found and interesting article on yahoo today dealing with the wake of the Ted Haggard scandal and mega-churches. definitely helped me to be reminded that the church is just more than just one guy and that celebrity pastoring is not Biblical. I think that is one thing that appreciate about my church. We refuse to be a personality driven church. Jesus is our senior pastor. Jesus will lead our church. all efforts point to Jesus. all church structuring is done so below Jesus. He is the ultimate leader at our church and I love that for many reasons, and i was reminded again today of them. my prayer today is that Catalyst will never be a personality driven church but instead a Jesus driven church that follows His lead.
P.S. found this quote in the article interesting..."So when Haggard fell spectacularly from grace in a scandal involving drugs and allegations of gay sex, many wondered if New Life, so tied to his public persona, would crash with him." I completely understand the point the reporter is making, but it struck me odd that she chose the phrase "fell...from grace." While we realize that Haggard will never fall from God's Grace I hope too that he will not fall spectacularly from our grace as well. While he has permanently disqualified himself from leadership and made the church look horrible as well, he should still be loved and helped and shown mercy, forgiveness and grace. I will try to in my heart, i hope you do so in yours as well.
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good point on the cult of personalities. This has been something the church has struggled with since the time of Paul (see 1 Corinthians 1:11-12). We are naturally attracked to personalities, look at the postmodern church with their "superstars"..."Have you read MacLaren? Heard Rob Bell? Gone to Mosaic and checkd out Mosaic and McManus?"...The best churches are the ones where you mention their name and not the pastor...But the problem is...you've never heard of them!
totally here you on that. I think this tends to strive from pastors trying to influence too many people. for instance, you have Rob Bell, Mclaren, and Mcmanus all writing books and speaking across the nation at conferences and other such things. This in turn does not necessarily build up their church but instead builds up their own "fame." so now you have pastors who almost seek to pastor a nation by influencing them through books and media instead of just their local congregations. Now i'm not saying this is inherently wrong, just a thing that i've noticed. but this then creates superstar pastors instead of superstar churches.
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