{"id":4101,"date":"2014-07-01T02:45:37","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T23:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/?p=4101"},"modified":"2018-01-12T22:00:11","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T20:00:11","slug":"why-you-should-stop-worshiping-celebrity-christian-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/why-you-should-stop-worshiping-celebrity-christian-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Stop Worshiping Celebrity Christian Leaders!"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do John MacArthur, Mark Driscoll and Bill Gothard all have in common? \u00a0I know you\u2019re probably thinking nothing right?<\/p>\n

Wrong!<\/p>\n

What they have in common are followers who are dedicated to these men \u00a0and their teaching in a way that borders on idolatry! Honestly I could name many more celebrity Christians but those where just the first three that popped into my mind.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of the problem of celebrity Christian leaders recently as I\u00a0was reading about the Bill Gothard<\/a> scandal. \u00a0One of the reasons Gothard could make sexual advances on young girls for so many years was simply because so many people followed him in a fanatical unquestioning way.<\/p>\n

The truth is that even if the leader doesn’t fall morally, bad things happen when we elevate Christian leaders to a place where only Jesus should be!<\/p>\n

This is not new<\/h4>\n

At first I was tempted to think that this type of stardom in Christianity was something new and a result of our Hollywood fixation on the life of the rich and famous. However my friend Justin<\/a> noted in a comment,<\/p>\n

“Do you think this is a new phenomenon, only with present leaders? How about people like David Livingstone or others who are often called “Hero’s of the faith?” Do you think there is a distinction between calling them “Hero’s,” as the cover of the biography my kids are reading does, and turning them into idols?”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course Justin is correct, this is not a new phenomenon. In fact you can find it in the Bible.<\/p>\n

When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.”
\n(Act 10:25-26)<\/p>\n

Or here<\/p>\n

And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”
\n(Act 14:11)<\/p>\n

Or here<\/p>\n

They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
\n(Act 28:6)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What should be noted about the above instances is the responses of those to whom the worship was directed. Peter stated it plainly.<\/p>\n

“I too am a man.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When Paul and Barnabas realized that people were starting to worship them their response was immediate and passionate!<\/p>\n

“They tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out,
\nMen, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you.” (Acts 14:14-15)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paul’s response in Acts 28 isn’t recorded but I suspect it was similar to how he and Barnabas responded earlier.<\/p>\n

It was a problem for the early church<\/h4>\n

Paul reprimanded the church in Corinth for following after teachers in the church. This type of fandom created discord in the church.<\/p>\n

What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”
\n(1Co 1:12)<\/p>\n

For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
\nWhat then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. (ICo 3:4-5)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paul uses the entirety of 1 Cor 3 to explain why we shouldn’t follow after other human teachers and then he sums it up with one verse that puts it all into perspective.<\/p>\n

This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
\n(1Co 4:1)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is how you and I and every member of the body of Christ ought to relate to our teachers, pastors and spiritual leaders. They aren’t super star Christians endowed by God with unique insight into God’s Word, they don’t have special status in God’s mind and they shouldn’t have it in ours either!<\/p>\n

It happened in Church history<\/h4>\n

Throughout church history there has often been a tendency to focus too much attention and adoration on the messenger instead of the message!<\/p>\n

Steve Lawson gives a great example of the 18th century English preacher George Whitfield. It seems that many who heard him revered him in a way that bordered on worship. Lawson gives this description of a farmer named Mr. Cole in his book\u00a0The Evangelistic Zeal of George Whitefield<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“When I saw Mr. Whitefield come upon the scaffold, he looked almost angelic.” He described Whitefield as “a young, slim, slender youth before thousands of people, and with bold undaunted countenance.” The talk circulating among the crowd was, “God was with him everywhere.”<\/p>\n

As Whitefield began to preach, Cole sensed a great fear gripping his soul. The preaching came with much power upon this farmers’ unconverted heart. Cole said the young preacher “looked as if he was clothed with authority from the Great God, and sweet solemnity sat upon his brow.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now honestly that seems a little overboard to me! People worshiped Whitefield so much that they left his casket open for viewing for over 50 years after his death! At one point someone even stole his right arm but it was returned a number years later!<\/p>\n

On thing we can learn\u00a0based on how often this happened in the Bible and in history is that man longs for someone visible that he can worship! I’m sure that Whitefield would have condemned the way people “venerated” his corpse.<\/p>\n

If leaders are not careful they can unintentionally create unhealthy followings of themselves.<\/p>\n

The dangers of celebrity Christians<\/h4>\n

There are many reasons why it is so dangerous to turn our Christian leaders into celebrities and here are a few of them.<\/p>\n

It will make you discontent with your own pastor<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a problem I often see. When people start following after the big names in Christianity they quickly start comparing the pastor of their local church to their favorite mega-church pastor. It’s really an unfair comparison to make because chances are your pastor doesn’t have someone on staff who does all his research for him, or edits all his sermons into books, or takes care of all the counselling needs so that he can focus 100% on studying for his next sermon.<\/p>\n

It’s also unfair because that celebrity Christian leader doesn’t have a personal relationship with you like your local church pastor does. We tend to think the celebrities are better because we only see their “good side”. The side they want us to see. That’s why they seem so amazing but the fact is that they are human and they are flawed and they probably have a few ugly parts of their character that you haven’t seen.<\/p>\n

On the other hand your local church pastor can’t hide from you as much, you can know him better and he can know you. That means you can see some of this faults but in a gracious local church body that’s OK because that’s how we grow!<\/p>\n

It will make you discontent with your local church<\/strong><\/p>\n

This really goes with the first problem of comparing your pastor to the celebrity pastor. It’s easy to see everything wrong with your church and think that if only they did things like _______ Church it would make everything better!<\/p>\n

The fact is that every church has a character of its own. Like people, every church has its strengths and weakness’. Chances are that your church of 100 members isn’t going to be able to support the same type or number of programs that your celebrity pastor’s church of 10,000 members does!<\/p>\n

And that’s OK!\u00a0After all God doesn’t judge any church by their programs.<\/p>\n

It may cause the leader you’re following to become prideful<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just remember what happened to Herod and read these verses -Acts 12:22-23!<\/p>\n

It’s a bad testimony to unbelievers<\/strong><\/p>\n

For some reason unbelievers can smell this kind of thing and they usually despise it. They can’t figure out why people are so fanatical about Pastor _____. They think it’s stupid and they’re right! Better to let them think you stupid for following Jesus instead!<\/p>\n

His teaching may be good but it’s probably missing something<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s always dangerous to limit your teaching to one person. To grow properly in your faith and your understanding of God’s Word it is vital that you put Scripture and personal study at the core. The teaching of your local church should come next and after that you can supplement it with the teaching of others.<\/p>\n

If your favorite celebrity Christian falls you’ll be devastated<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s always bad when a Christian leader falls morally but it’s much worse for those who idolized him and were dedicated followers. The best way to avoid this is by making sure it is Jesus you are following and not Pastor _____!<\/p>\n

Jesus will never fail you!<\/p>\n

It takes your eyes of Jesus and puts them on\u00a0a man<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the big one! I’ll just say it like this, \u00a0we are called to follow Jesus and not celebrity Christian leaders!<\/p>\n

Do I need to say more? I hope not!<\/p>\n

Let’s be grateful for the teaching of well known men in the church but let’s let them remain just that<\/p>\n

-men in the church!<\/p>\n

Question: How can we avoid turning Christian leaders into celebrities?<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do John MacArthur, Mark Driscoll and Bill Gothard all have in common? \u00a0I know you\u2019re probably thinking nothing right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[266,221],"class_list":["post-4101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-church-leaders","tag-worship"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/celebrity-pastor-001.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3izZc-149","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11835,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/new-churches-in-chile\/","url_meta":{"origin":4101,"position":0},"title":"New Churches in Chile","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month, my son, Mishael, and I spent 2 weeks in Southern Chile with my daughter, Naomi, and her family. My parents also came along with us. (You can hear my interview with Naomi about her life in Chile here.) 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