Pretty Boys Can Preach Too

He is disgustingly perfect. His Facebook profile is filled with selfies showing off his carefully thought-through hair style. His painted-on shirt and pants don't hide his carved biceps and chiseled legs. His dazzling teeth are multiple sets of identical twins. His face is that of an angel. He has almost 5,000 Facebook friends. He's a model, you know what I mean?

We all know at least one of these people in our lives. Whether we worship the grass they walk on or scoff at them, we think they're all the same.

This guy loves Jesus. Well, that's not that exceptional. I know hundreds of people who do that in this Bible-Belt culture we live in--that's easy. So why I am choosing him to be the topic of this blog post?

Even though it's obvious that he's really into himself, his status updates are ALWAYS about him getting ready to preach a sermon, the number of salvations and healings he saw that evening, the mission trips he takes that he requests prayer for, and lots of other godly stuff like that. When I watch his videos of him telling a story about how he prayed for a woman in a hair salon that brought her to tears and changed her life, I don't want to shoot him down anymore just because he's a pretty boy/yuppy.

The fact is, people are following Jesus because of this guy. And even though I'm still really suspicious of his motives, that fact trumps everything.

One time, Paul from the New Testament in the Bible wrote this while he was in prison:

"Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn't matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice."  -Philippians 2:17, 18


I'm not God. I can't judge pretty boys for be narcissists. And I can't judge said "pretty people" who have affluent ministries, mega churches with up-beat worship music, fancy cars, annual trips to Europe, and expensive name-brand clothes. But I can judge them by the fruit of their ministry.

The Joe Smoe's who have sidewalk churches for homeless people, who smell like oil and have matted hair shouldn't be judged either. Nor should they be praised for doing it "the right way." John the Baptist sure was one of those people. He wore camel hair and ate bugs dipped in honey. Weird. But Jesus said he was one of the big reasons that the Gospel was spreading so quickly. He even said he's the greatest man that ever lived.

It kind of doesn't matter what you look like or smell like or drive. "Wisdom is shown to be right by its results." That's what Jesus said (Matthew 11:19). You know someone is the real deal if they're winning people to the Kingdom of God.

So here's to you Jesus-lovin', Gospel-preachin', people-healin', dead-raisin' pretty boys of the world. And here's to you sin-convictin', firy-preachin', hornet nest-stirrin' grizzly men of the world. Jesus is very, very pleased with you.