The Case for the Mediocre Pastor?
This is a guest post by Brad Herndon. Interested in contributing to BeDeviant.com? Check out the details here.
Lately when I’ve asked people about growing churches with strong leaders that I want to hear more about, the phrase “cult of personality” seems to be popping up more than it used to (always preceded by “it’s a little bit” as if to cushion the criticism).
Some personality-driven churches I can recognize a mile away (LED billboards with the pastor’s face lit up = dead giveaway), but less obvious ones make me wonder, is the problem with leaders, or is it in our skepticism of them?
We leave and criticize churches whose leaders don’t lead, but we’re uncomfortable with church leaders (especially those down the street from us) who lead with strength and charisma.
We love and download Andy Stanley, John Piper, Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, Bill Hybels, Erwin McManus, Craig Groeschel (insert your favorite pastor-crush here)—all of whom are great lead pastors with big personalities and bigger churches—but when a new church comes on the scene with a dynamic leader, why do we tend to say “it’s a little bit of a cult of personality.”
Just wondering, where’s the balance?
I graduated from Bethel last spring… and actually I don’t “love” all of those dudes… I think Piper was downright unkind in his response to his city’s tragedy (bridge collapse), McManus pretty much says the same things over and over, Driscoll is just too literal for my tastes, Stanley does the same thing – same formula everytime…. and none of these dudes really preach Scripture – they preach “application” which i take to mean entertainment, edutainment, or whatever will maintain the curiosity of mildly interested, lukewarm people for the longest period of time. I am certain that there are well intentioned and God-fearing, Jesus-loving people that attend all of these churches. But… i do think it says something about us as followers of Jesus that we are always drawn to the latest greatest thing…
The more i do this – and the more i learn – and the more intimate my relationship with God becomes, the less enamored i become with big churches (and i currently attend one) – i think big churches rob us of relatedness – they allow us to “go to church” annonymously, more as spectators than as worshippers – they allow us to go completely unchecked with regard to accountability. There is a reason the “small group movement” took off – now it’s house churches – it’s because Jesus knew what he was doing when he formed a small group ….
Great question and observation.
One of the biggest things I notice is if the church can sustain after the pastor leaves. I know that is a stupid question about church and sustaining, but if it truly is a personality driven church then all it every was built on was the pastor.
There is a church that is in the area where I live that is growing like crazy, they have 4 campuses now spread all over the area. The minister preaches at all the campuses, but not by video. He drives to each one, walks in, preaches, and then leaves. It was very disconnected for me. I stopped going because I could just go online and download his sermon. If he cannot continue this pace I am afraid that a couple of those churches will start to fall away and the campus will stop growing.
Good question though that I do not have answers for. Interested to hear what others say.
Great question and observation.
One of the biggest things I notice is if the church can sustain after the pastor leaves. I know that is a stupid question about church and sustaining, but if it truly is a personality driven church then all it every was built on was the pastor.
There is a church that is in the area where I live that is growing like crazy, they have 4 campuses now spread all over the area. The minister preaches at all the campuses, but not by video. He drives to each one, walks in, preaches, and then leaves. It was very disconnected for me. I stopped going because I could just go online and download his sermon. If he cannot continue this pace I am afraid that a couple of those churches will start to fall away and the campus will stop growing.
Good question though that I do not have answers for. Interested to hear what others say.