefer to get my inspirations from the Holy Spirit. I am not interested in merchandising the gospel with words carefully crafted to sell albums to younger female adults!
I said all that to make this point – it is easy to “sell yourself out” in order to get ahead. I’d rather have Jesus promote me – His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). I can’t picture Paul telling Timothy, “I’ll promote you in my letters that every Christian will end up reading, but only if in every service, you speak good things about me and what I’m doing.”
The medium should never change your message! If it does, you’ve missed it.
Con #9: People Who Just Want to Be Seen on TV
I’ve been in a couple famous ministers’ meetings where someone wanted to grab a few seconds of limelight before the audience by showcasing their “gift.” Someone told a “screener” that she had a “healing testimony” but when she got the microphone, she shared her drastic “prophecy” about America and Israel. Justly, they snatched that microphone away quickly. Co-opting TV time is not limited to outright kooks. I had a host pastor eat about THREE HOURS of time in a service to showcase his own singing and preaching gifts when a friend and I were the guest speakers. There was a big crowd and the TV crew had shown up because a blind person had been healed in our recent meeting in a nearby city and people were excited. By the time we got up, the anointing and the cameramen had both dissipated! He got his chance to be seen on TV, and I can assure you that the Holy Spirit wasn’t the only one grieved that night!
Con #10: Temptation to Have a Persona
You could be tempted to portray a “superstar” version of yourself to the point where you have a TV persona that differs from who you are in “real life.” You have to avoid any temptation to act like anyone other than yourself. Otherwise, you’ll be miserable when you realize that you can’t always be that idealized, never-misses-it version of yourself that people see on TV. If you check into hospitals under a different name so that no one knows you were there, I’m talking to you!
Conclusion
To me, the bottom line is that you have to resolve to be yourself and minister in the way that you are comfortable doing, even if you get criticized. If you do anything significant, the devil will see to it that you WILL get criticized – often viciously – and you’ll have to resolve to walk in love and perseverance. In some places, angry tradition-filled people might get you kicked off the air for preaching divine healing in the atonement in an area where that teaching isn’t popular – that happened to me! TV and radio are not “good” or “bad” – they are just media run by people who can be good or bad. Make sure that the dog wags the tail – use media if you want but don’t let media “use” you so that you lose control of what God wants you to do. I would sooner choose not to be on TV or radio than to compromise what I preach and do in order to be on the air, or make myself the slave of a difficult contract.