K-Love - Home of Paradigm Shifters?

I met Oregon's Regional Manager of K-Love Radio at lunch the other day. It was a weird, random occurrence. He happened to be an ex-member of our local chapter of Rotary, and sat right across from me.

When Ted Gillette introduced himself as a K-Love director, I told him I was a George Fox Seminary student. "That's my alma mater!" he exclaimed, and we began talking.

Many who know me are aware that I think fairly little of K-Love. To me, it's a shiny, happy ad campaign for white, middle class Christendom. It overpromises and under-delivers on a life without problems, full of happiness and blonde children with ponytails and tragically.

But as Ted and I talked, I started to hear some very shocking things. First he said, "I don't like to call myself a Christian... that word is defeating. It turns people off. I just follow Jesus." Keep talking like this in public, I thought, and you won't stay with K-Love very long. "Postmodernity is everywhere. Even in rural, smalltown Oregon." He was speaking my language. "I'm a paradigm shifter," he continued, "I used to think I'd go into the ministry as a Reformer, but I realized several years ago that real change came through healing ministries. That's what I do. That's how you change the church... through healing, on a local level. The foundation of the church needs healing - it's sick."

We went over to my office after Rotary and talked for another hour. Ted listed the approaches he's used in ministry (he particularly likes Len Sweet's SoulCafe concept), discussed some of the people he's met (Tony Campolo and Don Miller to name a few...) and talked lovingly about the young gay couple that visited his church several weeks ago.

This was not the human face of K-Love I expected. Watch a music video by ZoeGirl if you want a taste of my old impression. But now I wonder if, even within this Audio Empire of Christendom, this Tower of Babel of Christian Entertainment... God is still breaking hearts and healing minds and even... changing paradigms. I guess if Ted Gillette can read SoulTsunami and A Generous Orthodoxy and Blue Like Jazz and reach people who don't find Christ through 4Him or Michael W. Smith, then thank God that K-Love is paying Ted's salary!


please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://emergingchristianity.blogspot.com