I heard my son recently tell a friend that a YouTube channel he liked had great content, but not that many followers. How is it some YouTube channels can have great content and few followers, while others publish the most useless nonsense and gain millions of followers? I took that thought and applied it to our own personal content that we publish.
Every day you talk, post, email, call and text. Perhaps you go beyond those personal tasks and teach, hold meetings, speak to groups or serve in positions of leadership. What is your content? Consider these three aspects of your content before visiting what kind of following you might have attracted.
First, does your content reflect Christ? Proverbs 15:4 says that gentle words can bring life and health. Proverbs 16:24 says kind words are sweet to the soul like honey. And Proverbs 18:4 says that a person’s words can be life giving water; words of true wisdom are as refreshing as a bubbling brook. If your words reflect Christ, then your content encourages and uplifts those around you.
Secondly, is your content consistent? Is your message the same to everyone, at every time and in every place? In one translation of the Bible it speaks of a forked tongue. If your content changes from person to person, time to time or place to place then you have a forked tongue. The forked tongue represents being deceptive and let’s not forget the first serpent to have a forked tongue, the deceiver himself.
And third, does your content invite everyone? Many people have content that invite groups of people, but content that reflects Christ invites everyone who hears it. Christ didn’t look for groupies, but he also didn’t tweak his content so that everyone would agree. Some people despised the truth he came to teach, but it was still available to everyone who would accept it.
This is where your following comes into play. If your content is consistently Christlike, don’t look for a huge following. It is possible that many will reject you for your content, so a small following can actually be a good thing!
I love Tabitha in Acts, she was the perfect example of great content, but not that many followers. She reminds me a little bit of my Mama. She got together frequently with her sewing/quilting buddies to make things for people in need and talk about family, church and God. She lived a meek, quiet life that was filled with quality content.
Her following was small until the day she died suddenly. Then her community came out of the woodwork weeping and showing the disciple Peter all the beautiful clothes that Tabitha had made. Her following suddenly multiplied to include all those who had been paying attention to her all along. The result was Tabitha being brought back to life!
Editing the gospel in any way to make people feel better or attract them is no gospel at all. We need only present it the way Jesus did to see who will follow. And if your content is Jesus, you truly have no followers. They are not following you, they are following Christ and you have the great pleasure of being a part of their salvation.
