I'm a celebrity...get me out of here!

In a couple of weeks my church will be celebrating the life and legacy of David Watson, who was vicar there from 1965-1982. He was responsible for building the church up and many of the church's current members joined during his time here. Although I don't know as much about his work and influence on the church in the UK as I probably should, I'm sure that it was good for the church and for York, and I don't object in the least to celebrating the achievements of his time here. However, there is always a danger that we get too caught up in the person to remember that it's God working through them, and that they, like the rest of us, are only human. There's a danger too (and I sometimes wonder if we fall into it) that we try to replicate their ministry indefinitely, and aren't so responsive to what God may want us to be doing now.

Something I've thought about occasionally for some time now is the way some Christian leaders seem to have a certain 'celebrity' status. Those who run big churches or successful missions, like Billy Graham or Nicky Gumbel, to name but two, or who write popular songs or run large events seem to gain the kind of following within some parts of the church that we associate with TV personalities or other celebrities.

While I think it's good that there are inspirational leaders and role models out there, I think we have to be very wary when we start looking up to our leaders and putting them on a pedestal. As some American churches (and one in the town where I grew up) have found to their cost, even the most exciting leaders are human. At some point there's always the danger that someone will fail to live up to the standards we set our leaders- as we all fail sometimes- and then people can get hurt and disillusioned with the church.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses this problem. The young Corinthian church had developed splits between different leaders who all, presumably, had a slightly different focus to their ministry. Paul calls their attention back to the heart of the gospel: Jesus and the message of the cross. He goes on to talk about how he came to them in humility, not seeking his own glory but God's, suffering many hardships as an apostle so that he might get his message across to those who needed to hear it.

Maybe some modern Christian leaders would do well to remember this model of suffering and humility. So often preachers can make events (conversions, success) sound dramatic and sudden when so often it's a long, hard slog of dedicated work, often over many years and involving many people. Not only does this encourage us to think how wonderful they are by contrasting it with our own poor record and remembered failures, it can discourage us from trying and make us feel worthless; or even that we don't need to bother because our leaders will do the work for us.

'Leaders don’t need hero-worship or they may start believing their own press releases!' (WordLive 6th Feb 2009) What they do need is our prayer, understanding, and encouragement.