The Tour Pastor

So I went to the Casting Crowns concert Monday night and have done some thinking. The concert was pretty good overall, the music was incredible, and I really think the musicians had a lot of great things to say through their lyrics. I like that they took some time to explain why they'd written certain songs and where their inspiration came from.

However, I was a bit thrown off in hearing Tony Nolan. Nolan is the Lifesong 'Tour Pastor and Gospel Communicator'. This was a new one for me, I didn't really know what that meant, but apparently he goes on tour with the bands and has a little preaching time during each concert. Well, preach he did... Now this is not me going off on whether I think his words were right or wrong, whether it was 'devout' or 'biblically' correct, merely some thought-provoking ideas since I haven't gotten into that much on here.

So Tony got up there after a few songs and basically talked about the importance of making a decision for Jesus verses going to hell, etc. (motivational speaker style) and ended with asking everyone to repeat a prayer out loud and stand up to proclaim Jesus as their Savior if they felt moved to do so, to make a decision for Jesus; if not, you merely stayed sitting down. For those standing up, he congratulated them on the decision that they made and proceeded to hand out some kind of pamphlet as a follow up. So I went to Nolan's website to see what the 7 day follow up consisted of. Basically, it's a 'jumpstart', a step each day of prayer, avoiding sin, singing, reading your Bible, getting involved with a community of believers, letting go of secret sin, and glorifying God--all while endorsing Casting Crowns and Nolan's journals and messages--ending with "keep this stuff going on in your life and things are going to be awesome." Interesting.

I think Nolan has a lot of good things to say. I really do. I'm not doubting his theological base, cause I agree that these things are all important. But there's something about the whole thing that rubs me the wrong way, though I can't yet put my finger on exactly what that may be. Perhaps it's the way he delivered his message and proclaimed hundreds of people 'saved and going to Heaven' after 10 minutes at an assembly of musical entertainment, and additionally proclaims on his website that '36,000 people have been saved' due to this preaching on the concert tour. (A little fake revivalism, or could that be paralleled to Jesus preaching and thousands being 'added to their number that day'?) Perhaps it's the fact that I don't feel the need to stand up and be separated in a crowd to tell those 'sitting down' that I'm a believer; I want people to know that I am by how I live my life. Perhaps it's because the entire thing came off to me as an evangelical sermon off the latest religious tv channel. But I just think there's more to it than that. There's more to Christianity than a quick-fix of a few simple steps. Is the message of Jesus simple? Sure. But it's not exactly a random decision/action in a momentary high to claim an automatic ticket to Heaven. I'm not one to judge the actions and hearts of people or their intentions, nor attempting to get into the baptism/sinner's prayer/being saved bit by any means. That's up to the far greater Judge. But I'm interested to hear some other opinions on this. Granted, most of you reading this weren't at the concert but what's your take on it? Is the idea of such a message valid? Would it make a difference if the tour is trying to target unbelievers and at least share the message with them or if they're trying to reach the 'church crowd'? I encourage you to look at Nolan's website and check out his 7-day devotional document and consider it. Just thought I'd throw that out there, see if we can get some feedback....