Skip to main content

My Pastor is God

I have seen a disturbance in the holy water. People come to the altar to worship, but who are they worshipping. I heard a story recently from another youth pastor (thanks Jon).

There was a young boy who decided to become a Christian, and give his life to Jesus. He was very excited to tell people and one of the first he wanted to tell was the worship pastor. He walked up to him and excitedly said, "I gave my life to you today!" The pastor was a little taken aback, "do you mean you gave your life to Jesus today?" "Yeah, that's what I said, I gave my life to you." The worship pastor was a little confused and asked, "son, do you think I am Jesus?" "Well, you are aren't you?" the boy said, "I mean...we sing to you every Sunday."

This is a somewhat humorous (although disturbing) misunderstanding. But, I think I have seen this type of confused worship in many ways. Churches grow because people like the preaching, or because the worship pastor is so great, and I don't really think that is why churches should grow. I don't think most pastors set out trying to make their church grow because of them, they set out to make followers of Jesus and their personality winds up drawing people in.

You see this in some of the huge mega-churches like Saddleback, where people are drawn in by Rick Warren, or Mars Hill (Mark Driscoll) or Bethlehem Baptist (John Piper) or Mars Hill Bible Church (Rob Bell) or Lakewood Church (Joel Osteen). But you also see it to a smaller degree in other churches. Many people in our church would say they come to our church because of our pastor. I am not saying this to be critical of these Pastors or of their churches, I am just observing a phenomenon in our culture.

This type of understanding of leadership can be dangerous and misleading, because people begin to put their pastor too close to God and sometimes those pastors do not represent God very well, and most of us have a problem with power.

I wonder if it's time for churches to be more clear about where the leadership of their community comes from. In some way we need to
communicate that Christ is the head of the church (Eph. 5:23). I think it comes from a more communal approach to leadership. This is necessary, but needs a grass-roots movement that is much more difficult to embrace and live. But difficulty should not be a motivating factor.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
i have no idea what you are talking about

http://caseytreat.com/

Casey treat is the pastor
10:54 pm
Anonymous said…
Listen buck shot maybe if you had a million dollar DVD contract and some cool/wierd books to publish more kids would show up at your youth group...
4:08 pm
Trevor said…
phil, that website is a little creepy. his name is the url, that's not just a little weird.

Hey Rob, it's so great to have someone of your stature checking out my humble blog. I will look into your advice...
12:51 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Work Against Homelessness

I have been thinking quite a lot about homelessness (over the last two years especially) and have come to all kinds of conclusions about myself and the things that I (and the church) need to do in order to help people who are in that situation. I have been involved in a few organizations who work with homeless people and met with many people to discuss what I/we should be doing to help. I finally discovered something very important that I can do right now. I am reading t his book called Bent Hope which is a really interesting read. The author is a Youth Worker who works with young people who live on the streets in Toronto. He walks the streets and hangs out with them and helps when he can. He basically just tells the stories of his encounters with people and talks a little bit about what he has learned from them. I am loving it! So, I know what I am supposed to do to help homelessness. In his book, pretty much everyone he encounters he mentions how they come from a family situa...
8 comments
Read more

Mustachio

I have entered the dark underworld of a mustache growing contest, having been drawn in by Nicky's (my wife's) brothers. This is a picture of how put together I looked without a mustache. If you look at the picture below, it would seem that the mustache itself has gotten to me. I am not saying that growing a mustache means you become a drunk, sleazy, stuck in the 80s, trying-to-be-young-but-not-being-successful-at-it type of person, but that is what it has done to me. I find that when I walk I have a different gait, one that I tried to use back in Jr. High...to look cool. I find that I have a renewed passion for wearing hi-top shoes with the laces undone. I have a need to wear brigh t coloured clothing, and I have been looking for acid-wash pants at Value Village (unsuccesfully). The thing is that I also have many good friends who are growing mustaches, and have had mustaches for a long period of time, it doesn't seem to have this kind of impact on them. I work at a churc...
7 comments
Read more

Coffee Drinking Bullies

I feel as though I am about to have a fight with a bully, I fully expect this post to be read as hurtful and condemning to many. That may be the case but here goes anyway. I have long been frustrated by coffee drinkers. I realize that probably 95% of those who are in the blogosphere are those who are regular coffee drinkers, actually *ahem* probably not regular coffee drinkers, they are people who are very particular about the coffee they drink. Most times they take one sip of coffee and declare it to be horrible, or wonderful, or somewhere in between. They do NOT drink any free coffee, especially the coffee served at churches, they do not just go to the corner store for coffee, their coffee must meet very specific requirements and standards. If they make it at home they do not just use a coffeemaker, they must use a various assortment of grinders, presses, and perhaps going as far as to roast their own beans. I know that I am not cool for criticizing coffee drinkers and their habits,...
9 comments
Read more