Ada Ehi

Dear Ministers, Going forward, we may need to rediscover the ministry of the CLOSED DOOR. Not every meeting needs a camera. Not every conversation needs an audience. Not every revelation needs a livestream. And perhaps the question we should begin asking is: WHO EXACTLY ARE WE LIVESTREAMING TO? Jesus ministered to multitudes, but He did not give everybody equal access. There were the 5,000. There were the 70. There were the 12. And there were the 3. Peter, James and John saw things others did not see. The Transfiguration was not livestreamed. Jairus’ daughter’s room was not opened to the crowd. Gethsemane had levels of access. Jesus could speak publicly to the multitude and then privately explain things to His disciples. Why? Because PUBLICITY IS NOT THE SAME THING AS IMPACT. Paul understood this too. When he wanted to deliver one of the most consequential pastoral addresses of his ministry, he sent for the elders of the church at Ephesus. Acts 20:17. It was targeted. It was relational. It was weighty. The risen Lord had messages specifically addressed to the seven churches in Asia. Revelation 2–3. Paul wrote Timothy to Timothy. Luke wrote Theophilus to Theophilus. Scripture itself teaches us that sometimes the audience is part of the message. Our generation must therefore resist the strange assumption that if something happened and the internet did not see it, somehow it did not happen. Some meetings should have no cameras. Some conversations should have no clips. Some instructions should remain within the room. Some sacred moments should never become content. Because in our desperation to trend, we may unwittingly have turned pearls into content and then complained when people who were never the intended audience mishandled them. Jesus warned: “Do not...cast your pearls before swine.” Matthew 7:6. The problem is not always the pearl. Sometimes the problem is the audience. And algorithms do not discern audiences. They distribute. Perhaps the next great move of God will require ministers secure enough to have powerful meetings that nobody online knows happened. No livestream. No clips. No viral moments. No pressure to prove that something happened. Just God. His people. His Word. His presence. His instructions. And the fruit will eventually speak. We will have serious meetings again. We will close some doors again. We will recover sacred spaces again. And we will do valiantly. Enough said.