Disclaimer: I didn’t listen to the Breakfast Club interview. I have never listened to any Breakfast Club interview. Unless and until they are interviewing one of my relatives, I will probably not listen to any Breakfast Club interview. Please do not tell me I need to listen to the entire interview. I’m not interested.
When my kids were young, we wore that Victory (live) album out. I bet if I put it on right now, my whole house would be dancing. I think we even got to see him perform with our church’s youth group.
I was grateful for the opportunity. The conservative Baptist churches I grew up in would never have allowed such a thing. All that jumping around and dancing would have been frowned upon. They would not have cared about the message, because the method was too radical in their eyes.
Tye Tribbett’s music helped to push the church forward. His high-energy, hip-hop influenced style spoke to a generation of people who were unmoved by quartet style gospel. His music was deemed too “worldly” by many congregations.
I’m going to be honest. I haven’t listened much to Tye Tribbett since the Victory Live album. I have gotten older and my music tastes have become more conservative. So I was a little caught off-guard when he was trending. I started seeing the clips on-line. My favorite podcasters were discussing the interview. I was surprised to learn that the interview had drawn harsh critique, especially since most of the people on my timeline had agreed with at least some part of what the gospel artist turned preacher said.
“The institution of the church is whack!”
Hold up, Mr. Preacher-man. What did you just say?
The church was having a fit, and not the good Baptist kind, either. Mr. Tribbett then acknowledged how he has benefitted from the church systems, and how he felt when he learned that God was not the church.
Now some critics argued that this discussion was equivalent to airing dirty laundry or that this was a discussion that should have been kept in-house. I don’t wholeheartedly disagree with that argument. As a long time member of autonomous Baptist churches, I don’t believe all church business is fit for public consumption. But it is my understanding that the Breakfast Club radio personalities all professed to be “church” people at some level or another. The problem, then, was not this small group discussion. It was the broadcasting of the discussion to millions, many of whom might not have any affinity or relationship with local churches.
Here’s the thing. Tye Tribbett was just saying on the radio some things some of us have been thinking for years. Some of us have been ostracized from our local congregations for saying it out loud. A lot of our churches have got to do better at administration, accountability, and transparency. That means that we, the people of these congregations, have to do a better job at having these hard, but necessary conversations, about how our churches can be better and implementing change.
I have heard several coaches and leadership experts talk about the difference between a “calling-out” and a “calling in”. When someone is called out, it is usually done in front of an audience. The exchange can be confrontational and there are rarely corrective suggestions. It’ a just a recounting of what you did wrong. When someone calls you in, it is generally a private meeting. Mistakes and corrective action are discussed, and it usually ends with a word of encouragement.
It is my belief that Tye Tribbett wasn’t calling out the church, so much as he was attempting to call us all in. I think he was trying to say that there are different and maybe even better ways to serve God and humanity than the way we currently do it.
Would I have said the institution of the church is whack on a nationally syndicated radio broadcast? Probably not, but that’s mainly because nobody is inviting me on said programs. Have I said similar things in the privacy of my living room, or in a church leadership meeting? Absolutely.
The difference between gossip and a productive conversation is the audience. In a productive conversation the audience has the power or ability to address the problem.
Who was Tye Tribbett trying to reach in that interview? If it was you, how are you going to address it. If it wasn’t you… why are you still talking about it?
The Gospel According to Gabrielle 