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February 13, 2012

The Dangerous Pursuit of Pastoral Fame

Conflating ministry and celebrity is bad for our churches and our souls.

by Bob Hyatt

As my chiropractor was working me over yesterday, she was asking about the reading I’m doing for a degree I’m working on. After I rattled off the titles and subjects of a number of leadership books, she said, “Wow, what are you going to do when you are finished with school—rule the world?”

“Actually, I’m moving in the opposite direction,” I said.

And I am trying to mean that. Genuinely.

Over the last few years, I’ve thought long and hard about “my platform” as a pastor, a writer, an occasional speaker. And as I’ve done so, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a danger to my soul in pursuing more exposure, more name recognition, more money to be made from thinking, writing, and speaking about ministry issues. Especially while I am still in full-time, paid ministry to a local community.

I want to be clear, though: I have no issue with writers/speakers who sell lots of books, go on speaking tours, and generally promote their works however they can. But there’s something very “off” in the proliferation of pastors who are mixing ministry in and to a local community with “building their brand.” I think a good case can be made that the self-promotion that’s inevitably needed to build a brand in today’s world in incongruous with the servant-leader model of pastoring and the attitude of humility that ought to accompany it.

The Celebrity Pastor certainly isn’t a new phenomenon. But the extent to which some take it today, I think, is. Yes, Spurgeon had his sermons published in the paper weekly. But can anyone really imagine him re-tweeting the fawning praises of his Twitter followers, or John Wesley selling tickets to his latest tour? Can anyone imagine Dwight Moody slapping his name on a couple ghostwritten books a year?

In other words, it seems as though we’ve thrown any reluctance over celebrity for our ministry endeavors out the window, and now many of us are now actively cultivating, pursuing, and—dare I say—grasping at the fame, increased money, and recognition that comes with hitting the big time in today’s ministry world.

And therein lies the danger and the challenge. Both for us personally and for the church as a whole.

When pastors start building their “platform,” growing their influence, and raising their profile, it’s generally talked about in terms of expanding ministry reach, being a good steward of the talents God has given, and, always, increasing “kingdom impact.” And while I have no doubt that many are humbly pursuing a God-given call to speak beyond the bounds of their local church community to a larger audience, I also suspect that for many, the motivations are somewhat more muddied, somewhat less altruistic.

For example, pastors who receive large salaries from their churches to produce sermons and resources for their community and then turn around and package and sell those same sermons and resources for personal profit need to rethink the model under which they are working. That kind of double dipping is not allowed in many other places in the world and probably shouldn’t be allowed in the church.

These last few years have seen a host of pastors and ministry leaders confronted with the challenges of a global audience and a personal brand. Some have done so with integrity, recognizing that their increased fame and recognition had become not only a danger to their own souls, but a hinderance to their church community, and they have wisely chosen to step out of one role so that they might more fully and faithfully pursue another.

Francis Chan is a great example. He took a lot of flack for leaving his mega-church pulpit. His motivation? Wanting “to go somewhere where he is unknown.” It’s a study in contrasts to watch Chan, who feels “led to greater obscurity” try to explain that to one of the more famous of today’s celebrity pastors.

How refreshing is it to hear someone in today’s world talk about pursuing obscurity?

The danger is not only to our own souls, that we would grasp after fame and abandon the quest for humility in our own lives. The danger is also that we would continue to hard-code the celebrity culture into our church communities. That we as a Church would continue to admire men and women not for their servant hearts but for their big audiences. That we see a day when every large and medium-sized “market” in America is served by the franchises of the five or six top video venue pastors . . . and we would like it.

We must begin to separate celebrity from pastoral work. Local church ministry should not be a stepping stone to anything, least of all to fame and fortune. It should not be easier for CNN to get in touch with a pastor than for someone in his own congregation.

For me, I knew I was in danger when the stats on my blog became important to me. I would post something and then check obsessively over the next few days to see how many had read it, linked to it, commented on it. The balance had shifted from “I want to say something about ministry/Jesus/the Gospel” to “I want to be known as someone with something to say.” And when that shift occurs, no matter how much we say the name “Jesus,” what we’re really pointing people to is “me.” Jesus has become the platform on which we stand, not the Savior to which we point.

So, how do you know you are moving into the danger zone here? Is it only big time ministry leaders who are affected by this? Not by a long shot. The truth is, the size or scope of your ministry is irrelevant. In fact, sometimes it’s those of us who have the smallest ministries who actually have the biggest longings.

Some signs you might be in danger:

You look at the speaker roster for a conference and think, Why did he/she get an invite and not me?

You feel jealous of others because of the size or scope of their ministry.

You begin to dream that somehow “hitting it big” (or even hitting it medium) will free you from ministry, or you begin to resent the small, mundane and unnoticed tasks of local church ministry.

You regularly Google yourself (please, no jokes in the comments.)

Your face appears on the front page of your church’s website.

You become a “friend collector” who racks up the Facebook/Twitter followers with the idea that someday, you’ll be able to leverage that when you write that book you’ve been talking about writing forever.

You find yourself thinking more and more about how you can get your name “out there.”

Please don’t think I’m condemning any pastor who has ever written a book or spoken at a conference. This is a very fuzzy area in which much grace needs to be extended. But if we never talk about the danger zone of self-promotion, we’re doing a disservice to ourselves and those we are called to serve. If we don’t think hard, on a personal level, about our need to be known by people beyond those we are directly in relationship with and service to, we run the risk of becoming men and women who use the people God has given us to serve as a means to our own self-gratifying and glorifying ends.

More and more, I’m trying to lean hard into the credo of John the Baptist: He must increase, and I must decrease. Maybe others can manage the trick of doing this while simultaneously “building their brand.” If so, God bless them. I just know that I can’t. And I’m betting not many of us can.

Comments

Thanks for your post! Well said, and worth paying attention to. These are things I've been articulating as a pastor, for years, and enjoyed feeling "validated" by someone sharing these reflections.

Warmly,
Joe
Vancouver, BC

Just in case you're refreshing your stats page, I am reluctant to give you feedback. But thank you for sharing your experiences and observations.

I'm not a pastor, but have struggled with the same things. A couple of years ago this helped me better understand what I was going thru: "...not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil..."

I was saved at 33 and am 42 now. Still a novice until God says otherwise. God bless you, Bob :)

These are good thoughts, and ones that I have struggled with personally a lot. For some of these reasons I have literally prayed and asked God to take the desire and the books out of my heart so I don't have to deal with the "fuzzy lines" as you describe. Yet, God has not done that, so I feel I need to continue down the road he has put in front of me. James 4:17 "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." I do find hope in the example of Jesus, how he literally drew crowds of thousands yet never lost connection with God or with his purpose. As you lean into the words of John the Baptist I do the same with the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1 "follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." Thanks for your thoughts Bob.

It's good to know that I am not the only pastor who has to fight against the dark, self-exalting tendencies of my sin nature, all the while wanting to rationalize the same as "a passion to glorify God." Very well said.

lol...I googled myself and the list of my writings goes a long way back...and it's interesting to see how much of myself I have changed.

The biggest change is the change in my world view...it was quite interesting to see that.

You should try it Bob, just to see how much you have changed in your thinking.

A very strongly written post. But Bob stops short of the whole foundation for "The Dangerous Pursuit of Pastoral Fame". It's all imbedded in 2 local pastor demands.

1. The pastor will do 99.9% of the personal expression of truth when the saints are all together in perpetual dependency till the kingdom comes. Every pastor is a local church fame seeking celebrity that thinks God will funnel His wisdom and truth through one guy. In light of all believers identity as MUTUAL members of the body of Christ, assuming they have NOTHING of "building up" value to say from their heart from their exposure to God's word to their mutual members when they gather is highly self-promoting. Tradition sells this as "God's will. Compared to God's Word it's highly corrupt. The saints love this because it's all so easy.

2. The pastor will get 100% of his needs met out of the offering plate. We all know about the right to be paid but the highly passionate and strategic reasons for Paul's teaching and example on refusing that right are thrown under the bus. "Ha, ha", says Chuck Swindol, "Paul only meant that for himself, not us." Now 4+ times more $ are devoted to Americans to hear 1000 to 2000 professionally prepared Bible lectures than for the gospel to go where there is no one to preach it.

The pursuit of pastoral fame is par on this two hole course. Is the only way for God to stop this mess to ruin the whole American economy? For hundreds of years, His simple revelation on this has been rejected.

Brian, above, quotes 1 Cor. 11:1. That "example" includes entrusting others to teach and speak, and refusing rights to be paid.

If confronting this again makes me a one trick pony or a loose canon, I'm okay with that.

In the first century when the celebrity pastor arose in Corinth, Paul did not correct the pastor but the church. There are over 350,000 pastors in this country and to have a discussion about what might be in the hearts of a few thousand seems more like pandering to people than a healthy discussion of leadership.

Thanks for your thoughts Bob, I have felt that tension as a missionary preparing to head to the field.

We want to "expand our reach" so we can encourage people to pray for and support our ministry, but I have felt that tug toward making it about me and not Christ.

I do agree with Tim that the fundamental structures are flawed. I wouldn't go so far as him as to say that all pastors must follow Paul's example of refusing the right to be paid, just like I wouldn't say that all pastors must follow Paul's example of refusing the right to be married (which he also discusses in 1 Cor 9). But I do believe that if the church would experience a paradigm shift away from the pastor as the PRIMARY voice through which God's Word is taught and proclaimed, and towards a more NT understanding of God's Word being taught and proclaimed PRIMARILY through the people of God--with the pastor as just one among many other voices anointed by the Holy Spirit--it would do a lot towards avoiding some of the temptations of pastoral fame. It wouldn't eliminate it completely, but it would certainly help.

"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves...." (Gen 11:4)

The Chiropractor had great discernment.

What's the difference between ruling the world and ruling a few hundred people in a local fellowship? What's the difference between having your face planted all over the latest magazines or having your face planted all over the front of the room?

The net result is that the thundering voice of God that was designed to be manifested thru the body (1 Cor 12) - ends up being the miniscule voice of God manifested thru only one small part of the body. And anyone who dares to say "REALLY????" is excluded from the conversation of one.

The devil's design is genius.

You think T.D. Jakes is awesome - wait until you meet J.C. TheLord !!!!!

That's gutsy, Bob, posting this reflection on the website of a national Christian magazine with lots and lots of readers. But you are so right! Recently, I've been mulling over a comment of Ajith Fernando's: "I realized that I had become proud. I wanted my talks at this conference to be outstanding. But my motivation had shifted from wanting to glorify Christ to wanting people to see my abilities as a speaker and Bible teacher. Such motivation resulted in my ministering out of my own strength, for God will not share his glory with another." God has never shared his glory with another and he's not about to start now, brand or no brand. Thanks, brother!

Just in case someone doesn't know this--unless a pastor has a specific, in-writing agreement with his/her church, all intellectual property produced while under the employ of the church belongs to the church. It's called "works made for hire."
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf

There are not many blog posts that stop me in my tracks, but this one did. Thanks, Bob, for your candid reflections. They caused me to think about what I am doing and why. I am a local pastor and a writer. I feel called to do both. Part of the "job" in writing is to build the brand, and for authors, conventional wisdom says their brand is their name. As a student of the spiritual condition of people, starting with me, building one's name as a brand sends up all sorts of red flags. And yet that is the way the publishing industry normally works. My response to your post isn't to stop writing or to remove myself from social media outlets. It is to go to the place I believe you intend to point us: prayer. Really honest prayer.

BTW, I have a vague recollection from Thomas Merton's journals that he struggled early on with his aspirations to be published. He asked many of the same questions. He opened up about it to his superior and was willing to put away his writing career if need be. The answer came back that he needed to write as a sacred calling from God. He then felt released to write out of obedience, and that helped him keep his personal ambitions in check. Maybe part of the answer for us is to submit our ministries outside the church (writing, etc.) to a spiritual director and/or the community of fellow leaders in our churches. But it is still up to us to be honest about the struggles of the heart, as Merton was. Otherwise those discussions can simply be rubber stamp meetings that only serve to prop up the self-promoting white lies we can easily tell ourselves.

Thanks for the post. I think you have hit the nail on the head with this one. At the end of the day it is the Lord who promotes. I think out job is to live a faithful life for Him and if that turns into more profile then fine and if not then that's fine too. Every so often we all need to stop and consider the "warning signs". The kind of remind me of the questions John Wesley gave to his Class Meetings:)

Real insight and wisdom here. Some things are obvious while others grey in this capitalistic society we live in. There is indeed a delicate dance we do, maintaining humble service while serving Christ so that HIS fame spreads. And while I have no doubts re: Chan's motivation or humility, his strategy has backfired big time. He's more famous than ever and a guru to many.
Again, thanks for the insight!

Thanks Bob, such an important post. The culture of celebrity in Christianity is so deeply ingrained and at this point is fueled by a system beyond just us as individuals. In recent writing I had a couple agents tell me blatantly that I needed to become more famous in the next couple years. It's a huge temptation for me, especially when it's taken as a given to write or speak outside a local church context, so thanks for the very straightforward challenge. I needed it.

Tim's comments are spot on. The dangerous pursuit of pastoral fame is especially treacherous because the modern-day "pastor" is an unbiblical office.

1. Every church "in the Bible" is ruled by a multiplicity of overseers, not one man. Acts 14:23, James 5:14, Philippians 1:1, etc.

2. Bishops and elders are to labor with their own hands! Acts 20:32-35, II Thessalonians 3:6-12, I Peter 5:1-2.

3. Tithing and giving to "the church" (in the sense of building up million-dollar ministries) is utter nonsense. The early Christians gave to "the saints"! II Corinthians 8:4-8, II Corinthians 9:1, II Corinthians 9:7.

Bill Williams, once the saints are ministering to "one another" as you described, there is no need for a paid, religious professional in the midst. The Body of Christ is expressed in this manner, rather than the voice of a single man.

AndreGiant, I agree with you; and I hope my comment was not taken in the wrong way. My hesitance to declare that pastors MUST follow Paul's example of refusing the right to be paid is not because I perceive a need for a "paid, religious professional" in the midst of a local congregation. Rather, my hesitance is born simply out of a desire not to go farther than scripture itself does. Having said that, I repeat that I do think our fundamental structures are flawed and must be reformed; and I think far more should follow Paul's example than currently do, especially given the overall economic climate. But that must be a choice that is made, not a right that is denied.

And what if the Pastor isn't seeking fame. Just doing his/her assignment, but their ultimate calling is beyond your local church - but a world stage. Everyone isn't called to that, but some are anointed for that...and who are we to judge their calling? Small is good for many, but big is good to - if that is your assignment.

Thanks Bob - I think you nailed one of the main idols of a young pastor.

Church Planter's secret dream/Idol: come to town, see huge growth in a short time. Get noticed and then invited to the big conference. Stand on the stage with everyone looking at you so you can say, "Its not me, its God."

I'm in Denver - a hotbed of church planting activity and it seems like the folks who thrive here have come to terms with this idol and looked beyond it to see what God can do through unnoticed service.

Wow! This is a great article. While in seminary I almost got sucked into the notion of promoting myself or "my ministry." However, I remembered that I was nothing before Jesus came into my life and opened opportunities of service for me. My testimony is John 15:16. He chose me. I didn't choose him. Today, I still have colleagues that try to make me feel less than because I choose to work behind the scenes instead of building a brand. At the end of the day, I want to remain faithful to the One who called me, not become famous.

A simple thought on this whole issue.

To be “great” and live as a servant is one of the most difficult of spiritual attainments. Dallas Willard – Spirit of the Disciplines

Good, perceptive article. Only God can judge a man's heart, but the line between a gifted pastor who shares to help others, and an ambitious pastor who wants to make his reputation and money can be a fine line. We should learn from this, and stay away from the prideful, ambitious path, and be most concerned with maintaining our relationships with God, serving our churches, and keeping our families healthy.

It's always about the heart. I agree with you, and I've juggled and wrestled with much of these issues. I decided a long time ago not to play the 'game' required to be seen, known, acknowledged.

In doing that, I've had some personal success of not believing my own PR but there have still been times when the desire to preach a better message than the last time has waylaid me.

the truth is, whether we serve God and His people through our gifts or not, we're ok as long as it's Him we serve. If we start off serving God and end up serving our ministry, we've stopped learning from Jesus how to carry His yoke, the one that's supposed to be so easy and light.

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