Microphones close to their lips, smiles on their faces, and an occasional hand raised, Pensacola Christian College’s Proclaim Praise Team sang Al Denson’s chorus:
Will you be the one
To answer to His call?
Will you stand
When those around you fall?
Will you be the one
To take His light
Into a darkened world?
Tell me, will you be the one?
The song preceded the main event—a spirited sermon from Evangelist Kenny Baldwin.
In order to secure a spot for Kenny’s week at Teen Extreme Camp, our church made reservations over six months in advance. As a youth conference speaker in high demand, his week always sold out first. A near-fatal battle with COVID-19 coupled with a season of doubt and depression almost destroyed Kenny in 2020, but he recovered and was now sitting behind the pulpit.
His message was animated, but theologically light. We did not book another week with him. There was nothing unbiblical in what he said, and he always brought his sermons to a pertinent point of decision, but he wasted a lot of valuable time on trivialities. It seemed to me that he was not the same Kenny I had heard preaching under a tent in Chattanooga 25 years earlier.
In June of this year, Kenny canceled all of his meetings. Kenny went silent. His followers wondered what was going on. On July 22, we all discovered that Kenny had confessed to sending pictures of his genitalia to a teenage boy over an extended period of time.
That Wednesday morning, many of us became aware of the situation after reading a Facebook post by Eric Skwarczynski of the Preacher Boys Podcast. Eric was raised an independent fundamental Baptist (IFB), but he now claims to not know if God exists. His podcast exposes abuse within churches, especially IFB churches. The influence of Eric and others like him has brought about a shift in how Fundamentalism responds to the fall of one of its own.
There Is No Talk of Restoration to Ministry
With the exception of the infamous David Hyles, no one is talking about restoring Kenny to ministry. Evangelist D.R. Harrison wrote on Facebook,
If Kenny Baldwin is genuinely broken before God, if he is walking in true repentance, if he is submitting to the consequences of his actions without demanding restoration to ministry, then there is hope for his soul. But hope for a man’s soul is not the same as fitness for the pulpit. These two things must never be confused again.
Prayers Are Focused on the Victim
Thoughts and prayers have been primarily offered for the victim, his family, and his church. Reflective of this, Pensacola Christian College’s statement on Kenny reads: “Our hearts are with those who have been harmed, as well as anyone else who may be affected as this investigation continues. We pray that the truth will be fully known, justice faithfully carried out, and those impacted will experience God’s comfort, healing, and grace.” There is no mention in the school’s call to prayer of the prominent preacher who periodically filled their pulpit.
Egregious Sins Are Acknowledged as Such
The idea that any of us could have fallen into the same sin as Kenny has come under intense scrutiny. IFB Pastor Stacey Shiflett, a sexual abuse survivor, responded to the suggestion that anyone could have committed the same sin as Kenny: “Are you out of your stinking mind? I am so sick of this response.… He’s a pervert. He admitted to it. Can we just stop with this insanity—this perverted thinking that is enabling and perpetrating this garbage in our churches?”
Concluding Thoughts
Although we as Fundamentalists have evolved in how we deal with sexual abuse in our ranks, there is more that we must do in the area of prevention.
First, we need to intentionally differentiate between God-given talents and spiritual gifts. The ability to think deeply (Ravi Zacharias; Steven Lawson), communicate effectively (Tony Evans; Joshua Harris), administrate efficiently (Bill Hybels; Jerry Falwell, Jr.), or write well (Philip Yancey; Jerry Jenkins) does not prove that a person is right with God. In fact, talents too often camouflage sins.
Furthermore, we need to critically examine a church culture in which men like Kenny Baldwin are idolized. When asked, “Who is your favorite preacher?” the answer ought to be “My pastor.” If the answer is someone far away who is only known through conferences or media, it ought not surprise us when this person eventually lets us down. It is not safe to hear words unaccompanied by an examined life.
Typically, true Christian evangelism and growth occurs when families consistently carry out the Bible saturation mandate of Deuteronomy 6. It also happens when local churches combine faithful discipleship with systematic evangelism.
The rise and fall of Evangelist Kenny Baldwin should drive us back to a ministry mindset centered in the home and the local church. It should also alert us to the fleeting emptiness and potential pitfalls of celebrity Christianity.
Discussion
NewLearning lessons
Agree with this…
It seems like this mostly falls on local church leadership, though. If leaders don’t put ‘celebrities’ in front of the congregation, take groups of teens to hear them, etc., they are less likely to be idolized. Of course, there’s always YouTube and TikTok, but we don’t have to beg our congregations to idolize people by having events featuring them and such.
I do see this problem, though: What if a guy is just really good at what he does? It is his fault if he is increasingly well-known. So I don’t want to say “Let’s punish excellence.” But at the very least, some self-examination is involved: Am I inviting this speaker/having this event just because he’s a bit famous and will draw a crowd or is it really because his work is excellent?
We feed celebrity culture when we get attractional, I think. I’m being idealistic. If you run a conference, for example, you can’t escape the need to draw crowds, right? Or can you? What are your values? Making it ‘big’ or making it really good? What if we draw a smaller but better crowd because we are building a reputation for excellence vs. just putting more bodies in the room to count for the attendance metrics?
I don’t think this helps. Spiritually gifted guys can shipwreck, too, and every good gift is from God and should be used for Him in whatever ways He leads. We’re stewards of the giftedness, regardless of how we classify it. And there is no classification that is more or less prone to character problems than any other. Gifts are from God. Humans are humans. So, maybe redirect that energy toward efforts that might help with the ‘celebrity who turns out to be a huge problem’ phenomenon.
But here’s where I’ll set aside my idealism. Is this even a problem that can be solved? Judging by the epistles, they couldn’t fully prevent their version of it (wolves among you) even when apostles were on the scene.
So, the goal is not ‘let’s keep this from ever happening again.’ That’s a fantasy. But ‘et’s at least not make it easy by embracing a ‘sensationalist, crowd-drawing culture.’ If we embrace the ‘draw a crowd’ dynamic, we are playing into the ‘celebrity crash’ dynamic.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
NewKenny who?
First, I have never heard of Kenny Baldwin until this past Sunday. I guess he's famous (now infamous) within IFB circles?
Second, this paragraph is a non sequitur. Neither talents nor spiritual gifts prove that a person is right with God (read 1 Corinthians?).
Third, I agree with Aaron that we cannot eliminate these situations from occurring. We can guard our hearts, confess our sin, seek the Holy Spirit's enabling grace to flee from sexual immorality, and pursue accountability with other brothers or elders, but how can we enforce that on or confirm that is taking place with other Christian leaders who are not a part of our congregation?
NewCorrelations though
Even though I don’t think it be completely prevented, I do believe “celebrity preacher culture” is real and there are ways to mitigate.
An analogy: I can’t guarantee I won’t ever have a heart attack, but I can exercise regularly and take steps to keep the cholesterol down, etc. It improves the probability because of things that correlate with other things. (Some might rightly think here: “correlation is not causation.” Totally true, but correlation and probability are related and though correlation does not equal causation, when there is causation there is also correlation. So, correlations are frequently ‘potential causal sequences if we can determine that.”)
I hadn’t heard of Kenny before either (or Teen Extreme Camp). But I don’t often interact with the PCC orbit.
Going back to the correlations thing: It looks to me like there are beliefs and attitudes that correlate with celebrity preacher culture. I noted the whole “attractional big event” dynamic. That’s one for sure. I think, too, that concepts of giftedness might be another. There’s a tendency to think that certain “men of God” are unlike all the rest of us.
A few minutes reading the story of Elijah should cure us of that! Moses… Jeremiah. Admittedly, Joseph and Daniel seem like a cut above. But we really need to ditch the notion that some, because they are “called,” are on some kind of superior spiritual plane. That’s not a real thing. They never stop being mere men.
But correlations can work positively also: Guys who are open about the fact they know they aren’t something special are less likely to be the sort who develop a sense of personal exceptionalism and entitlement—which some of the famous fallen clearly did. So humility seems like a contraindicator. I had another one in mind but slipped my mind now. Maybe it resurfaces later.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
NewTalents vs. Spiritual Gifts
To clarify: Everyone is created by God with certain talents; only Christians have spiritual (Holy Spirit) gifts.
I am suggesting that unregenerate people are passing off their natural talents as spiritual gifts. Churches are being fooled by wolves (unsaved) in sheep's clothing (natural talents).
NewHow?
I see. It makes sense, but there is at least one practical problem there, and it’s a big one: we don’t have any biblical means/process for testing whether a gift is provided by the Spirit later or was there all the time providentially. For testing whether someone is truly in the faith, we might do better to focus on Matt 7:15-20, 2 Pet 1:10, 1 John 5:1-13, and the like. Spirit giftedness could be part of the ‘fruit’ in Matthew 7, though.
But I think, too, that the criteria for elders and deacons is a blueprint. 1 Tim 3:2-13 and similar passages. 1 Tim 3.10 even refers to ‘testing.’ So it seems like the NT way is character-based evaluation. That doesn’t rule out a gift-based test, of course. It just isn’t the emphasis, and I’m not sure how it would even be done.
Filtering out unbelievers from these celebrity roles would be a great start, for sure. But believers still sin, and sometimes in egregious ways. Sometimes, when there is a dramatic fall like that, we only get an idea of the genuineness of their faith from how they behave afterwards (i.e., repentance). But by then the damage is done.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.