 Christian influencers. Oh man uttering those words makes me want to puke. Nobody likes a Christian influencer. Nobody wants to identify as a Christian influencer, but we all know what a Christian influencer is. Somebody posts on social media about Jesus, maybe they have a little bit of a following, you know, they post videos like, hey guys, I'm just out here, you know, doing Christian stuff. Well, I don't know if I've seen somebody do that. Anyway, we all know what a Christian influencer is. And over the last decade or so, there have been numbers of waves, I would say, of Christian influencers. There was the Christian YouTuber phase, there was the Christian Instagramer phase, and then there was the Christian TikToker phase. And that's what happened most recently during, you know, the event that I shall not speak of on YouTube, but you know what I'm talking about. TikTok absolutely blew up and hundreds of kids, Christian kids between the ages of like 13 to 18, all of a sudden got on this app and started posting content about Jesus. And they saw other people posting content about Jesus. And it was this kind of great, you know, conglomeration of kids proclaiming the gospel. And even as a non-Christian, you go to this app during that time period and you'd be hard-pressed to not come across a video that, you know, didn't mention the name of Jesus. I'm not sure if I got my double negatives back there, but you'd come across a video that wouldn't mention the name of Jesus. You know what I'm talking about. The problem was that many of us were seeing that we're in this community. We were seeing that it became popular to call yourself a Christian. So any Joe would get on social media, you know, and say, oh, can I pray for you? Or Jesus loves you or just kind of like baseline theology, very like kind of minimal stuff. And they would all of a sudden get all these followers and people swooning after them and all that kind of thing. And all of a sudden you see two like Christian thirst traps popping up. And I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with thirst trap. I don't really want to educate you guys in that realm, but it's just kind of, you know, somebody shirtless guys, you know, shooting a video and just, I don't know, sharing something about Jesus or whatever, you know, it's like, God's really been teaching me that he wants me to pour into, you know, him and just kind of go all out for the Lord and, you know, that kind of thing. And you have teenage girls like, oh, my goodness, you know, I love this guy. He's my favorite tiktoker. And it's like, this does not feel good. This feels very wrong. So that's kind of extreme. But anytime you have an audience, you know, there are going to be pitfalls or anytime you actually want to develop an audience based on Christian content, there's going to be some pitfalls and some things you should watch out for. So if you are an aspiring Christian content creator, or you're just interested in the Christian content creator space, this video I think is going to be helpful. One of the first questions that I would ask anybody that was looking to make Christian content online is what is your goal? And yes, everyone will say, oh, it's to, you know, share the gospel and I want to be a witness for Jesus. And that's great. But I want you to take a good hard look at your own heart and see, okay, you know what, that's kind of what you want it to be. But what is it really? Is it fame? Is it popularity? Is it money? Where are the pitfalls that you are most likely to tend towards? I just think of the scripture here. It says it is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one's own glory. And so how am I processing in my daily life as I want to make content, as I want to share the gospel, making sure that I'm not just in this to get popular or get famous. What I've noticed as well is when you pursue popularity or fame, it is an empty fuel. It won't sustain you. You'll actually get burnt out. I was in that space before you're making content, you're making videos, they're not getting as many views as you want them to, and you get so frustrated, you get so angry, and you literally just burn yourself up because you're so consumed with this idea of trying to get more followers or get more likes. It's a bad fuel. Ultimately, our motivation as Christians and not just content creators ought to be love, love for God, and love for people. That is why we're doing what we're doing, not to get popularity, not to get fame, not to get likes, not to get followers, but because we love people and we love God. And this is what the outflowing of that love looks like. Another aspect of this is that we need to be careful that we're not just promoting the positive or the fluffy aspects of the gospel. Oh, you know, the Jesus loves you or Jesus cares for you. You know, all those things are true, but we also need to not minimize the fact that of sin and judgment and righteousness. So it's pretty easy to come on social media and say, you know, God just loves you so much and he has a great plan for you and that kind of thing. But are we really presenting the gospel in a properly oriented way? I would say no. I would say without the bad news of sin, you can't understand the good news of the gospel. So this is something that we ought to be processing. Yes, not all your content needs to be, you know, super thick and deep and all this kind of thing. I get it. Look, that's not what we're called to. But at the same time, it's more of a heart issue. The heart issue is, am I intentionally not talking about the tougher aspects of the Christian faith because I'm scared? Or is it just because, oh, you know, I'm just focusing on something else right now. I'm focusing on, you know, God's love right now. Okay, that's cool. Great. You do that. But make sure it's not because you're scared or you're trying to, you know, oh, you know, maybe I can get more followers or, you know, appear as the nice Christian, not the mean, judgmental Christian. Be careful. Galatians 110 says, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Am I seeking to please man or God? That we need to ask ourselves that honest question on the daily. A saying that I've found really helpful in this journey is mission over metrics. You see, metrics aren't useless. They are important, and they can help us pursue excellence in what we're doing, but they shouldn't be the marker of success. Likes, followers, views, all that can be helpful in analyzing and seeing how we can improve getting comments and critique from people to improve what we're doing. That's great. I love it. But at the same time, it shouldn't be the marker of success. How much, how many views you get or, how many likes you get on a post, it's that you were stepping out in faith, trusting God that despite your weakness, despite your inadequacies, you're going to do what you're called to do. That is success in and of itself. I sometimes talk to some young Christian content creators, even younger than me, I guess, but they talk about really building something. I love it. I love the excitement. I love the vigor of wanting to build something for the Lord. I want to just encourage them and I encourage, as I encourage myself in this scripture, it says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain, all that we do must be through God. It can't be on our own power or own will. You know, if God wants it to happen, it'll happen. Us trying to build something, that doesn't mean it's going to happen or that doesn't mean that God has to bring it to fruition. We have to be properly oriented in our relationship with Christ and trusting in him and seeking him for guidance, because otherwise, if we're trying to do it on our own, man, it's just going to crumble. Yes, there are a lot of problems with the Christian influencer content creator space, bad theology, online debates that get out of hand, you know, bad examples for the world, just kind of inappropriateness talking about thirst traps and stuff like that for the kingdom, thirst traps for the kingdom. I hope that's not a TikTok page. All I'm saying is that yes, there are a lot of issues with it, but at the same time, this is why even still, despite all those things that I continue to make content and go, Mark 1615, and he said to them, go into the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. When I hear go into the world, I'm thinking, why would social media be an exception? No, we need those people that are going to get on social media that are going to proclaim the gospel. I'm all for it. What I've actually experienced though more recently is this kind of sense of imposter syndrome. I don't know if you guys are familiar with this, but it's just this kind of overall sense that, man, I don't belong here. I don't belong doing this. I'm not equipped to do this. You feel insecurities welling up within you. And for me, shooting a YouTube video has become very, very challenging. Just over the last year or so, I feel trepidation every time. I think about shooting a YouTube video. I just feel like nothing that I make is good enough for, you know, and it doesn't measure up to my expectations or my standards. And so I put it off and I don't know, that's just become so debilitating. Then I came across this first in Second Corinthians. And I think this might be helpful for you if you're experiencing something similar. If you're feeling like, oh, God could never use me. You know, I'm not smart enough or I'm not capable enough. Just listen to this verse here. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. If you are watching another YouTuber right now, they'd probably tell you, no, you got everything you need in and of yourself to do it and you can do it and just believe in yourself and you are enough and all that kind of thing. I don't believe that. I don't think that. But what I do believe is that through Christ, he has enabled you with his power and his presence in your life that you can actually fulfill the mission and the purpose that he has for you through him. So yes, you might not be the next Mike Winger or Jeff Durvin, but that's okay. What has God been teaching you? How can you share that? Can you share your testimony online? Start somewhere. Here's something a lot of Christian content creators don't like to talk about, accountability. Now, I don't think it's ever good for somebody that's not connected to any kind of local church or anybody of believers to just go out there and start going rogue and start making videos and becoming this kind of theological or spiritual authority. To me, that's just a recipe for disaster. A few years ago, when I was first starting out on YouTube, I put out this video called The Pursuit of Pleasure, Road to Disaster. A couple hours after I put it out, one of my pastor friends texted me, and it was kind of a long text. And he explained lovingly, very lovingly, because at that point, I was very sensitive to like any kind of criticism. And as we all are at the beginning stages of kind of making content, but just lovingly saying, Hey, you know what? You missed out on this little part here. And you know, this is kind of where you were off a little bit and from the scriptures. And I read it. And yes, my heart, oh my goodness, you know, I was having a heart attack because I was like, oh, so embarrassed. And, you know, because I knew he was right. And I was asking him, should I pull down the video? And he was like, well, no, you know, there's still a bunch of good stuff in there. And it wasn't, you know, so bad. And I was like, well, like, this is terrible. But I just think it would be even worse if nobody were to ever say anything to me. And I would have gone on my merry way thinking, yeah, this is exactly true, because the fact is I would have made more videos, you know, with this same kind of concept or theology and an error in it. So I just think accountability is so important. Some of the characteristics of this accountability was that it was loving, that it was compassionate, that it was clear that it was from scripture, because I don't want to argue with scripture. That's not where on that. So if somebody would say, I disagree with you, that's not as important as, hey, this is where the scripture differs from what you're saying, because I want to know that. Most people aren't called to become Christian content creators, but you can definitely apply some of the principles that we talked about today to just day to day life. Seek mission over metrics. Choose the fuel of love over money, fame, popularity, respect. Remember to preach the whole gospel because without the bad news of sin, the good news of Jesus doesn't make any sense. Trust God to work through you despite your weaknesses. And that means acknowledging your weaknesses and not operating out of this space that you can do it on your own because look, it is all from God. He is the one that builds the house. And lastly, choose accountability over isolation. Thank you so much for watching this video. I love making this content for you guys. This is my mission. This is my passion helping you follow Jesus daily. This is why I do what I do. Thank you to everyone on Patreon that enables me to do this. If you want to help support my ministry, head to the link in my description and sign up today. If you enjoy this content, subscribe because I'm putting out new videos all the time. You can follow me on other social media platforms on TikTok and Instagram at it's Isaac David and I would love to see you over there. Thanks again for watching and I'll see you next time. God bless.