Bruxy Cavey: “Get over yourself”
OTTAWA, ON—It's 11 a.m. at SilverCity Gladstone, but the popcorn is already popping as people line up for movie tickets.
Meanwhile, in the first theatre on the right, pastor Bruxy Cavey is challenging some 180 people to rethink how they use the Internet.
"I've read some of your blogs," Cavey says to smatterings of laughter. "You need to stop…Get a diary!"
The sermon is part of an ongoing series on the "habitual ego-centricity" of modern culture. Or as Cavey entitles it, the need to "Get Over Yourself." He explains that social media's emphasis on "constant self promotion" hinders people from living lives of authenticity and discipleship.
A number flashes on the screen encouraging people to text in questions, and 'Lonelyguy21' asks Cavey's views on Internet dating. Cavey challenges him to not let the consumer-centred medium change the way he treats people.
Ottawa is the furthest east of The Meeting House's eight remote locations. Lead pastor Chris Hutton says church's goal is to equip Christians to "interact with a relevant part of culture.
"It's coming out of Sunday morning," he says, "and asking how do I relate this to my Monday to Friday life?"
Over by the concession stands, a group of young adults are already pondering the number of friends they have on Facebook.
Andrea Murray has just over 100.
"I feel challenged," she says. "It makes you look twice at everything you do and check out the accepted cultural norms." Her home church is putting the sermon series into action by creating an AIDS Care Kit for MCC Generations at Risk.
Joel Barnes has 299 Facebook friends and also a semi-private blog. Recently he's been pondering how some people use social media. He says Cavey's sermons are challenging him to go deeper in how he lives out his faith online.
Cavey himself has more than 4,000 friends on Facebook—but he is quick to point out he no more considers them all genuine "friends" than he would consider his Twitter contacts true "followers."
He says the challenge with being part of any human network is using your presence to draw attention to Jesus, rather than yourself.
"Narcissism is not a recent cultural phenomenon," says Cavey. "It's part of the human dilemma. But it has become part of the ethos that the antidote of every ill is to love yourself better.
"We live in a culture that celebrates the emphasis on self. It's treating yourself as a product to be marketed. You become the master at only posting the best pictures online, only having the funniest thing to say. Now when you are hurting all you have to do is give a shout out into space, rather than actually making a real human connection.
"It is corrosive to relational depth. It destroys the authenticity between us and others."
The sermon series has sparked a flurry of posts and discussion on Cavey's Facebook wall. But for Cavey, the question isn't whether one engages in social media, but who's being glorified.
"John the Baptist got an audience," Cavey says. "He got people's attention. But once he got their attention, what did he do with it? He pointed to something greater than himself.
"From a spiritual point of view, focusing on yourself holds you back from the way of love, which Jesus said was the greatest commandment. Love God with everything you've got and loving your neighbour as yourself. So anything that works against relationship—anything that is relationally destructive—is anti-Christ."
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