Celebrity pastors. . .

I was recently listening to a podcast in which someone made the obvious but profound point -- there is a difference between celebrity pastors [or priests] and those to whom people go because they have good things to say.  Wow.  I wish I had said that.  The real problem of evangelicalism is that it has aided and expanded the role of celebrity pastors -- people who are not constrained by denominational loyalty or doctrinal integrity and who do not have regular ecclesiastical oversight to rein in their excesses.  We have seen the downfall of how many individuals and pastoral dynasties among such churches and their ancillary institutions.  Examples abound -- from Rick Warren to Ted Haggard to Jim Bakker to Jimmy Swaggart to Mark Driscoll to Josh Duggar and that is the few I named off the top of my head!  I could not even print the list of all those who wandered off the orthodox reservation of Christianity but have kept their mega-ministries going.  The cult of celebrity does not serve any church well.

Even Rome is not without its own version of these.  Some of them have fallen and fallen hard from grace while others wax and wane in pursuit of their portion of the media pie.  It is embarrassing that even Popes have tried to emulate such celebrity status and it is no wonder that Rome is in the straits it is today because of the desire for popularity over faithfulness.  Rome has a mechanism for dealing with their offenders, at least when it is not busy using against those who simply disagree with the Pope.  Even Lutheranism has mechanisms for handling such problems although resignation or removal from the roster does not always silence their voices.  We are all affected by the talking heads among us -- those whose popularity is a cultivated thing and not simply the result of their having good things to say.

Pastors are gravely tempted to emulate such celebrities.  The ease and abundance of podcasts and media outlets have created something to eat away at a pastor's precious time and distract him from things that are going well or not going at all in the parish.  I think it is wonderful that we have good and faithful teachers whose gift and blessing is multiplied by media so that those beyond the local parish can enjoy and benefit from their teaching.  I do not think that I am such a guy or that most pastors are those guys.  Nor do we need to be!  Blogging for me was begun as a therapeutic measure -- it relieved my wife of having to hear all my opinions and it saved the few friends I have from being bored to tears over and over again.  I have not marketed this blog and am continually surprised that some are interested or benefit from my meandering thoughts.  I have not done podcasts or exploited a media presence beyond this blog (either through Substack or one of the many options available).  I hope that nobody goes around telling the world what I have said instead of telling the world what God has said.  If you enjoy it and find it interesting, so be it.  If I have a few good things to say every now and then, I am glad you stayed around to read them.  But please do not consider me a celebrity.  I am a nobody.  This is not humility but honesty.

All of that said, we do need more pastors who have good things to say.  Our life together is enriched by the wise and faithful counsel of those who have such good things to say.  We should consider ourselves blessed and wealthy by having among us many whose good words serve to guide us, encourage us, question us, and console us.  I am daily and regularly enriched by the gift of media and the ability to hear my friends and even those I do not know preach and teach from their parish into the world.  Everyone can benefit from hearing good preachers and good sermons.  We can also benefit from the various media that provide us with good voices and good content (from the resources of Lutheran Public Radio to Issues, Etc., to KFUO).  The seminaries have some folks who do this well also.  That is what was once the staple of district pastoral conferences -- until they became more about pastoral health and well-being.  We gathered to be regularly taught by those who had good things to say -- some more practical than others and some just to encourage us to become better students of the Word and the various subjects related to the pastoral vocation.  When I discourage celebrity pastors, I do not demean those whose good words are a blessing to us still.  I listen to the words of the sainted Kenneth Korby still and have some other ancient resources by those who have had good things to say that I need to hear.  So do not get me wrong.  I am not saying that we need to live under a soundproof bubble.  I am warning us when the person becomes the object and not what it is that this person says.  The cult of celebrity will be our undoing and we have witnessed how media has aided in the rise of such cult figures even in Christianity.  God help us.