Napier Baptist

Wow, what's going on with the Christian worship and leadership scene? There's the fall of Todd Bentley, one of the leaders of the supposed "revival" in Florida, and the outrageous fall of Mike Guglielmucci (of Hillsong and Planetshakers fame), who wrote the song "healer" as an outflow of him supposedly learning he had terminal cancer - he was lying! How sick is that? What's going on in the Christian worship and leadership scene?! I have good friends who have family that have gone to Florida to "catch the fire". We have an amazing young Christian man in our church who has cerebral palsy, his favourite song is Healer because he felt that the guy singing that song (Mike Guglielmucci with his terminal cancer) could identify with him. This week he found out that Mike Guglielmucci's terminal cancer was a lie (this guy even sung with an oxygen tank as part of the charade!) when in reality this was part of how Guglielmucchi was dealing with his addiction to pornography! What the hell is going on in Christian circles!? I'm not into shaming him (him and his family must be going through hell right now), but asking what's going on in our church circles that someone would want to do this? I'm sure the answer to that is very complicated, but I'm immediately struck by one aspect - the Christian celebrity culture. So many of our leaders are obsessed with becoming some sort of celebrity that they'll go to any length to get there. And we can't remove ourselves from responsibility when we are often the ones fueling, encouraging and idolising this ugly obsession (going to conferences, concerts and buying cds and dvds). The Christian celebrity culture and leadership obsession in the West is very ugly. It comes with tantalising promises of fame, success and triumph that are NEVER promised in scripture.

The church in Corinth also had a leadership obsession, connecting themselves around superstar leaders - "I belong to..." (put in here your favourite superstar preacher, singer, whatever) and the churches wanted a superstar leader, just like the superstar leaders that secular gatherings had, who would look good and wow the crowds. They were embarrassed by Paul and some of the other Christian leaders who didn't fit the superstar leader style (1 Cor. 10:10 "For some say "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.""). In 1 Cor 4, Paul defends himself and his humble, self-effacing leadership style as being what specifically Christian leadership really looks like. To do this, he uses irony and satire to mock the Corinthian desire for high status and high rank (Christian celebrity culture) as being totally UNCHRISTIAN. The point that Paul makes in 1 Cor 1-4 is that Christian leadership is NOT meant to look like secular leadership or celebrity culture because it has been redefined by the cross:

1 Cor. 4:8-13: "Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign - an that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena (this is an image of captured slaves who were dragged around at the rear of a Roman victory parade as the spoils of their victory before they were slaughtered). We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! (celebrity secular leaders boasted of their wisdom and hated foolishness) We are weak, but you are strong! You are honoured, we are dishonoured! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands (something disgusting to any civilised Roman leader). When we are cursed, we bless; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world (or another translation - "the scrapings from everyone's shoes") - right up to this moment."

Here's a clip of an interview with Mike Guglielmucci:

Real Live Preacher is doing a study on hell in the New Testament. If you're interested in engaging in a debate about what the NT says (or doesn't say) on hell, or just trying to learn more about what the NT says, here would be a good place to go.

I once wrote a book called "Bent Not Broken".

The title was a lie.

I was broken.

Broken, broken, broken.

Like an old-fashioned thermos flask that had been dropped - I was okay on the outside but the slightest shake revealed the shimmering shards inside.

Broken.

Not the pretty kind of broken, nor the wee chip that elephant glue would mend, but ugly, nasty, dangerous, mixed up broken.

Broken like a box of crystal glasses that has been drop-kicked then gift-wrapped. Don't hug it too hard to your chest - the gift is broken, and dangerous.

Broken like a heart, like a vow, like a bone.

Broken like the psalmist who wrote:

And still broken.

Still smashed up inside, still trying with the help of God to straighten my bends, to heal my brokenness, to fix me up from the inside out.

No more plastering over the cracks, no more smoke and mirrors but bare raw broken wounds that weep for divine healing.

Heal us God, give us guidance, for the ways of the world are broken.

Broken.

Broken.