I must admit, as a pastor it is very easy to raise up followers of your ministry. That might not sound bad, but it is. Your purpose as a pastoral leader to raise up disciples of Christ. There are a lot of pastors out there that just make mini-disciples of themselves. Pastors who make people pledge their authority to a leader fail to see how hurtful it is, such is the case if you join Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church.
As we have seen the rise of mega-churches, we have also seen the rise of mega-egos. Churches who center a cult of celebrity around their pastors often feature the pastor’s image alongside the church. If a church presents itself as, “Pastor Joe Smith and Christ Community Church” (not intended to be a real church) then, Houston, we have a problem.
Case in point, Bishop Eddie Long, who recently was tainted by a sex scandal, was recently crowned “King” with a kingdom as a Torah scroll was wrapped around Long. Worshipers bowed before him.
Check out the video:
Long apologized for the ceremony, because there were several offensive acts, including wrapping someone in a Torah. Not only are there terrible allegories presented, but a complete lack of understanding of Jewish religious practices and rituals.
Displays like these create a culture of cult celebrity around a pastor. The flashy clothing and lifting up of a pastor’s lifestyle as being the example of the ideal Christian only hurts the message of the Gospel. The main feature of a culture of celebrity in a church is pride. The pride of the success, power, and influence of a Christian leader is held up to be something of a spectacle, which leads to a false hope in someone’s material qualities.
We love celebrities. We love to watch them, follow their moves, buy their products, and try to be like them. There is nothing wrong with having a role model, but so many Christians get caught up in elevating their pastors into celebrity status. In our culture, celebrities can get away with just about everything which is a dangerous position to be in because there is a lack of accountability.
It seems in an effort to make Jesus relevant to our culture, we have allowed the relevance to go too far. Churches have given celebrities to church goers just like the entertainment industry gives us the hottest singer. People go to church to see their religious celebrity. They go to see the show. Last time I checked, Jesus avoided becoming a show for the sake of entertainment.
Let’s stop the Christian celebrity worship and return our focus to the real purpose of worship: to acknowledge God as the source of our salvation and life.
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Ta-Nehisi Coates shared this over on The Atlantic a few days ago, and I found it as baffling then as I do now. Watching it is such a surreal experience. It’s almost like a professional wrestling angle; I sat waiting for someone else’s music to hit to interrupt the proceedings.
So strange.