Addicted

In this post, I want to address a very serious issue in the church.  I want to address the issue of addiction.  Not to drugs or alcohol or even sex, but to charisma and fame.  Preachers are addicted to fame and parishioners are addicted to charisma.  Preachers want the most followers and followers want the most charismatic and eloquent preacher.  They want to brag and boast about "passtah" and repeat what "passtah" said.  Addiction is killing the church and it is luring many away from the faith.

One who is addicted to fame seeks his own fame at the expense of all else.  One who is addicted to fame will say whatever they have to in order to get a crowd.  Pastors/preachers seeking fame take the word of God don't adhere to orthodoxy or proper tradition.  Someone might counter with the assertion that Jesus was radical and he railed against orthodoxy and to that I will say that Jesus railed, not against orthodoxy, but against hollow religion.  Jesus was against false religiosity and those that knew the practices and the traditions but not God Himself.  Fame addicts speak their own version of what the Bible says, not what God actually said.  Jesus set the model for preachers.  John 17:4 says "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do."  Jesus glorified the Father through His work here on earth.  Jesus set his own needs aside in order to fulfill the agenda of the Father!  In his prayer he says "YOUR will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  He did not twist the words of the Father, he did not add to them nor did he sweeten them to tickle itching ears.  Jesus said plainly that he did not speak on his own initiative but He only spoke what he heard from the Father (John 14:10).  In John 6, the message that Jesus preached regarding "eating my flesh" and "drinking my blood" turned many people off.  Jesus was saying this figuratively and was likely looking forward to his departure and the remembrance of His death during the Lord's supper.  But those that followed left.  They thought He was a madman and they were unable to bear His teaching.  I would not doubt, although the bible does not give an indication of this, that many of the ones that left were seduced by false teachers and led away from the truth by even more bizarre teachings.

There is another class of addicts in this mix of religiosity.  These are the charisma addicts that follow the fame addicts!  Charisma addicts are always looking for who sounds the best, who whoops the best, who sings the best, who makes them feel the best- but are uninterested in a true and Spirit led interpretation of the word.  Charisma addicts are wide awake during praise and worship and yet sound asleep at the preaching of the word.  Charisma addicts repeat what the pastor said instead of what the Bible says.  The problem with repeating what the fame addict says is this: it probably is not what is in the bible, but a cleverly crafted distortion of what is in the bible.  If you ever notice people that are involved in cults or churches that resemble cults, they never talk about what the Lord says, they only parrot what the pastor says.  Even if what "passtah" said contradicts scripture, they will believe it.  A perfect example is Jonestown, Guyana.  People addicted to Jim Jones followed him thousands of miles away from home into the jungles of South America only to be led to commit suicide because of Jones' deranged mind and teachings.  A further example is the Word of Faith movement that  has gobbled up many with their promise of health, wealth and prosperity and those that leave that cult come forth battered, broken and shaken because what "passtah" said was not the truth.  The Emergent Church, a movement within the evangelical circle, has sought to reinterpret the bible to fit society and to dismiss sin and the penalty of sin as figments of our imaginations and yet God says "I change not" (Malachi 3:6).  The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) so we know that God is not a shifting shadow but a constant, Holy, Righteous Spirit who does not bend to the will of man nor does He condone sin.  The Charisma addicts want a God that they can control, they want a God that they can put in a box and tell what to do.  That's not the true and living God.  The Corinthian church was addicted to charisma and even sought to put a rift between Paul and Apollos because of the physical stature and oratorical skills of Apollos. He looked and sounded the part, and although he was not seeking is own glory, there would be many that would use that situation to their advantage. 

My advice to those that are hooked on their pastor or to a pastor/preacher that is hooked on fame...go to rehab.  Search the scriptures, pray and ask God for forgiveness and ask God to show you that He is to be glorified above all else.  Preachers, preach the WORD, preach what is in the bible and not what is in your head.  Parishioners, test everything and hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21) and never exalt a man above God.  Jesus Christ is the rehab for these addictions that eventually will lead to death.  In Philippians 2:21, Paul gives Timothy a vote of confidence while simultaneously exposing the glory seekers in saying that the glory seekers, the fame addicts seek their own interests and not those of Jesus Christ.  God said that his glory will not be shared by anyone.  The sooner we realize this, the sooner we detox from our addictions and come to know God in a real way.