I recently asked a guest on my podcast the question, ‘If I forced you to call yourself an expert in one area, what would it be?’
His answer surprised me. I’ll tell you what it was soon, but first allow me to raise a few questions on topic of expertise.
We live in a time when just about anyone could be considered an expert. The reasons for this a probably obvious, but the implications are not often carefully thought through.
How to become an expert
Let me tell you how you can be an instant expert – at least in the eyes of others. All you do is create and then share content. It’s that simple! We may not feel like an expert, but the way we learn has conditioned us to view what we read, watch and listen to as coming from someone who knows more than us.
You wouldn’t bother with content if you felt you knew more than the one creating it. So it follows that if people read, watch or listen to you, then they view you as something of an expert. It doesn’t mean they agree with you, but they assume you know what you’re talking about.
An overnight ‘expert’
My first realisation of this came when a video of mine soared to 4 million views overnight. I’d made this video for fun five years earlier on a rainy day. I’d simply had a go at an activity I’d seen on a camp once and filmed myself doing it.
It came as quite a shock then, when a friend messaged one morning to say that their daughter had seen me on YouTube. And then the guy at my local cafe said he’d seen me. I pulled up a YouTube account I hadn’t looked at in years and saw that indeed, ‘Climb Around a Table’ had gone viral.
What surprised me even more was the 20,000 comments. People started asking me about climbing tips. Others asked me about the best climbing shoes. I had no idea – this was one of the first climbing-type things I’d attempted in my life!
Yet, here I was – an overnightexpert.
Funnily, this expectation that I knew what I was talking about prompted me to learn more on the subject of climbing. I felt that I now had a certain responsibility.
This illustrates that apparent competency on camera doesn’t necessarily indicate knowledge. Doing something once on video didn’t mean I was an expert.
You could probably take one of two lessons from my story.
1. Make a video on something you can do and become an internet expert. 2. Be careful what you believe.
An opportunity and a responsibility
While everyday people have more of a voice today, we are also increasingly suspicious about the motives of those in positions of authority. This may not be an ideal situation, but it is a reality.
This presents each of us with a great opportunity but also a great responsibility.
If the general population is less trusting of religious authorities and institutions, it falls to everyday Christians to be sharing the gospel.
Perhaps this is how it should have been all along, but now it really is up to us. What’s exciting is, that it is easier than ever to share our faith with a wide audience.
With just a phone, you can have a video be seen by 100s or 1000s of local people on various social media platforms within an hour – all without leaving home. (If you are interested in seeing an example of what this looks like, visit my website in the bio below.)
Cautious openness
Back to my friend’s answer to the question, ‘what are you an expert in?’ His answer was one I think we can all learn from. ‘I’m an expert in knowing I’m not an expert.’
By which he meant that he was aware of how much he didn’t know, which is an attitude that promotes cautious openness to learning from everyone.
People are looking for answers to life’s important questions. Yet they’re not turning to professional clergy anymore. They’re looking to the internet. They’re listening to people like them.
We might not feel like an expert, but we have a message of hope that needs to be shared. It’s time to be students of our faith because we’re not experts.
At the same time, we need to realise that we have a voice and a story. People are ready to listen. The fields truly are ripe for the harvest.
Tom Anderson is pioneering www.haventogether.com, an online church plant supported by his in-person church, Catalyst, Ipswich. He has a young, growing family and enjoys playing backyard sport. Tom is a keen long-distance runner, averaging 21km each day last year. He has worked as a teacher for eleven years and enjoys perfecting a flat white on his home espresso machine. Tom would welcome a visit for a coffee some time… or an online catch-up via Zoom. See the Haven Together website to get in touch.