Aside from the fact that there should not be any "pastors" to begin with, and that the early local assemblies of believers had non-hierarchical, plural, co-equal, indigenous male leadership (not controlling, subjugating, or dominating) that had arisen from within the congregation they would subsequently shepherd, here is something written by John Cooper, lead singer of Skillet, that desperately needs to be heard:
Pastors shouldn’t be rock stars. Yeah I said it. A rock star promotes himself, builds his brand, and entertains people. It’s his job. A pastor is supposed to lay his life down for his sheep. He serves, he protects, and he equips the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). So why does it seem like many of our celebrity pastors are obsessively self-promoting, building their own brands, and protecting themselves by never preaching or teaching anything that would put them in Twitter prison? Yes, it’s sad and devastating to watch our leaders fall into sin, but when the foundation is built so poorly it shouldn’t be all that surprising.
Many Christians have been saying this for years and its past time that I join them: I’m tired of celebrity pastors. Pastors aren’t supposed to be cool. They’re not supposed to be fashion trend setters. We are ALL called to decrease, that Christ would increase both in our hearts and in our lives (John 3:30). HIS fame should be known, NOT ours. Celebrity Pastors, get out of the way! You’re hogging the spotlight by making yourself the story. Instead, you should be taking some hits on the front lines by stating clearly what God commands. Celebrity pastors seldom do this. Instead, most of what we hear is rhetorical gobbledygook, veiled mysticism, and repackaged new-age movement self-help promotional material disguised as the work of the Spirit.
My pastor helped change my life in college. “Really, who?” Exactly. He remains faceless, nameless, and will never get the adoration of the world because his desire was for Jesus to have all of the glory. He taught me how to read and understand the Bible. He took my midnight phone calls, he instigated the necessary but uncomfortable conversations, he taught me the importance of sexual purity, and he even taught me how to paint a house and balance a checkbook. It almost sounds more like being a father, doesn’t it? Working, serving, teaching your kids and never expecting a “thank you” or a hand clap is what pastoring is all about.
Pastors, I am thankful for you. Many are serving faithfully and you will be rewarded by God. But for the pastors who are receiving their reward on earth, I have a request for you: please stop looking for adoration from the world. We don’t need you to look “awesome”, we need you to be fearless and preach the gospel according to the unchanging, authoritative Word of God. Stop finding clever ways to evade questions. You know the ones—God’s commands about sexual morality, Gods authority structure in the Church and at home, God’s righteousness that demands punishment of sin. Answer them. And answer them clearly for heaven’s sake. Please stop trying to find new ways to explain the perceived inconvenient truths of God’s Word. You ought to love what He loves and hate what he hates. This used to be a prerequisite for church leadership. Today, its deemed radical and even bigoted.
Play time is over. The battle is raging, and the field is full of wimps and boys who have never picked up a sword because it just “feels mean.” We need generals and leaders who don’t care about their brand, their look, their “likes”, or making allegiances with the world. In short, it’s time to make pastors uncool again.
This goes along with something I recently posted:
How can you identify a false church? The single criterion for determining this is . . . the world loves it!
If the world loves a particular church, you can rest assured that this church is a false church. The opposite, however, is not necessarily true. If the world hates a particular church, it does not necessarily mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that this church is a biblical, godly, or Christ-like church and that they are experiencing “persecution.” Exhibit A: The Westboro "Baptist" Church.
It also goes well with something else I posted quite some time ago:
Many ministers in ministry today do not know how to lose; they do not know how to lay their lives down; they do not know how to die. They have never been broken; they have never been crushed. They are dangerous. They will defend themselves at the drop of a hat. They do not know what it means to be silent. They do not know how divinity reacts to pressure. They will attack those who sleight them at the drop of a hat. They are unbroken, they do not know how to lose, they do not know how to die, and they are out there serving the kingdom of God with one hand and destroying God's people with the other hand. None of these ministers were ever in community long enough for the Lord to temper, adjust, break, or transform them. Some of them, when things got hot, they left, they ran away. This is not how we have learned Christ Jesus. These ministers are full of ego and full of pride, and when they are under pressure the flesh gets exposed.
We are seeing many preachers who we once thought fairly grounded in the Scriptures suddenly standing on quicksand and rejecting simple biblical truths. Max Lucado, for example, of whom I have never been a fan, referred to the Holy Spirit as a "him or her" on false teacher Jen Hatmaker's podcast. We are seeing many preachers we once thought grounded in the Word getting together with known false teachers and singing their praises. What is going on here?!? These same preachers are suddenly agreeing with unbiblical and immoral nonsense such as homosexuality, trans-ism, abortion, etc. They have stepped off the foundation of God's Word and gotten rid of it as their authority (in whatever limited capacity it was to begin with, siding with denominational traditions rather than biblical truths).
Have you ever wondered what it is like to think that you might be the only remaining Christian who still believes the Bible, from cover to cover, and believes in holding it as our sole and absolute authority on all matters of doctrine, congregational practice, family life, and personal holiness? I know that most Christians would sooner believe what their particular denominational flavour has taught them than to admit they were taught wrong and have believed wrong and to reform and conform themselves and their beliefs entirely to God's Word. I continue praying, as I have for the past 25 years, that God would teach me according to His Word and help me to conform regardless of how I was raised, what I was taught, or what I presently believe. As I diligently search God's Word, He opens it up to me. Most Christians barely even read their Bibles let alone taking the time to study them, and I mean to study them deep. Noting where early fathers diverted from biblical truth and the traditions of Jesus and His apostles.
Quite frequently, I feel like Elijah. But then I remember that God told him that He had a remnant of people who were just as Elijah was. That comforts me. Knowing that somewhere out there, there are serious Christians who truly love the Lord and filter their denominational teachings and traditions through the Bible rather than the other way around. Most Christians hold something other than the Bible to be their absolute and final authority, whether it is the early fathers, church history, church traditions, creeds, confessions, constitutions, statements of faith, systems of theology, their denomination, what the "experts" tell them, their "experiences," etc.
I am finding bits of truth in various denominations that agrees with the teachings and traditions of the apostles in the Word of God. It is that stuff that I hold on to, and I reject everything else. I am constantly reminding myself to be careful when examining a stand alone verse so that I am not giving it an interpretation entirely separate from the context the verse is found in. It is my hope and prayer that more preachers would start doing this. Independent verses are not the Word of God apart from their context! For example: The first 16 verses of the 5th chapter of the apostolic letter 1 Timothy is speaking with regard to widows. It is eisegesis for a preacher to quote verse 8 and give it the interpretation that a man needs to have a job and work to provide for his family. That is not what that verse is teaching! The "family" in question is the relational widow.
Whenever anyone uses a random, isolated verse of Scripture to back some teaching, do not simply read the verse by itself. By doing it, the verse may sound like it teaches what they are citing it for. Instead, read the surrounding verses that encompass the random, isolated verse, and make sure the context is teaching what they are attempting to use the verse to support. Otherwise, what they are attempting to use the verse for is a false interpretation, which makes them false teachers who are not representing the Word of God accurately. We should be like the Bereans (Acts 17:11) are commanded to diligently search God's Word in order to divide the truth from error (2 Timothy 2:15). This is for all Christians, not just "special" ones!