“Fallout” from Q

I posted my full talk here from Q. Although the response on my blog (and many other sites) has been overwhelmingly positive, there have been just as many harsh words written about what I said. I knew this would happen (duh!), but it’s so ironic to me that many of the people writing that crap about what I said are the exact ‘branded Christianity’ target audience I was speaking to … shocker. Here’s a paraphrased summary of a typical negative response to what is being written about what I said:

“I just didn’t get it, and neither did anyone who was sitting around me. It was weird. Andrew totally wasted such a wonderful opportunity to tell people about what he’s doing. He could have made such an impact to all of these high power influencers! Instead his presentation was confusing and he sounded like a jerk. What a waste.”

I tried to hold off responding as long as I could, but I just can’t do it anymore. Here’s a response for all of those people who have been writing that stuff:

Dear all of those people who didn’t “get” it,

Here’s the problem, I had 180 seconds to talk about the most divisive topic in the church today. 180 seconds. So with that, I could have done 1 of 2 things….. 1) Try to give the bland ‘pitch’ about my work and my organization trying to win all of those influencers over to my side, like what every single one of the other 3 minute presenters did, or 2) Do what I did.

I’m not trying to sell my organization in 3 minutes to anyone. I don’t care who the audience is or how much perceived “influence” they have (which in many cases is in their minds greater than in actuality). God gives The Marin Foundation and this message influence, not them. God has since the beginning of my work when zero people believed in it; and the moment I start trying to sell my organization to human influencers in 180 seconds is the moment I become a sell-out. Maybe I should have tried to sell it? Maybe I could have gotten a huge donation out of it that could have changed the course of my work?

But I’m not giving in to any of that. I don’t play in those metrics. I made a point. A very clear point.

Yes, some people and tables didn’t understand it; didn’t “get” it. And that’s totally ok with me because there were quite a few people in that audience who did, and many more who did “get” it because they knew I was talking about them – and thus, those same people then vocalized how much they didn’t “get” it to cover their butts. But what I did and said needed to be done and said. Consequences come with everything, and this was one of those times I knew I was in the right – especially in that setting with that audience.

I still don’t care about anyone’s Christian brand, and neither does the Lord. I’m still pleading with you to stop being a gatekeeper and start acting like Jesus. 

I promise you (and I can say this with 100% certainty because of the emails/Facebooks/Twitters I’ve received since Q), those words will never be forgotten by the overwhelming majority of the people there – some of whom strongly agree with me and some of whom strongly care about growing and sustaining their Christian brand and hated every word I said. Let those who have ears, hear.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org