Celebrities for Jesus and Fred Rogers

In a time when large swaths of the America church have merely mimicked worldly concepts of power, going for bigger, louder, glitzier, we have to return to the small, the quiet, the uncool, and the ordinary. Obscurity may very well be the spiritual discipline the American church needs to practice the most in the coming century.

Katelyn Beaty, Celebrities for Jesus

My husband and I finally watched It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the Tom Hanks movie from 2019 about Fred Rogers. Wow. I had instant childhood flashbacks–sitting in my grandma’s den on her little couch, drinking my glass of orange juice, and watching Mr. Rogers calmly explain things to me. I quickly became fascinated with the real Fred Rogers and was Googling him before the movie even ended.

It didn’t surprise me that Mr. Rogers was ordained as a Presbyterian minister, or that he quietly and genuinely practiced his faith, or that he was a close friend of Catholic priest, professor, writer, and theologian, Henri Nouwen. I cried through the movie as Fred doggedly pursued writer Lloyd Vogel with love, care, and questions. Fred Rogers was rightly famous. And yet he pursued an ordinary life of humility and obscurity.

The very next day my paper copy of Celebrities for Jesus by Katelyn Beaty arrived in the mail. I had the privilege of being on the launch team for Celebrities and received an advanced digital copy. Normally I hate reading on my phone. I need paper pages to turn, dogear, and highlight. But I devoured that book on a camping trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s not a light beach read, but I couldn’t put it down. Katelyn put to words everything I’ve been feeling the past few years as I’ve tried to break into the publishing industry and write my book.

Beaty talked about the Christian celebrities who have spectacularly fallen over the past few years as well as the ones who have publicly walked away from their faith. She defined celebrity and distinguished it from fame.

“A celebrity is known for their well-knownness–and we feed the problem…celebrity is often a shortcut to greatness.”

Katelyn Beaty, Celebrities for Jesus

Beaty also tore apart the influencer phenomenon on social media and exposed the dangers it poses to our fragile human hearts. Then–even though she works in the publishing industry–Beaty began to honestly discuss the ways Christian publishing, along with the Christian church, has bought into earthly lies about celebrity and influence. I felt heard and validated.

I have always pushed back against the insistence on platform.

“You must gather followers,” they say. “You should schedule your social media posts. You should be making reels every day. You should…” And I said, “No!”

After becoming a rebel in my cult days, I’ve gotten really good at rebellion for a good cause. 🙂 I want my ministry to be organic and led by the Spirit, not forced and produced by me. I want to enjoy my real life and let that be my focus over social media. I don’t want to have to convince people I am awesome and then live in fake awesomeness for the rest of my life. I’ve had enough fakeness for one lifetime, thank you. Anyway, back to book publishing.

Some of you know that I went to yet another writers conference in July. It seemed like there was some serious momentum this time. I thought that Impostor Jesus might finally get published! But things slowly began to unravel yet again. I didn’t have the capital needed to publish with the hybrid company who was interested. And the day I read Katelyn’s chapter on obscurity, I received an email from the agent I was waiting to hear back from telling me I needed a larger following to be considered. “Interview well-known people on your podcast,” she told me. “Get a bigger audience.” But I don’t do interviews…that’s not the format of my podcast. To change just to attract an audience of followers seemed wrong. And just hours earlier I had read this:

“…we must recapture a vision of ordinary faithfulness… In order to go up, we have to go low–uncomfortably low. That’s how it worked for Jesus, the Son of God.”

Katelyn Beaty, Celebrities for Jesus

The irony wasn’t lost on me.

I’ve said for years that Jesus would have been an agent’s worst nightmare. Every time He collected a large following, He started talking crazy and scared them all away. He made enemies. He ignored the rich and famous, choosing instead to hang with and befriend social outcasts. Jesus wasn’t here to be a celebrity and make people like Him. He was here to seek and save the lost. I think I just want to be like Jesus, and Fred Rogers.

I want to live my real life which includes being a wife to my husband, a mother to my children, a 5th grade math teacher to my students, a friend, sister, and daughter. I want to write to you in the corner of a quiet coffee shop, go camping with my family along Lake Superior, plant flowers in the new gardens I’m making this fall, tube down the river with my kids, and only put some of that on social media. I want to live my little life with faithfulness and if the Holy Spirit decides He wants me to publish a book or become a speaker, or anything else, fine. And if not, fine.

I want you to know that your ordinary life is good too. Instagram is overrated and mostly fake anyway. Do you know many times I’ve rearranged my crap just to take a picture for IG? It’s embarrassing. Jesus was ordinary, what makes us think that we have to be anything more?

So thanks, Mr. Rogers, for reminding me about what’s important. And thanks Katelyn Beaty for putting words to the feelings of my heart and validating my thoughts.

To an obscure and ordinary life!

You can order Celebrities for Jesus on Amazon, or anywhere you like to order books.

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