WE LOVE A CELEBRITY

I was reading a forum that was discussing the Lakeland revival and the eventual outcome. In all there were 103 pages of comments. I reflected on what has happened and the situation overall and I came to the realisation that the church sets itself up for such disasters.

In its attempt to be ‘relevant’ and ‘attractive’, one of the things that we have done is to take on board the ways of the world, Christianising practices used by secular society.

This has spawned the ‘celebrity’ preacher as society today is paying big bucks to ‘celebrities’ in sport, film, writing, art, politics and business. Companies are paying big bucks to sportsmen and women who they can sign to promote their products.

In my early days as a Christian I went to about one conference a year, a gathering of all Christian Endeavourers in the state. Today, we could go to a conference every week, somewhere.

Most of them are a showcase for one or more ‘celebrity’ speakers, people who have made a name for themselves in a particular field of Christianity. We all sign up to be mesmerised and awed by what they have to say. These conferences are getting more expensive by the day as the ‘celebrity’ speakers are costing the organisers more and more, just like the world.

I read of one ‘celebrity’ speaker who would not accept any booking unless there was a $10,000 up front fee, a luxury suite at a hotel and a fridge full of Perrier water.

This celebrity culture brings about a situation like Lakeland because adulation causes people to lose their sense of proportion. After all, he or she is a successful preacher and provides the miracles and high energy activity and entertainment so it must be all good.

As a result there is nothing to keep the ‘celebrity’ preacher grounded, so we set them up for a fall if there is anything lurking in the background such as really wanting power, recognition and lots of money.

Pride goes before a fall and if there is any sense of ‘look at me because of what I can produce’ or ‘he is God’s man of faith and power so he must be God’s anointed’, are seeds that can cause a person's downfall as a result because God has said that he will not share his glory with another…not ever.

I don’t want to get into the logistics of what happened at Lakeland except to say the people that put Todd Bentley on a pedestal are as much to blame for the outcome as he is, as they allowed him to assume God would share his glory.

True revival does not have personalities that are exalted above their station in life. When I think of the Welsh Revival and the character of Rees Howell, who was so instrumental in the events that happened, he would have run a mile from Lakeland as he would not accept any credit for anything that happened through him. He would put 90% of ministers today to shame with his refusal to claim special privilege and fat pay cheques.

I am pleased that these ‘celebrity’ speakers are slowly being removed from the scene as they cannot be a benefit to the kingdom of God. The scripture says that if Jesus is lifted up he will draw all men to him. Sadly we prefer to lift up the gifted speaker and Jesus hardly gets a look in.

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the following words in 1 Corinthians 1:27.

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong; he chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

I have yet to see a job application for a Christian ministry that sets out the qualifications needed as being foolish, weak, lowly, and despised.

I am so glad that I work for God, not some man made organisation. if that wasn’t the case, I would be on the scrap heap of Christianity as unemployable.