Thursday, June 28, 2012

Celebrity Preachers

Practical Theology for Women post:  Spiritual Formation and Celebrity Pastors

I don't believe in Christian hero worship, but if I did, Tim Keller would be the pastor on which I'd focus. I love John Piper and D. A. Carson too. I've learned a LOT from those guys. But I've been particularly affected by Tim Keller's books (Generous Justice in particular) and ministry (my pastor interned under Keller, and I have grown tons through his gospel-centered preaching). I respect Keller's ability to speak truth to a culture that conservatives tend to offend often not by our truth, but by our ignorant way of presenting that truth. Keller has modeled for me a way to engage an educated, agnostic culture so that if they take offense, they take it over THE stumbling block of Christ Himself and not lesser issues that were never meant to be stumbling blocks.

All that to say, it is noteworthy to me that Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City where Tim Keller preaches is moving to a decentralized preaching model. From their blog last week-- 
“In North America, we have an unhealthy fascination with celebrity preachers. Building a church (or a movement) around a celebrity pastor/preacher has inherent dangers and gives rise to certain problems.”
Al Barth goes on to note several problems in congregations centered around celebrity preachers. It all goes to spiritual formation – that nebulous but real idea of how our discipleship practices affect the whole person. My pastor noted that by deliberately engaging in the practice of not demanding a celebrity preacher in order for worship to be valid, Redeemer Presbyterian will be spiritually forming the people there in a much stronger way. Allowing celebrity preachers to become the focus of worship is a practice that actively shapes people in the wrong way. 

I've watched this phenomenon personally. A congregation has multiple teaching pastors, but one seems a more gifted speaker. Gradually, the congregation of a multi venue church starts to overwhelm the services featuring the gifted speaker. Then expediency takes over. If the congregants are flocking to hear the gifted speaker, then it makes sense to have the gifted speaker speak more often and/or in the largest venue. At some point, spiritual formation suffers. People are formed, but they are in many ways spiritually DEformed, equating external performance for internal character in a preacher.

I'm not saying that gifted speakers are not used to accomplish good things spiritually in the lives of the listeners. And I am not saying that the average church with a single teaching pastor is doing it wrong. Not at all. But I am noting the problem in spiritual formation when a church changes its core values or makes major adjustments to accommodate a congregation's unusual affinity for a certain speaking style to the detriment of other teachers or ministries. Paul's warning in 2 Timothy 4:3 about itching ears is noteworthy. When we demand a gifted teacher's talent for wording things over the substance of the sermon, when we flock to entertaining speakers when others speak the same truth though maybe in a duller way, we lose something of real value in terms of discipleship and worship.

I'm thankful that in my own church our pastors rotate, and I can count on being similarly spiritually formed despite their variety of speaking styles. It's real worship no matter who speaks, and the purposes and blessings of Sabbath worship are accomplished regardless. I am hopeful that these changes at Redeemer will be a solid model for other congregations struggling with such issues. 

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