Tag: cult of personality

Tullian’s Recent Resignation and the Mega-Church Pastor: Have We Learned Anything?

June 22nd, 2015
The story came out not too long ago, but news has spread that Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, has resigned due to “moral failure.” He claims, in the article, that his wife had been involved in adultery, which led him to be involved in an “inappropriate” relationship himself. His wife seems to have a different story that has not yet been officially released.

Frankly, the root of the problem is simple, and yet so many of us seem to miss it. Paul talked about celebrity culture in the first century, where some disciples would claim Apollos, others Paul, and still others Peter. It’s not different in today’s world of: “My favorite preacher is ____,” “No, I like ____ because he preaches in such and such a way,” “Man, _____ is such a godly man. I want to be just like him…” And so on and so forth. Paul rebukes the Corinthians and says, “What then is Tullian Tchividjian? What is John PIper? Slaves through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each… So neither are any of them anything…” (my paraphrase). These pastors, week in and week out, through members of their church coming up to them right after their performances (oops I meant sermons), through social media comments, emails, messages, texts, what have you, hear the praises of men and actually buy into the fact that they are literally God’s gift to humanity. Maybe some celebrity pastors don’t think this way, but it’d be awfully hard not to believe what you hear over and over and over again. As a sinner, if I heard millions of people praise me and my “gifts in ministry” over the course of years and decades, I couldn’t help but drink my own Kool-Aid as well. (So please, don’t praise me.)

The root of the problem is systemic in nature: the system of mega-churches and the cult of personality that so-called Christians are attracted to. I quote a recent blogger who put it well: “… the cult of personality is everywhere. It’s their [pastors’] sinful inclination to be worshipped and our sickening sinful inclination to worship anyone other than God” (source). Mark Driscoll (ironically) used to use the term “functional Savior,” and little did he know that he himself was a functional Savior for many of his followers. Want proof? He had many supporters even after all of his dirty laundry aired. The man can do no wrong!

“The mega-church pastor becomes like the liver of an alcoholic body. The anxiety, pressure, and stress generated by the mega-church is not shared by the typical member but is focused primarily upon the pastor. This pressure molds the pastor into something more akin to a CEO of a large corporation than a wise rabbi. Even pastors who attempt to stay healthy will end up flaming-out and suffering because the systemic issue cannot be mitigated by sound personal practices” (source). Are you telling me that NO ONE else in your 15,000-member congregation can preach and teach the word effectively, so that it is necessary for you to be videoed in on five different campuses? Shouldn’t we as believers train and mobilize others to do the work of ministry?

I am in no position to judge Tullian, or any other fallen celebrity pastor, on a personal level. But I am in a position to evaluate (or “judge”) where the evangelical church is headed, and it is not in a good direction. If I may make a suggestion to my fellow evangelicals: stop idolizing celebrity pastors, stop quoting them as if they were inspired Scripture, stop depending on them for spiritual maturity, and let’s support those local church pastors who actually do the daily grind of real ministry. Rather than get excited because you got a selfie with Mark Dever (nothing against him or any others!), why not encourage your own pastor by being more fully engaged in the work of ministry?

Right now, I serve on staff at a local church that has an average attendance of about 100-120, which here in Canada is an average-sized church. I serve alongside a pastor who is not only the pastor of preaching and teaching, but does the work of an executive pastor, counseling pastor, outreach pastor, missions pastor, and oversees all of the ministries (and for a small church, we have lots of ministries!) within the church, among other duties. He also volunteers for the community BBQs we host, and is a husband and father of four young kids. I don’t say all of this to create another celebrity pastor–far from it. He is far from a celebrity in this community, but I can say he is a brother and friend with whom I love doing ministry. I think I’m going to spend more of my time and energy serving alongside pastors like this, than give my admiration for a celebrity pastor who, because of the system they and others have created, may or may not experience moral failure for themselves and their families. My relationship with God will not be affected by any of this nonsense that the Apostle Paul would scoff at today.
Share this:
Tweet
Email
Print
Like Loading…
Celebrity Christianity and Modern Culture: 1 Corinthians 3 Applied Today

May 19th, 2014
I’d be tempted to say “our culture today,” but it seems as if the ancients were not too different than us “moderns,” at least when it comes to socio-cultural issues. For instance, “our culture today” is obsessed with the celebrity culture. I mean obsessed. If you disagree, consider how much time most people spend on social media, reading things that have nothing to do with them by people they haven’t even met. Or consider how many “news” articles are written about some kind of drama involving one celebrity or another, and how many people actually read these articles and talk about them. Not that it’s wrong in and of itself to read these things, but it just goes to show you how obsessed we are with celebrity culture.

We’d like to think Christians are no different, but the “Christian culture” has celebrities as well. Many of these are mega-church pastors, Christian hip-hop artists, worship leaders, or whomever else occupies the spotlight. (In my much smaller world, these might be certain authors or scholars.) Certainly it’s biblical to have Christian mentors to learn from and be challenged by (even Paul told the Corinthians to emulate him; 1 Cor 4:15-16). But it’s a completely different thing to lift certain people up on a pedestal and treat them as super-Christian (if there were such a thing) and idolize them. Yes, it’s certainly possible to idolize Christian leaders; in fact, I would argue that it is one of those common sins within the church that Christians have a hard time discerning, because it’s not as easily discernible as, say, swearing.

Idolizing Christian leaders is the very thing that Paul rebuked the Corinthians for doing. In the third chapter to his first (actually probably his second, but that’s another discussion) letter to the Corinthians, he writes: “for when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not being merely human?” It’s a rhetorical question, and Paul means to say that following one particular Christian leader over another is actually being worldly. One of the first problems that Paul addresses to this worldly church is the problem of celebrity Christianity: of treating servants of Christ as celebrities–which should tell modern readers that this was, and still is, a serious problem in the church. I think reproducing Paul’s quote here is helpful, instead of summarizing it. He writes: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor 4:5-7).

Many Christians come to Christ because they are weak, insufficient, needy, broken, and in need of a Savior. True, true, true, true, and true. In fact, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” One cannot inherit heaven without realizing their utter poverty before God. But to look to another human who preaches Christ to be a functional Savior is not the same thing as looking to Christ. To function as if a certain preacher is inerrant (nothing they say could be wrong, and if it sounds wrong, well they probably didn’t really mean that) is what Paul chided the Corinthians for.

We don’t need celebrities in the church for Christians to adore and admire. What we need is more Christians growing up, moving on from spiritual infancy, critically thinking and discerning for themselves, learning to read the Bible for themselves, and doing the work of the gospel together. I’m totally not undermining the work of pastors and other leaders; they have a crucial function in the church. In fact, I have for many years, and currently do now, serve as a pastor at my church. But when pastors and other Christian leaders accept the celebrity status that other Christians give to them, they do not follow Paul’s example. The pastor’s calling is to train and equip all Christians to be able to do the work of the ministry together, not to hand-feed baby food to their congregations for their entire lives. To want to attain a sort of Christian celebrity status is wrong (no one blatantly admits this, obviously, but a secret desire may be manifest through various subtle actions and attitudes), and to contribute to it by treating some as better than others is also wrong. In this area, let’s be different from the world by renouncing celebrity culture and treating everyone as equals in God’s kingdom.
Share this:
Tweet
Email
Print
Like Loading…

Tag: cult of personality

Tullian’s Recent Resignation and the Mega-Church Pastor: Have We Learned Anything?

Share this:

Celebrity Christianity and Modern Culture: 1 Corinthians 3 Applied Today

Share this: