Celebrity Status In The Kingdom

When I was asked by a dear friend of mine to participate on a program entitled Celebrity Status in the Kingdom and how we got to this state in the body of Christ, a thousand thoughts ran through my mind. The first thought was what I’d shared with a friend on Twitter: More people in the pews equal more income for the leader/church staff.

If you were to watch a certain TV station from 5:00am to 7:00am, you’ll find so many followers, while the leaders offer gimmicks to the congregation/TV viewers truthfully to fleece the flock. One thing that bothered me was on Friday mornings was to see a man, who claimed to be a prophet, come on the TV screen offering to read you a prophecy for $29.99. The first thing that came to my mind was Miss Cleo (for those of you who might remember her). Its people like them and leaders in churches who typically carry themselves as if they are to be worshiped and the congregation better get in line. They typically carry an entourage and the congregation is not to get too close to the leader. They will demand a speaking fee, receive an honorary degree and even demand a five-star hotel, first class ticket, etc. I remember in my former church in my Men’s Bible Study where our pastor wanted us men to have gun permits so we can protect the pastor from anyone who makes threats to the pastor (now mind you, the pastor used to call women whores and that the men were nothing if the woman ran the house; to the women, they were to be quiet and be a domestic slave, produce sex when a man wanted it, etc. – all during a church service).

There are a few traits I’ve come to learn when a leader (and some Christian/Gospel artists) is prone to fall to the sin of “wanting to be a celebrity” – truthfully, it’s just wanting to be worshiped. If the celebrity has to defend his lifestyle (sinful or not) by making threats like “touch not my anointed,” that’s one trait. When the gospel is compromised by making service after service a lesson on giving to get blessed (or delivering a message to itch the congregation’s ears by saying what they want to hear and the congregation is lacking while the pastor/leadership staff is hoarding all of the funds, living large, with a personal chef, etc.), that’s the second trait. Now if all of that came from the pastor’s salary, I don’t have a problem with that.

I need to detour for a moment, because I can’t shake this thought: I can’t help but to think about the Worldwide Church of God in the 80s and early 90s. When Herbert W. Armstrong was over the church, the church grew massive (considering his teachings were SDA, he self-proclaimed himself a modern-day prophet – almost all of his prophecies did not come to pass). When Herbert passed, the leaders started questioning his teachings and decided to teach the Biblical truth. Of course, the membership fell, and income fell in the church. What’s the message here? In most cases, when there’s a big following, there’s a strong chance that God is not being worshiped, but the leader/prophet is (dead or alive). Sadly, we make that leader/prophet a celebrity (and this can happen inside or outside the church, cultic or non-cultic church).

Continuing on: A leader will become a celebrity when there’s a compromise of the gospel (where the pastor’s teachings become the Word of God and judgments of not following the leader’s teaching). I’ve even heard where leaders throw temper tantrums when they’re not treated like royalty whenever they go places (such as out to eat as a simple place). It’s like a title is thrown out so that the red carpet is put out for them. If Paul were alive, he would seriously frown at that.

When I think about church splits, it wouldn’t surprise me that the majority of the splits are not because of false doctrine, or because it’s led by God. I would suspect that the splits are because the leaders break off for attention and want the glory for themselves, so they don’t have to punch a clock.

And without belaboring this topic, I’ll close with this question: are you following God, or the leader who’s putting himself out as a celebrity? If we’re following the latter, Christ is not being glorified and that’s dangerous.

The Power of Relationships

Many people say that people are in our lives for a reason, season, or a lifetime. If we carry this attitude in our relationships with people, we can miss a lot of blessings. It can also breed selfishness. Why do I say this? If we have a spirit of love towards everyone, we don’t have to spend all of our time focused on how long a person is in our life. Most people classify people like that is because they have a motive of their own. This is not to condemn anyone; we should always have a spirit of love and generosity towards people. No matter how long a person stays in your life, treasure the time with them and don’t cut them off unless you really need to regulate or terminate the relationship (especially if they’re taking you down a path that’s contrary to Scripture). Sadly, we terminate relationship because of trivial things (I could write the numerous trivial things, but it’s not relevant to this post) and our own selfishness. Think about it, Jesus didn’t cut Judas out of His life. Judas cut himself off by betraying Him and taking his own life. Jesus really wanted Judas to repent and He still showed compassion towards him.

If the truth be told, the Kingdom of God is centered on relationships. Yes, He is the Lord of the Harvest but we need to understand that our breakthrough, our increase, our open and closed doors are hinged on someone. Many times we miss that blessing because we don’t want to get along with people or we’re judging them because they appear different than you. Some of us are holding on to Bitterness, Unforgiveness, and Grudges (what I call the BUG syndrome), which is a great hindrance to our blessings. What we need to understand is that the one who annoys you totally can be the very one who has your breakthrough. This is why we need to follow God’s lead and not our own! Let’s look at Luke 6:38, it says “Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall MEN give into your bosom.” Notice that it didn’t say shall God. I need to say this: sometimes we miss a blessing because of pride. Someone reading this post needs to swallow their pride and ask for help or prayer, or not look down on people because they don’t have a title. Some of those people you look down on could actually have your blessing. Remember pride goes before destruction. That selfish spirit of “I can do it by myself” or “I’m to have all the answers” needs to go! In summary of this paragraph, there will be people who mistreat you. Don’t think for one minute that it’s not God. They could be, but we need to learn to get along with others and relate to people (now I’m not saying to kiss up to people – many of you know me and how I feel about that). Always remember, the righteous will never be forsaken!

Another problem is that we’re trying to determine our blessings on our own terms. Most blessings come when we are united with other brothers and sisters as we’re helping each other with our God-given assignments. And to think, God gave us all of the resources we need. He didn’t drop anything from the sky. A little side-note: there will some people who will be complacent and not put their hands to the plow when it comes to their assignment, while still praying for a blessing from God. He can do all things, but He won’t do your assignment for you. As I just mentioned, He has given us the resources so we can complete our respective assignment. My assignment affects you, and your assignment affects me and they both make us better and more effective to the world.

In closing: relationships are critical. Always treat people with respect and with God’s love. Philippians 2:3-4 says this: Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own.

This is why we need to be led by His Spirit (walking and living by faith) and not be moved by what we see in front of us!