Dennis Peacocke comments on 'celebrity' church

Dennis Peacocke

"...and He gave some as apostles and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ." Ephesians 4:11-12

There are few verses in the New Testament more important to the Church today than this scripture from Ephesians. Here the Apostle Paul is saying that leaders are supposed to train people for Christian ministry, not turn them into spectators who watch their leaders "perform." A truly New Testament church is one where the number saved
equals the number serving.

We are fed a steady diet of "superstars" by the media, and the church has its "star system" too. We are all familiar with the Christian evangelists, pastors, and musicians with huge buildings to house the spectators.

Obviously some of this is inevitable, but much of it is disastrous because it has turned the average Christian into an observer who may very well believe the right things but doesn't see his or her own life as a ministry. "TV Evangelist so-and-so" has a ministry, "Pastor so-and-so" has a ministry, but most Christians view themselves as "just" Christians. They watch while their talented leaders perform. Such a "star" system among Christians is surely one of the more destructive forces operating in the Church today. While inflating the egos of the stars, it makes the "mere" layman alternate between hero worship and a sense of spiritual inadequacy-both guaranteeing a feeble and ineffective church.

The Bible says that a leader is supposed to give to those who follow him the tools to do their jobs. God has called every believer to ministry, and it's up to the leader to help each one discover what it is and train him to fulfill and sustain it. It's this kind of leadership that will eventually produce a truly vital and spiritually revolutionary church whose members are no longer subject to the following all too common bondages:

What Church Is Not

• Church is not a building. The superstar concept tends to promote a concern with outward appearances, since "stardom" and "outwardness" are causally linked. In contrast, the church building is supposed to be an efficient spiritual "munitions factory" producing believers who can change their world. Believers were never meant to identify with a brick and wood structure.
• The Church is not a meeting. The superstar concept tends to focus the believer on meetings rather than effective ministry. Christians to meetings instead of church! They need to understand that they are the Church, and never more the Church than when they are letting God do His work through them out in the trenches of real life.
• The Church is not a corral or a city of refuge. "Star" leadership tends to promote a mentality and theology that the leader and his church is the protective
  environment into which the believer can stagger and take refuge from the "evil world." Christians end up with a refuge or siege mentality, viewing life as a defensive
  game played, at its best, offensively. While Christ said that His Church was to march against the gates of hell (1), most churches are trying to protect themselves from hell. Why? Because spectator Christians are weak Christians who, instead of attacking, end up being attacked! Leaders should produce fighters and aggressors-like Jesus-and not fearful sheep.

If we really are a whole kingdom of priests as the Bible declares (2), then what should we be producing? Well, if we reject the "star leader" concept and instead follow those who are handing out the tools, the Church would look like this:

What The Church Is Supposed To Be

• A place of repairing (pastoring) where believers get their dents pounded out, readying them in the Spirit to engage in real warfare.
• A place of preparation (teaching) where believers are taught who they really are in God, and what to do with their lives that will make a difference on earth.
• A place of strategy (the prophetic realm) where believers are both taught and ordered into an effective army that disciples nations by systematically applying God's Word to the surrounding culture.

A collapsing world system will never be impacted by a spectator church. Unless we're involved, we'll not be relevant; we can't be involved if we are not trained and equipped. We can't be trained by "stars" because stars need us to give to them instead of them giving to us. May God help us all be servants and equippers. The world is dying for lack of servants-the very thing Christ died to make us into.

1. Matthew 16:18
2. 1 Peter 2:9

"We have no right to happiness. We have only an obligation to do our duty. It is in doing that duty that ultimate happiness can be found." C.S. Lewis

Reprinted by permission. This article is excerpted from Dennis Peacocke's book "The Emperor Has No Clothes" available at www.gostrategic.org