According to their website, Troy Gramling, at Flamingo Road Church is getting naked! No...not that kind of naked, a new kind of naked. A nakedness that isn’t embarrassing; a nakedness that God would say is cool. On 9-9 @ 9PM, Troy will be on a 24-hour webcam for five weeks in four locations: house, car, hotel, and office. Every day, all day, we will see his life in a fishbowl - the good, the bad, the great, the ugly...
According to an article written in the Sun-Sentinel, Troy’s really is a regular guy. He just happens to pastor a megachurch. A guy who preaches in jeans and a polo shirt. In September he’ll show you the parts, as he says, that “aren’t pretty.” Like when he helps his kids with homework, but raises his voice when they’re running late. Who gets tired and testy, and sometimes argues with his wife. Who fumes when a car cuts him off.
And he’ll bare it all on camera, as publicly as his church service programs.
Aptly dubbed My Naked Pastor, the program will place cameras in his church office and his Pembroke Pines home, with wife Stephanie and three kids. Even in his car.
All of it relayed to a church Web site.
It’s meant to embody the need to be “real” and “authentic,” Gramling says — two words he often uses in teaching the 6,500 people who attend his church each week.
“A lot of people are doing life online, and there’s a voyeuristic aspect to all of us,” the lanky, goateed pastor says in his office at the cavernous Baptist church. “So why not leverage it to reach people?”
And here is how the ‘leveraging’ looks… This is the series that Troy will be preaching during the experiment:
“I Fight,” emphasizing life with his wife and three children at home. The biggest morning issue is keeping the kids on task to get to school, Gramling says. “They’re rarely late. But the closer it gets to leaving, the louder I get.”
“I Get Angry,” featuring a planned drive to Tampa for a seminar. Gramling admits to a weakness for aggressive driving.
“I Get Tired,” showing the minister at a hotel in Chicago while attending a conference. He says he often gets travel weary and emotionally wrung out.
“I Get Insecure,” centering on office meetings and home life again. He says he’ll be frank about the anxieties of a job “where everyone has an opinion, but there’s no scoreboard — no defined win.”
“I’m Tempted,” on how he handles distractions in restaurants, at the beach and passing magazine racks.
He insists he’ll do everything the same, cams or no cams. “I won’t take extra time to visit people in hospitals.” One exception: He’ll occasionally talk directly to the cam on “what’s going on inside.” He also intends to chat with users daily via instant messaging.
So… is this a good idea? Many will argue, but I think it is, for one main reason: Most people don’t think pastors, especially large church pastors, are the real deal. When they think megachurch pastors, they think of Ted Haggard, or recent stories in the national media of divorce, scandal, and impropriety. Like this guy, arrested yesterday for sexually abusing multiple juveniles. This is the only public face that some people see of pastors. Maybe, just maybe, Troy can gain a little credibility in his community for being real, and for taking the risk to show that he’s not perfect, yet still ‘the real deal’.
I had the opportunity to meet Troy in San Diego earlier this year. He is passionate about reaching lost people. Perhaps this series will allow people to see Troy as an authentic guy who’s got something they need. Maybe people at Flamingo Road will see their pastor in a new light… being real and pursuing Christ, even during the nitty-gritty, true-life moments.
There will be many critics, to be sure. But I wonder how many of them would be as transparent as Troy in their quest to reach the lost?
Have a great week!
PS—Would you be willing to broadcast your life in order to reach one person?
