Rachel Hollis Gospel
When Christians start getting antsy about influencers and authors proclaiming messages with less than Gospel truth, we are grossly underestimating the sovereignty of the Lord, His power and the role of prayer.
Recently I saw a friend who does ministry share a post about Rachel Hollis, the super popular author, podcaster and social media influencer as of late. This friend was vocalizing her opinion on encouraging fellow Christian women to stop buying so easily into Hollis's message. Here's where I need to be honest. I, too, recently went from raving fan to holding strong convictions about Rachel Hollis's platform. I found myself needing to step back, question the truth in her words and ask myself "is this really drawing me closer to the person of Christ?"
Doing ministry with my own group of young women, I too am concerned about them blindly believing and accepting Rachel's do it yourself gospel as actually good news. But as much as this change of heart has happened within me -- and I do agree with this friend's admonishment to be cautious of her call to action -- the discourse on the comments of this post and content of the article had me feeling very sad. It was an article from a Christian perspective and while the angle was pure in encouraging Christians to check the Gospel facts before believing Rachel's kingdom of self, the content, layout, and verbiage were aggressive and attacking.
This particular article was full of pictures of promotional material of Rachel Hollis -- her Instagram account and her family -- and I was saddened. She is a person, a person that Jesus died on the cross for. Her message may not line up with Scripture. She may be wandering and she may even be a strong leader leading people astray in the name of Jesus, but that does not mean that God is off of his throne.
Dear Christians please stop losing your head. Instead, fall to your knees.
Very quickly the article balanced back-and-forth between admonishing Hollis' words of self-glorification and self-reliance to picking on her for posting a picture of her self, looking into the distance and away from the camera. I’m sorry, but where is that grounds in God's kingdom to critique someone? Words? Maybe. Posed promotional pictures? Absolutely not.
The article was aggressive, with language attacking Hollis and clearly with a goal to admonish Christians from taking Hollis's words as Truth. I was struck, thinking "That’s not how Jesus presented his gospel, that’s how the Pharisees attacked." Jesus often spoke in parables because he knew that the Truth was hard to swallow and could come across as cruel. He didn’t point fingers, but he did single out those veering off the path. Because he’s God and he knows all things and he sees when his children proclaiming his name get off course. Christian don’t be fooled — the God of the Bible is the same God that is still in control.
He sees the present-day Pharisees and those that miss the mark on the proclamation of His Good News. But He isn’t powerless. Rather than writing inflammatory articles and crying out "false false false" with pointing fingers, we should be going to our knees praying that the Lord act now. He doesn’t need our help in judging, righting wrongs & pointing out sin. But he would love to hear the voices His children who believe in Truth, lifting up their concerns to his ears. He will revel in the proclamation of His beloved saying "We need you and we believe you can act."
Friend, can I encourage you that this is what we should pray instead? I mean it in all sincerity and authenticity because I was one of those people. May we pray that the Lord intervenes, in a way that only He can, to convict Rachel‘s heart to use her platform for His glory & good. Rather than creating a war on the Internet, may we pray that Christians drop to their knees and pray for those who are going to read her words. Your loud shouts coming across the Internet telling others not to read this book or not to believe her words are far less powerful than your private prayers. Ask God to protect their hearts.
A stirring began in my own heart after months of believing and buying into Hollis' gospel. That was the Holy Spirit's work. That was the Lord attracting me with real Truth, calling me back to the person of Jesus. Let’s pray that for our sisters across the world. And let’s pray for the protection of the ears of those caught in the crossfire. Those who are not devoted Rachel Hollis fans and are also not writing articles calling her down from her self-built altar. Those are the ears and eyes that are vulnerable because they see Christians lashing out at other proclaiming Christians and they don’t know the difference. Let's take 2 Corinthians 2:15 to heart. Let's be a pleasing aroma of Christ to all those who we interact with, on the internet or in person. Let's trust God enough to know that He remains on the throne, the victory is His, and He does not need our help. But He would love our prayers.
For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. - 2 Corinthians 2:15