If you ask most people to describe The Gathering they will tell you it is a conference.  Hopefully, they will also add it is a great conference and one of the things they like the most is being introduced to ministry leaders and speakers whom they have never heard or met.  Being a little “ahead of the curve” is one of the attractions.  We work hard at keeping that fresh.  George Romney said an officer can get so far ahead of the troops that he starts to look like the enemy.  We don’t want that to happen!
However, there is a downside to discovering new talent and a conversation I had with Stephan Tchividjian from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida this morning gave me a reason to use the coffee break to think about that.  Stephan is wise and has been for many years.  He grew up among the evangelical “royalty” (he is Billy Graham’s grandson) and has somehow avoided the hubris and inflated sense of entitlement that sometimes brings.  He has learned from others and has listened to strong people around him.  So, when he said a few words about “new talent” I took him seriously.  I did not want to interrupt him by writing as he talked so this is a paraphrase.
“We are not doing some of the young men and women any favors by exposing them so quickly to large and adoring crowds.  We want them to be young, articulate, impassioned, restless, and iconoclastic.  What we are in danger of giving up in that is what I call “seasoning”.  They have not been exposed to failure, hardship, disappointment, serious temptation, or long exposure to the complications and frustrations of a local church.  They are still in a cocoon and we don’t yet know what they will be but we are pulling them out of that cocoon before they are ready.  We need to wait for them to become more than great and gifted communicators.  In a sense, they need to become illustrations of endurance and not just message makers.”
I know he was not indicting anyone in particular.  He was just reflecting on what he sees as he looks at the circuit of celebrities making the rounds of all the conferences and wondering, wisely, where they will be.  Are they child stars or prodigies or will we allow them to grow and mature and be more than a young celebrity distracted by people like me looking for new talent?