Are you a gatekeeper?

The beauty of a Rembrandt portrait is often found in the subtle shifts in color within a narrow range of tones. This most famous Dutch painter was a master, so it would be an affront to him and his work to slash a brush stroke of red paint across one of his paintings. The eye would be drawn to the out-of-place color and stroke, and a person viewing the painting would then miss the depth of the beauty of the portrait, and miss the message of the artwork that the painter wanted the viewer to understand or receive.

In a similar way, what you program on your station, what you place on your website, what music you play and who you select as teachers for your ministry are all contributing to a portrait of Jesus for the world to see. In the U.S., we have lots of places where a person may get their image of Christ. Sadly, many are not painting a very good likeness, or it is marred by an errant stroke, a wrong color, an out-of-context image.

In many parts of the world, the Christian media outlet is one of the few places where people of all backgrounds can see an image of God’s Son. How accurate is that portrait?

In my years of leadership in Christian media, I had to make some hard decisions about musical artists and Bible teachers on our stations. Some had to be removed from the lineup when their lifestyle did not reflect the Gospel they proclaimed. On a rare occasion a program had to be dropped because the theology espoused was not solid biblical Truth. These were not popular decisions with the staff or the listeners. However, I did not want to taint the image of Christ for the listener, or at the very least distract them from the true picture of the Master.

Are you a good “gatekeeper” for your ministry? Do you critically analyze the message that is going out, and even consider the lifestyle of the messenger? Keep the image pure and true. There is a world looking for Jesus. It is as true today as it was in the Lord’s time on earth.

Just before Jesus was to be crucified, some Greeks were at the festival in Jerusalem. These Greeks sought out the disciples and pleaded with Philip, as they looked for the light.

[blockquote author=”John 12:21 (HCSB)” link=”” target=”_blank”]Sir, we want to see Jesus. [/blockquote]

Don’t tarnish the image of Christ that the world desperately needs to see.