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Fanboys and Cynics: Evangelical Pastors and the Celebrity Culture

Eric McKiddie has a helpful post here on thinking about pastors who are popular:

I was reminded of the polarizing effect famous Christian leaders have on the masses at The Gospel Coalition National Conference last week. It seems to me that people can potentially fall into two extremes.

First there is the cynical camp. At best, the cynic derides everyone who attends conferences as wide-eyed fan-boys. At worst, he assumes that hubris got the Pipers of the world where they are today, treating them like moths who can’t resist the spotlight.

Then there is the infatuated camp. As he scrolls through his Twitter feed, the infatuated resembles a soccer mom poring over the latest edition of Us Weekly searching for nuggets from the personal lives of their favorite celebrity-slash-pastor (and not the other way around).

Neither of these responses honors Jesus.

Part of walking the path of wisdom is discerning which direction is more tempting for you. But it’s important to remember that both sides—the adoring fanboy and the mocking, cynical critic—both see some things rightly but apply their perspective in a spiritually unhealthy way.

Eric goes on to outline four bad ways (for pastors in particular) to respond to this situation—three for the infatuated and one for the exasperated:

  1. Copying the form rather than the substance.
  2. Wanting a big church like those guys.
  3. Thinking that you can do what they do.
  4. Throwing the baby out with the bath water.

You can read the whole thing here.

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