We Need More Fathers
1 Corinthians 4:14-16 (ESV) - I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
Another headline sweeps through Social Media, greedily read and eagerly shared. Another pastor, another leader, another victim, another statistic, another church left to salvage the pieces, another opportunity to reinforce the stereotype which has become all to popular. Someone slipped from the pedestal, or was pushed, it’s hard to tell these days, but either way, a name that was mentioned with honour yesterday is being whispered with derision today.
Like clockwork, the short-lived news cycle changes tack, we move from “Have you heard?” posts, to “This is why” posts. Supporters defend. Insiders ‘tell all’. The rest of us grieve that, once again, despite what the truth may actually be, the gospel is defamed and the mission is diverted.
From within the swirling milieu of reasons and explanations, inevitably comes the ‘Christian Celebrity’ criticism, which of course provokes another round of hand-wringing and finger-wagging. Maybe my tone betrays me, but I think much of this response is reactive and poorly thought through. Yet don’t get me wrong, I think that celebrity culture is painfully real, and I think it’s damaging to the church.
I’m not actually fundamentally concerned about the flood of criticism for celebrity culture, I’m more concerned with what people propose as the antidote to it. Many responses are naive at best, or foolish at worst. For too many, the ideal church culture would combat our current predicament by idolising obscurity and flattening the collective voice of the body so that none would rise above the rest. Yet this does not properly account for the fact that God has always given his people leaders from within the ranks of the flock; sheep like the rest, but in important ways, unlike the rest also. God has always given men and women the weighty task of leading with wisdom and speaking with imbued authority, and where leaders are raised up by God, followers are sure to be found. These were men and women who have profoundly ministered and held significant influence in the wider church community, some within the confines of their own county, but others across the country, while still others across continents and even centuries.
I wonder if the problem is less the celebrity as it is the categories we use to define them, or even promote them. After all, Paul’s criticism of the glory seeking Corinthians was that while they had more than enough guides, they had precious few fathers. Paul knew people would need more than 'guides', men who would point the way, instead we would need 'fathers', men who would show us the way. The problem isn’t that we imitate men, the problem is that we’ve been imitating the wrong men. We’re propigating guides rather than multiplying fathers. We need more fathers.
1 Corinthians 11:1 (ESV) - Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Some time ago, I falteringly, and fearfully, tried to capture some feeble thoughts on what made a preacher ‘great’, if you’re interested, I’ve collated those thoughts here:
