December 9, 2021
Evangelical Christianity sure does love its celebrity pastors.
Not only that, it loves a certain kind of celebrity pastor, who can usually be described as such:
- Male
- Heterosexual (of course; anything else is a sin)
- Type A personality
- Extroverted, energetic, and a little intense
He’ll also have some “negative” personality traits that are spun to be positive. You know, for the Lord.
- He’s stubborn (but in a good way). That means he won’t back down in his mission to evangelize.
- He’s narrowly focused (but in a good way). That means he wakes up in the morning with only one aim: spread God’s kingdom. Any other troubles, injustices, or crises in the world are outside of his attention.
- He’s aggressive (but in a good way). That means he knows Christianity is “under attack” in the modern era, so he has no qualms about getting his point across with sharp and intrusive words, if need be.
- He’s defensive (but in a good way). That means—following from the point above—this pastor understands that in order to make an omelet, you might need to break a few eggs. His extreme Type A personality is going to step on some toes from time to time, so he needs to defend against any and all who might try to undermine his ministry by coming at him with complaints and accusations, especially those pesky women who “couldn’t take a joke.”
Eventually, as these pastors’ followings grow, they usually become a brand. They write books, become social media stars, and sometimes even release music. In many cases, if you were to ask someone what church some celebrity pastor works for, they might not even be able to tell you. The pastor’s brand has superseded the church in which he’s actually employed.
I would’ve thought these churches might take issue with their pastor becoming a C-list celebrity (but most definitely A-list in the Christian community). I would’ve thought they might think this pastor was taking all the attention away from the church, the church’s mission, and maybe even from the glory of God. But no. These churches love these guys and consider themselves as having hit the jackpot. Pastors with celebrity status bring in the money.
And it’s all well and good until it’s time to fire the guy.
Because no matter what, it always seems like these pastors who get so huge all share a similar fate: they eventually fall from grace.
There’s Perry Noble, who several years ago was the head pastor of a megachurch in South Carolina called NewSpring. He was removed from leadership because of his issues with alcohol. Afterward, NewSpring named “Jesus Christ” as their head pastor for a little while after the incident. Nowadays, Noble has reemerged, remarried, and launched a new church aptly named Second Chance.
There’s Carl Lentz, who made a huge name for himself as the pastor of Hillsong and for his friendship with Justin Bieber. It recently came out that he was removed from his position because of an extramarital affair, and literally no one on planet Earth was surprised to hear this.
There’s Mark Driscoll, the former leader of the now-defunct Mars Hill Church. He was removed from leadership when his employees and other members of the church became fed up with his bullying and abusive leadership style. Like Noble, Driscoll is now preaching again at another church in another city after having taken some obligatory time away from the public light (politely called a sabbatical).
There are way more, but these three are a few of the fallen celebrity pastors that I still google from time to time—whenever I happen to remember—just to see what they’re up to now.
But you might be saying, “Those three only make up a handful of highly publicized cases. What about all the celebrity pastors who haven’t fallen from grace?”
To which I’d interpret as you asking, “What about all the celebrity pastors who haven’t fallen from grace yet?”
Because it seems like if you give these guys a long enough timeline, they’ll all eventually get caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing. If you give them enough rope, they’ll eventually hang themselves.
Why is that? Are these celebrity pastors a bunch of evil people?
No. Most of them aren’t. The thing about them is that they’re normal humans trying really hard to be an impossible example while millions of people are watching. These pastors will even admit in their sermons that they aren’t perfect, and congregations will accept this. But when they’re caught not being perfect and trying to hide it is when everyone suddenly has a problem.
Most grown adults are intelligent and wise enough to not expect perfection from anyone. This is why I roll my eyes at pastors who hold themselves up as bright and shining examples of Jesus—who was allegedly without sin. I also roll my eyes at the new generation of hip and trendy pastors who are stepping up to replace the likes of Noble, Lentz, and Driscoll, because in my mind it’s only a matter of time before these dudes step out of line and get hammered for it. I’ve seen it happen too many times to expect anything else. There’s a strong pattern at play here.
The more cynical side of me thinks that these pastors know their time in the limelight is limited. After all, actors and musicians are told by their management and mentors that they’ll enjoy a mainstream explosion of fame for a couple of years before they “cool off” and people move on to someone else. Pastors work much the same way. They’ll ride the wave as long as they can, enjoying the book deals, social media fandom, and love and adoration before it’s their time to be deposed.
So is it inevitable that all these big-name pastors eventually fall from grace? Technically no, I suppose not. But the probability of it happening eventually is so high that it may appear so.