THE PHENOMENON OF THE CELEBRITY PREACHERS AND THE AWAKENING OF THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF MILLENNIAL GENERATION IN INDONESIA

Abstract

This article aimed to examine the phenomenon of celebrity preachers and the religious revival of the urban millennial generation. Nowadays, celebrity preacher is a phenomenon that crowds the public space in Indonesia, especially in the information and technology media. The appearance of young, handsome, and classy preachers has influenced the world of da'wah among millennial youth in this country. Either aware or not, the awakening of this religious celebrity has changed the way of the young millennial generation in seeing life, especially the religious life of the motherland. These celebrity preachers are television and social media products, automatic religious messages delivered also follow the tastes of the media and often ignore the needs of da'wah subjects. This is also exacerbated by the condition, that not all celebrity preachers have an in-depth religious understanding. However, it can not be ignored, that these preachers have broken the tradition of 'preaching' which has been carried out by the chaplain. Communication skills, jokes, flashy appearance, and the ability to solve the problems of the daily life of the millennial generation are among the abilities possessed by these preachers. This is directly proportional to the current situation of young millennial generation who no longer deal with and care about the complexity of religious teachings, the depth of religious understanding, and the complexity of systematic religious study. It seems that the current millennial generation prefers instantaneous, instant religious information, rather than systematic learning through formal educational institutions, such as pesantren and other religious schools. On one hand, this phenomenon is a positive trend. But on the other hand, it needs to be a concern of all parties, that in the future it is necessary to prepare young preachers who truly understand religion profoundly so that it does not seem just a mere spectacle and ignores the guidance. This phenomenon of celebrity preachers is reminiscent of the relevance and significance of "preachers certification” which some time ago was echoed by the ministry of religion. Of course, this becomes important to keep this religion truly well understood and profoundly.