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Record Live is a conversation about life, spirituality and following Jesus in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The conversion of Russell Brand _and other celebrities_
[00:00:00] Hi there, everyone. I'm Jarrod. And I'm Zenita. Let's go live.
Zanita Fletcher: Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Record Live. We are talking about an interesting, a kind of fun topic today. We're talking about celebrities and their Christian conversions. , Jared, the one that came to mind when we were having this conversation was Russell Brand who has recently gotten baptized.
Zanita Fletcher: All over his social media he is talking about his experience, . The things he's learning, but what are some other, celebrities that you've seen in the spotlight open up about their faith or share that journey that they're on?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah, , Zenita, it is an interesting thing to see unfold.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And I guess, yeah, if we reflect back, we can think of Kanye. I think, Kanye, we talked about on Record Live, perhaps before your time. , on Record [00:01:00] Lives Zanita, but, , that was very interesting and, and unfortunately seems to have flamed out, or at least we're not hearing much about his faith anymore, in that perspective. , the kid from Two and a Half Men. Actually became a seventh day Adventist and sort of gave up acting in that show because he felt that the values weren't great, that the show was,, pushing,, again, not really sure where he is these days., and I hope he's stayed strong in his faith,, and continues to grow in his faith.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , But that's definitely one that, registered, for us. , there was a bit of noise about Justin Bieber when he I think he's always been Christian leaning, but, , became a bit vocal about it,, and it made headlines, so yeah, there are a few that come to mind, , the interesting thing about Russell Brand, if you'd said to me three or four years ago that he would become a Christian, it would have been quite shocking, I think, to think about, because he's not necessarily, in some ways, [00:02:00] maybe he was a poster child for everything that isn't Christian in the world, in other words, it's well known that he's been sober for some time, but he was heavily into drugs and drinking and things, early on, he was famous for playing interesting, hilarious and questionable characters in movies, who were into all sorts of weird and wonderful things.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Certainly Eastern mysticism seemed to crop up in his characters, if not in his real life. , and. Yeah, obviously he was famous, perhaps maybe most famous for sort of relationships that he was getting into with people like Katy Perry, and that's what we're making him headlines and making him quite well known for a comedian around the world.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And so if you'd said to me, , three years ago.
Zanita Fletcher: There was also cases, sorry to interrupt. There was also cases where he, I think he was on a live show and he invited some Westboro Baptists on and he was like, kind of having a laugh at them. So he wasn't just like living the opposite way. He kind of was making fun of it as well.
Zanita Fletcher: So I think [00:03:00] that's just antagonistic
Jarrod Stackelroth: towards Christianity. Yeah.
Zanita Fletcher: But anyway, go on with your train of thought.
Jarrod Stackelroth: No, I was just saying it's a surprise. It's a surprise to see something like that happen.
Zanita Fletcher: There's some other ones that I thought of. , I thought of, we also have people like Jordan Peterson, who has been talking about the whole time. So it's not such a surprise, but I guess he's leaned more heavily. , there's also Andrew Huberman who is like a famous podcast. He's more followers than Russell Brand.
Zanita Fletcher: I think he's got six and a half million followers. He's probably number one podcaster at the moment., he is very like scientific, so he has a lot of conversations about health and science, but recently he's been talking about it and getting a lot of traction on that as well., Jim Carrey is another one that comes to mind.
Zanita Fletcher: Shia la Beouf is another one that comes to mind. Like it's quite a few, but when we think about celebrities in general, and we think about the celebrities that speak about their faith, the pool is still quite small, .
Jarrod Stackelroth: And I guess the question that comes to mind or some of our , listeners might be asking is who cares?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Like, why? Why are we talking about this? Can you give us [00:04:00] some perspective, Zanita, you and I have had conversations about maybe This as a potential discussion topic today, we thought there was some interest in it in terms of faith ,, and learnings, but why should we talk about some of these people who get talked about enough already?
Jarrod Stackelroth: What's the perspective that we can bring or what would we like to explore today?
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah, I think there's a few things. For starters, I think some people, not everyone, certainly not everyone, but some people, , it really affects them a lot when they see someone who they look up to or they see one of these big celebs talk about their faith, whether they're a Christian or whether they're not a Christian.
Zanita Fletcher: For some people, we feel like we have a relationship with these people because we see so much of their lives, even though we have never spoken to them and we have no relationship with them. For some of us, it can have quite a hold and quite a big influence. So I think that's like an interesting point.
Zanita Fletcher: I think another interesting thing is how we respond to this., I think a lot of us tend to be quite cynical towards these [00:05:00] superstars who start announcing a faith instead of being excited. At least that's my kind of perspective., we're pretty quick to judge. We're pretty quick to troll in the comments.
Zanita Fletcher: But, , I don't know if we're really acting in a very Christian like way when this happens, , which I think is just an interesting thing to talk about, but yeah, carry on.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah, let's unpack that a little bit, because I think it speaks to the root of who we might be as Christians. Why do you think there's a reaction of cynicism when someone comes out as Christian, when someone makes a big proclamation, or when they're famous, they're celebrities?
Jarrod Stackelroth: One of the reactions is definitely cynicism. Is that dangerous to be cynical about someone else's faith? Like what's, what's going on spiritually for us if we're reacting in that way, do you think?
Zanita Fletcher: I think it's good to be like cautious and to sit back and watch. , , I was looking in the comments of some of the videos that Russell posted and some of them are like, let's see how long he lasts.
Zanita Fletcher: [00:06:00] And other people are saying it's a Russell rebrand. So like sometimes when celebrities are in a low period of their stardom. They do a rebrand to attract more attention. So people are saying this thing is a Russell rebound. But I think like, sure, we can be cynical and I think it's good to not get too involved, too excited, , to change our life based on it.
Zanita Fletcher: But I think it's a bit of a missed opportunity to get excited because if we look in the Bible at all the people who did come to Christ, like There's people with insane stories, like with crazy testimonies. And we look at those stories in the Bible and we're like, wow, , look what God has done.
Zanita Fletcher: And we get that when it's someone in real life who has had like sex history, history, like all these other addictions and is famous. , we just suss on them. And so I think it's, yeah, like I said, it's just a missed opportunity to get excited and to cheer someone on because, you As people who can comment on this, [00:07:00] like we have the ability to write things that people potentially read.
Zanita Fletcher: Like, I think it's our duty to like, speak into that and to like, try and steer it in the right direction rather than be like, you're faking this, or this is a rebrand kind of thing. That's my thoughts. What do you think?
Jarrod Stackelroth: I think perhaps we've been burnt by the other extreme, which is an Adventists are classically guilty of this.
Jarrod Stackelroth: It's whenever anyone is associated at all with an Adventist, we become obsessed with that idea. , I remember we had to write a story,, about the myth that was going around that the Pope's brother was an Adventist. , You know Usain Bolt has connections to Adventism. So we, we hyped that up.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Barack Obama had,, People in Kenya who he was connected to his grandmother or something, it was an Adventist. And so we really overwork those stories and become super excited and fascinated by the connections that [00:08:00] potentially this person is connected to us in some way. And we get almost drawn in by the cult of celebrity.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , and so, It's the flip side of that cynicism. Sometimes we're cynical because we've been burnt before. We've seen these people come in, make a big splash and then flame out, , go back to their old ways or do the wrong thing, or, , associate the church with, something dodgy.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Even., , the celebrity pastor cynicism around that, , these big celebrity pastors who everyone follows, everyone buys their books, everyone watches their sermons. And then you see them involved in some scandal. And I guess,, we become protective of, in a way it's protective of the church and even God's reputation.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Oh, That person shouldn't, , we, we don't want them to almost become a Christian or convert because if they fall, if they fail, there's going to be a scandal, there's going to be a PR disaster for [00:09:00] Christianity and the church and whatnot. And I think, , Potentially, that doesn't give God enough credit.
Jarrod Stackelroth: God's big enough to look after his own reputation. And if he wants to work in someone's life,, it's not for us to judge that person's journey. , take care of the plank in your own eye before you look at the spec in someone else's.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So that's, yeah, I'm talking about, amazing testimonies in the Bible.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I think of the eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch, and how, , The disciple just appeared out of nowhere,, and then read the scriptures. When he went back, do you think he just kept his faith to himself or was he quite influential and started sharing? And we don't know the sort of end of that story, but I think it's an amazing sort of.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Example. The other person that, had an amazing testimony is Paul. You mentioned, I think, the Apostle Paul and Russell actually has a clip on Paul. I'm wondering if we can watch it. Let's
Zanita Fletcher: play it. \
Russell Brand: In the figure of Paul, I have found [00:10:00] so much inspiration and excitement and warmth and compassion. And indeed, obviously, the first apostle or significant apostle to transform posthumous to Christ's physical life. Full on, 100 percent committed to the persecution and destruction of Christians to become the number one.
Russell Brand: This is my deal. I'm going to spread this everywhere, day and night. Oh, like through every possible permutation, jails, trials, shipwrecks. Earthquakes, you name it, I'm into it. The book of Acts, and then, you know, the subsequent letters, blown my mind. It's blown my mind because of the character of Paul.
Russell Brand: Sometimes I think, well, man, that's just a human being like me. I can get into that. So I've gone from thinking I am Jesus to recognizing I need Jesus and wanting to be like Paul. Wanting to live for this thing. Live for it like you need a revolution. Live for it like, not Christianity so I can fit in with the world.
Russell Brand: But Christianity, so that I can become who I am in relationship to him, that we might change the world together with [00:11:00] humility. First humility before honor. I mean, I'm just, it's raining down on me.
Zanita Fletcher: I can kind of summarize , it's like on his Instagrams, he's speaking in a podcast and he's talking about how he's been really excited reading about Paul's journey.
Zanita Fletcher: And he's been really excited reading about Acts. And it's cool., as I was watching, I was like, Oh, this is awesome. , I feel really encouraged to go back and read some of these stories myself. And he's saying in the video, , Oh, I just want to be like Paul. Like he's just, he's giving me so much to think about and it's just so exciting.
Zanita Fletcher: And, that's what I want to be. I want to be with Paul, like changing the world for Jesus. I think what he says is awesome. I think it's really cool to see the kind of the things that he is, , I guess realized from reading the Bible, but I guess it was interesting reading the comments. Cause there was people kind of saying in the comments, , well, you shouldn't want to be like Paul, you should want to be like Jesus people saying , you've lost the plot Russell.
Zanita Fletcher: And then there's other people who were saying, I think someone in there was like, Oh, Russ, like I've, , I used to watch your content when I was into new age practices. And now I've also given my life to Jesus. So , there's also some [00:12:00] really cool comments in there saying , Oh, I've also been on this journey.
Zanita Fletcher: Like into similar things and I've found your video is really like helpful and encouraging, I don't know I guess like on that note like how should we be responding to these things because I think one thing you were mentioning before how we tend to be cynical and skeptical and we don't want, Russell to lead people astray.
Zanita Fletcher: When I look through at his videos and I look through the comments, I'm quite embarrassed by how like Christians show up in them. , I don't think that they're portraying it well. And I'm kind of like, Oh, don't worry about Russell, but you should probably worry about these other folks in the comments.
Zanita Fletcher: Cause they're talking smack, but, What do you think about all that? How should we show up in that space?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Well, first of all, that clip about Paul, like I didn't realize as you mentioned that , he'd actually gotten Christians on and mocked them , in a sense, he's not cutting off heads and burning people at the stake, but he's, He was [00:13:00] persecuting Christianity, in some ways.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So it is interesting to see that sort of, that resonance with the story of Paul. Perhaps he recognizes in himself some tendencies like Paul had, , cause he was reflecting on, Oh, Paul's just a guy, a guy whose life was changed, by the gospel. And, maybe he reflects and resonates with that. I guess,, In terms of how can we react?
Jarrod Stackelroth: I think one interesting idea that's just come to me in this conversation, are we praying for Russell Brand? Like when he converts, instead of reacting with cynicism and skepticism, do we pray for him? Do we pray for people in the comments? Do we actually make it our ministry to like, look through the comments and actually pray for people?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Pray for that person, pray for the next person,, the skeptic, the person who's angry, the person who's, , Christian and angry, the person who's, we're all on a journey.
Zanita Fletcher: I think
Jarrod Stackelroth: praying for that person, [00:14:00] maybe God's supernatural power will work in their lives. Or maybe he'll just work in our lives and make us less judgmental and less cynical and less skeptical.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , I think there's a real opportunity for prayer when people, thousands, potentially millions of people have the opportunity to be influenced, or at least to hear about the gospel. So, , it doesn't mean we have to share everything. That he says or believe everything that he says and follow his every word, but we can be encouraging.
Jarrod Stackelroth: We can, , lean into the conversations that he's starting. He's asking a lot of questions. , he's very open about the fact that he's on a journey and is still learning. We could learn maybe something from that. , How to invite conversation, how to engage with people who aren't of our faith and our background, because he's got people from all sorts of backgrounds commenting and weighing into the conversation.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , but we definitely have to lead with grace and compassion. I think we have to [00:15:00] enter conversations, public conversations like this with a sense of our own humility. Um, And that we don't necessarily know everything, even if we think we have the truth.
Zanita Fletcher: Do you think, , sometimes we have, , I'm thinking about someone maybe let's say Joe next door who doesn't know God and maybe also has addictions and maybe also lives a rough life.
Zanita Fletcher: , and then I think about Russell Brand who has been on the same journey. Do you think we have different expectations for people when they're on a screen compared to off or like people in our own lives compared to people on, on the podiums.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I think we do. But I think there's that concept that,, with great power comes great responsibility. , I think the Bible frames it slightly differently, but in a similar vein, , to whom much has been given, much is expected. , I think it's a natural human tendency to expect a [00:16:00] lot from our celebrities, our heroes, , sports people they have a responsibility to steward their platform well, but so do we as just normal people next door, , people, one thing I was encouraged by at the Olympics, there were a lot of famous sports people, , or people who did really well, perhaps they weren't famous before the Olympics, but the Olympics gave them a platform and they use that platform to proclaim.
Jarrod Stackelroth: The name of Jesus,, they use that platform to talk about God and I wonder you know We talked on this show a few weeks ago We had a conversation about should Christians boycott the Olympics. We had a funny sort of bait in that area And it's just interesting to see. I don't think I've watched an Olympics where so much has been made, or maybe it's the availability of social media, seeing athletes from other countries, maybe it's just more openness.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I don't remember seeing an Olympics where so many people have [00:17:00] spoken about their faith in God, the press conferences and the post match interviews and all that sort of thing. And I don't know if it's the culture is slightly changing in that way, that more people who are getting to fame or getting to the top of their game are, A, are they Christian?
Jarrod Stackelroth: B, are they more likely to understand that they need to steward that platform well? Or is it a reaction even to some of the things that people were upset by in the opening ceremony that made them sit up and go, , if the world is going to come at Christianity pretty crazily, maybe we need to be more intentional about using our platform.
Jarrod Stackelroth: For the good, using our platform to proclaim Jesus. , And so that was encouraging, I think, for me to see. And so then the question, I guess, to get practical,, how do we steward our platforms?
Zanita Fletcher: How
Jarrod Stackelroth: do we use the voice that we've been given? I've been a, I've been born and raised [00:18:00] in the Adventist church, right?
Jarrod Stackelroth: That's not to say that my faith journey hasn't had ups and downs, that I haven't had doubts, had questions, that I've always been as faithful as I could have been or made the best decisions I could have made. So yeah, we've all, I think, resonated with that. We can all say, , point to some part of our experience and go, that wasn't great.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Or I wandered away from church. I stopped going to church. I wasn't really connected, or I was just attending, but I wasn't feeling it. And God's done something in our lives. God's, made an impact. He's, he's changed us. He's been working on our character. We've all experienced that. If we're still in church, if we're stuck around, we've had a moment of testimony of conversion, like Russell has experienced.
Jarrod Stackelroth: The thing that, was telling you before, Zanita, that challenges me is, do I share my influence like Russell? Like he's become a Christian, he's excited, and so he's almost doing a daily Bible study, a daily devotional thought. He reads something and he reflects on it, stream of [00:19:00] consciousness stuff straight to all his followers, all his fans.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I sometimes have a bit of fear of sharing stuff because I know I've got non Christian people on my feed, I don't want to offend them, I don't want to have awkward conversations, He's got a lot more to lose than I
Zanita Fletcher: do. I
Jarrod Stackelroth: work for the church. Many of my family and friends are in the church. So I'm not going to be ostracized or lose jobs or, canceled.
Jarrod Stackelroth: If I speak about Jesus,, people will be like, oh, that's his job. Like he does that. So it's all good. And yet I still have this maybe, lack of. Certainty around what, what would I share? How would I share? What would I do value? What would people think of me? And yet he's just out there, he's just doing it, , he's just having a crack and he's stewarding his platform well.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , and that's my question to myself, my challenge to myself, like, am I willing to jump in and do that? Or am I just sort of allowing my uncertainty and my fear of [00:20:00] rejection to get in the way of me actually doing something?
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah, you gotta give it to him, hey. He's got , what, something like four million.
Zanita Fletcher: 4. 5 million followers just on one platform. I wonder if certain people just have this gusto, like he's always shared all of his journey. And so, there's something about that, but I wonder if we can try play, let's try play one of his videos one more time and see if it works.
Russell Brand: Profound experience.
Russell Brand: And many of you will have had your own experiences of baptism and will therefore know what I'm talking about. Many aspects of it were very. intimate and personal. The truth is this, as a person that has in the past taken many substances and always been disappointed with their inability to deliver the kind of tranquility and peace and even transcendence I always felt I've been looking for, something occurred in the process of baptism that was incredible.
Russell Brand: Overwhelming, literally overwhelming, because I was obviously underwater and it [00:21:00] was the River Thames at some point, so I felt changed, transitioned. Now, of course, even though it's been less than 24 hours, in the interim period, I've already felt like, sort of, irritation. I've got three children, I've got a job, I've got challenges, I still live in the world, but I feel as if some new resource within me has switched on.
Russell Brand: So many of your comments have been so beautiful and encouraging and I really appreciate it and also even the cynicism I understand because some people will just see me as a celebrity I don't see me as a celebrity because I was me when I was a little boy I was me when I was a junkie. I was me when I was poor I've been mean all of the different phases But I recognize that anything in this terrain in the social media world could be exploited and utilized for me I've made the decision and I know what the decision is.
Russell Brand: I've made it for myself and I pray that it will be relevant to my family, in particular my children. My wife's Catholic, you know, she's already made her own choices in this life, including this one! [00:22:00] This is new for me. I'm learning. And I will make mistakes, but this is my path now, and I already feel incredibly blessed, relieved, nourished, held.
Russell Brand: It's been an incredible experience. I wish I could tell you exactly about it because there were amazing individuals involved.
Zanita Fletcher: Anyway, that's , just a glimpse of his journey after his baptism, but I thought just something to touch on, Jared, that I thought was kind of funny. You mentioned before we pressed record that, some of the comments have been saying things like, He even looks different and his eyes have changed
Zanita Fletcher: do you think there's anything to that, like, or are there certain, are there certain things, like, as people who are on looking to his journey, are there certain things that we can be like, yeah, he's on the right track, or are there certain red flags that we should kind of keep in mind, whether it's Russell or anyone else?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah, I think to me when I watched some of his videos from before, he posted some things that he was talking about Christianity, but he hadn't [00:23:00] been baptized and fully into that journey, , and one thing that stood out to me at least was he's always had a very,, distinctive way of communicating.
Jarrod Stackelroth: He's quite hyperactive and he talks really rapid fire and he's very, , crazy in, in, in a sense. He seemed a lot more mellow in his more recent videos, especially when he's talking about the Bible. He's talking a bit slower. He's doing, it just seems like he's found, peace.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Inner peace, I'll always remember, this is clear to me when I visit Papua New Guinea, when I go up there, you can almost tell an Adventist from 10 paces. I like to tell people because,, Adventist cleanliness, , hygiene and not chewing the beetle nut. So they don't have the red teeth and the glazed eyes of like drug use, marijuana or beetle nut, or narcotics of other sorts.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And like, so you see people, they look different. One, , testimony I heard a pastor once talk about was, , [00:24:00] this particular old lady on the bus who just had a presence about her. She just seemed, , spirit filled., and I guess that,, not to read too much into people's body language, and Russell, , maybe he has some crazy videos or some more hyperactive videos than his,, Bible devotional ones.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I haven't watched all of his content, so, I couldn't comment on that, Even if people's behavior doesn't necessarily match up to what we think Christian standards are, like if he's snapped going to a nightclub or doing something, that we would say, oh, that's a bit, everyone's on a journey.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Everyone, has moments where they fall short of God's glory. , but that's what grace is for. Like God, works with us and not everyone gets a snap your fingers overnight. , and, No more problems, no more issues,, no more addictions. Sometimes it takes time. , and so I think there's something in the Bible saying by their fruit, you will know them.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , I think we have to see the fruit of this change and this, , has to take some time as a [00:25:00] process, but, , and not to judge Russell. Specifically, but looking at anyone who makes that life change,, we need to support people who have been converted. We need to pray for them. Even if we have no personal relationship with them, we need to, model as well in our own lives.
Jarrod Stackelroth: What. , true living by the spirit, living with Jesus can look like, , I think they're the responsibilities we have. And then if you want to judge someone, if you want to have that, standard, you have to look at their fruits. You have to look at your own fruits and look at their fruits. , Don't compare.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , Yeah, , it's a process that we , look at and that takes time sometimes, but, it's definitely our fruits that show what kind of, , life, We're living, , are we kinder to people? Do we have compassion? Do we have more generosity of spirit? Like what change has it made in our lives? Or is it just a sort of a rebranding as you mentioned [00:26:00] before?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Is it just a facade change, fresh coat of paint and we're a different color, I
Zanita Fletcher: think Russell was even talking about that. The fruits of the spirits just on his Instagram the other day. So you can hear more thoughts from him, but, , I guess, what are we,, exactly wanting our listeners to get from this?
Zanita Fletcher: You mentioned some practical takeaways that you have been kind of learning from, in the sense of being more bold with your faith online and not quiring what people think so much. But, what's the point of us having this conversation more than just tagging on the Russell excitement?
Zanita Fletcher: What are we, , wanting to encourage our listeners? listeners to do or think about?
Jarrod Stackelroth: I think for me, this show, Record Live, is about our faith journey. You know, culture, society, church, how we do church, how we live, how we have faith. , and I think we can learn a lot from our reactions, both our initial reactions to things.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Online and in, in the culture, in [00:27:00] the media, , and our long term sort of reactions and how we, how we, , choose to live our lives. Like when we see someone like Russell Brand converting to Christianity, do we cheer? Do we celebrate? Or are we cynical? ,, when we, Examine our own responses. It might teach us lessons about our own faith and maybe some areas we need to grow or maybe some areas where we can be challenged in.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And I think that's a really healthy thing. It's Anita. We can't think we've made it, , We have to be striving to be more like Jesus every day, I believe. , and so when we see someone like Russell on that journey, we should celebrate that someone's on that journey. , and it should be a reminder to us that we need to be on that journey too. How can I be more bold? And stand up for Jesus. , I've mentioned already, how can I practically start a ministry? Maybe my passion is prayer. Maybe I can go through all Russell Brand's comments and pray for all those individuals, , pray for, pray for Russell, pray for his [00:28:00] content, pray for people, , connected to him. That could be something that gives someone. Purpose and meaning, and they may never find out what the fruit of that is, , but I do believe that, , God will honor that. What about you, Zanita? Any thoughts?
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah, a few. I want to piggyback off yours, but I think also, I think after reading the comments, , that people are leaving, it makes me want to Be kind and to be encouraging to these people because we think oh, they've got 4.
Zanita Fletcher: 5 million followers and 100, 000 comments like they're not gonna read mine, but they probably do like flick through them And I feel for some of them when I read the comments because I'm like, oh they've got one thing Theologically incorrect and it's such a slight thing, but they're just getting slandered And so I think something that we can do is Yeah, be kind, be encouraging, and , like you said,, pray for them because the influence that they could have and the impact they could have is ginormous.
Zanita Fletcher: Like, far more than my 1, 000 followers on Instagram who know all the individuals personally., so I think let's get [00:29:00] on that. And obviously be cautious, not let's not get too excited and bank our faith on theirs. But, yeah, they're our brothers and sisters in Christ also. So let's get excited.
Zanita Fletcher: And
Jarrod Stackelroth: Zenita, let's pray for other celebrities and other public figures and government leaders. And because Jesus can change lives, he's still in the business of changing lives today. So how often do you pray for your local MP? Or for your favorite,, pop singer or actor or sports person, , do you know what I mean?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Like God can work in Russell Brand's life. He can work in anyone's life. So maybe we should be praying for these people more.
Zanita Fletcher: Next week on Record Live, I'll ask you what celebrity you've been praying for.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Okay. Well,, I better do it now. I better . Stick to my word. All right. It's been an interesting conversation.
Jarrod Stackelroth: We've run out of time very quickly, but we thank you for joining us. And if you're watching this later, , still feel free to comment and leave your thoughts,, God bless you all. Have a good week and we'll [00:30:00] see you again next week on Record Live.
Zanita Fletcher: See everyone.