Many years ago, I coined the term “Big Eva.” While today the term is used as a quick and lazy smear for any well-known figures of a previous generation that a particular X-man happens to dislike, at the time I intended it to be a humorous but pointed reference to a specific phenomenon: the rise of big conference platforms and the promotion of certain speakers—which I called “celebrity pastors”—that supplanted or subverted the role of local congregations, ministers, and denominations in shaping church policy.
By “celebrity pastors,” I did not mean those church leaders who happened to be well-known. I meant those who consciously leveraged their public platforms to exert influence beyond their church, thereby weakening it. These were not simply podcasters or bloggers or op-ed writers. They were key players in large parachurch organizations that sought to operate as denominations but without the typical accountability that denominations are, in theory at least, supposed to involve. At the height of Big Eva’s influence, I once asked a class of students who was the most influential pastor in their lives. Almost none mentioned his or her actual minister, defaulting instead to naming the headline acts at the big evangelical conferences. Q.E.D.
The era of Big Eva seems to have run its course. The conservative Protestant scene in the U.S. is no longer dominated by a few big-name celebrities or by a handful of large conferences. While those large conferences still exist and are often well-attended, they do not grip the popular evangelical imagination as they once did. They seem on the whole to have settled into the role that they should always have held: optional supplements to local church life for Christians who are committed to their own congregations but who enjoy connecting to others from elsewhere and hearing preachers from a variety of denominations. But the problems at the heart of Big Eva have not disappeared. They have migrated into new forums, particularly that of social media.
The broader business dynamics in the U.S. are now sometimes referred to as creating the “gig economy,” a term that describes the shift from the traditional business model and institutions as sources of income to the more disparate and informal network of opportunities offered by new media. Ubers have squeezed licensed taxi drivers. Airbnb has opened up the world of short-term accommodation well beyond that once offered by professional hoteliers and the proprietors of guest houses. And so in the world of evangelicalism, Big Eva is being challenged by what we might call “Gig Eva.” Read More»
Carl Trueman | “Goodbye ‘Big Eva,’ Hello ‘Gig Eva'” | October 23, 2025
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