How Celebrity-Pastor Culture Impacts Pastors

The Origin of Celebrity Culture

Celebrity culture comes from at least two places. First, it has simply been here since the garden. In the very beginning when the devil said, "You can be like God," there was an invitation to take center stage. Now that desire to take center stage is in each of us as human beings.

Second, we live in a selfie culture. With all of its strengths, it is still a culture that says "Put yourself forward." Those two things then converge: our inward desire to be somebody, and the external culture that says you can be.

The Struggle We Face

When we look at the Gospels we see that Jesus is very fame-shy. He is constantly moving in places that other people wouldn't go. He is constantly moving to people that other people would overlook. And he calls us to that kind of life. So we wrestle with this invitation to do a truly great thing by serving the least, while inside of us and outside of us we're pressured to make much of ourselves.



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