Celebrity pastors have become more of a topic of discussion among Christians specifically in America. A celebrity pastor is a pastor who is well known nationally or internationally, and usually uses social media platforms in order to reach a wider, broader demographic. These pastors tend to use their strong natural gifts in public speaking to spread the gospel. However an issue comes along with fame, and that issue is the temptation to misuse influence over people.
Although celebrity pastors are not always inherently evil they can be manipulated by their own power in order to use their stance as an influencer in order to coerce uninformed or new Christians in order to help them financially. Celebrity pastors need to be stopped because their platform provides too much temptation to misuse their power, those who are aware of their power and use it for wrongdoing can persuade Christians into doing bad things, and their speaking becomes too generalized and contains a lack of a community.
I talked with Steven Hess, US Bible Teacher, about celebrity pastors due to his background in working with Darrin Patrick, former pastor for The Journey, multi-site church in St. Louis, before his unfortunate passing. Hess said:
“I don’t think most people got into ministry to intentionally deceive or profit off of others, but I just think that most people are not aware of the kind of temptation that they’ll face when they do have an audience in power.”
The temptation can lead to selfish tendencies to grow inside of these pastors who need to set a good example for the people they are influencing. If they develop these tendencies while at a level of influence that they may have from the social media they have then they will only be shadowing those tendencies on people all over the world who take in the media produced. Hess said:
“Some of the temptation is to misuse money or misuse reputation. Some of the temptation is as simple as pride.”
Although some pastors are misled into evil by temptation, there are definitely others who intentionally use their platform in order to manipulate Christians into giving the pastor money for their own benefit instead of giving to the needy like the Bible says we should do. Humans seek familiarity and happiness in the media they consume, so if a pastor comes onto a stage making people laugh and cheer, then it becomes easier for them to have a manipulative hand over the attendees. Hess said:
“They often have a very strong communication gift. Oftentimes people feel very connected to what that person is saying. It might be simply as like, this person puts these things in ways that I can understand.”
Yes that gift can be good, however if someone who is intentionally wanting to deceive others for their own gain holds that power, then these huge megachurches cannot allow this single person to be in control of the whole ministry. Hess said:
“When that gets sort of amplified in a big way, it’s very easy for people who are following or listening to that person to then assume that everything that this person is saying is what I now need to do in my life.”
As Hess said earlier, most people do not go into megachurch ministry in order to manipulate people, however, the large reach that a celebrity pastor would have may take away from the community that is supposed to be built in the church. These pastors would be more focused on uploading on social media and growing their online reputation rather than growing their in person church reputation with the people they are supposed to be close to. Hess said:
“If that pastor isn’t also involved in actually doing pastoral ministry, like visiting people and doing counseling sessions with people. It’s very easy for them to actually not really know a lot about what’s going on with people […] There’s like opportunities for a lot of challenges to come up.”
If a pastor is not making an effort to be close with his community then he won’t know what to talk about in his sermons. It is better for a pastor to talk about something that is going on in someone’s life in order to make a better connection, but instead when they focus on social media they tend to focus their teachings on what they think needs to be heard rather than what actually needs to be heard. Hess said:
“There’s only so much that one person speaking to a very broad audience can say. And it’s very easy then for that pastor or that speaker to make incredible generalizations.”
Some may claim that the misuse of power and poor examples that some celebrity pastors might fall into does not matter because they can just fire the pastor and move on. The churches cannot in fact fire the pastors because if someone in attendance really grows to love the pastor for their personality, then they might believe that the church is wrong, or that Christianity is wrong. The influence that these pastors have cannot just be taken away without repercussions. The best way to prevent this misuse of power is not let them get it in the first place. Instead churches should keep their community contained and tight so that the pastor does not gain the temptation that Hess talked about earlier. Now, multi-site churches are not bad, I just believe that each site should have its own pastor to prevent the temptation of one pastor. Instead of letting the church grow to a point where temptation is a problem, the church ministry needs to make sure they are upholding their pastors to the Bible’s regulations. 1 Timothy 3 (ESV) says:
“Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?”
Temptation leads people to commit sins that Paul directly writes that pastors should not do. Some people like to claim that all who are pastors are holy because of their high rank within the church body. However the Bible warns about apostasy and false teachers multiple times including 2 Corinthians 11 (ESV):
“And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”
This warning can be seen in celebrity pastors who use their platform to do the bad deeds mentioned before. Therefore while there may not be evil pastors there are definitely demons taking the form of pastors in order to intentionally lead people away from God.
Others may make the claim that the platform of a celebrity pastor is necessary because they are using the platform to spread a positive message to a wider audience. However, while that can be a good thing, it is more important to hold a close knit community than a broad audience that might receive incredible generalizations. Hebrews 10 says:
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
The verse tells us that we need to be around each other in a close community in order to build each other up. It also warns against deciding not to meet with your community, and if a pastor is constantly being swarmed with social media and decisions regarding faith, then they won’t be able to attend to their community and work to grow it.
Obviously this problem will continue to grow due to the inherent greed that is part of human nature. However, that does not give an excuse to let these pastors get away with it. Instead we need to make the most basic and obvious decision in weakening the conflict by keeping our pastors in check, and not letting them grow too broad of an audience. Multi-site churches are not a bad idea, but in order to prevent one pastor from getting too much power the easiest solution is to implement multiple pastors at each site. Multiple pastors will hold each other accountable, and all be at the same level therefore no one will be more well known than the other.
As Christians we need to form our church according to the instructions and examples God provided in the Bible, and in order to do that we need to be careful to worship God, and not the pastor.
