Mega Churches Spawn Celebrity Globetrotters

When mega church pastors leave, often the pastoral selection committee identifies replacement candidates who are themselves mega church pastors. New Life Church in Colorado Springs is scheduled to vote in August on a new senior pastor from another mega church to replace former pastor Ted Haggard. While the situation surrounding this search for a pastor arose from scandal, earmarks of the search for a replacement pastor are consistent with what large mega churches increasingly see their pastors to be.

Noting that a church is a family, New Life associate pastor Bob Brendle also said: “We need an effective CEO.” These new Chief Executive Officers are also well known personalities who are treated very much like celebrities. Celebrity globetrotting is already a well established practice for famous Christian speakers who crisscross the globe from one engagement to the next.

Details learned about requirements of some celebrity speakers, and related by J. Lee Grady, editor, Charisma magazine, mirror those of secular entertainers. When enquires are made for speaking engagements, some of the accommodations that must be met are outrageous–a suite in a five-star hotel, a $10,000 deposit for fuel for their private jet, and a five-figure honorarium.

Mega churches can come up with this kind of cash, but at the expense of the edification of the saints. There is also another aspect to perpetuating this pastoral selection process that provides a very sad commentary on this whole business.

It is a testimony of the ineffectual tenure of these shepherds who supposedly preach to thousands on a regular basis, up to five times or more a week, over several years, and are unable to raise up one solitary pastor from amongst their flock who can take their place. It is also a testimony of the sinful nature of man where nothing else will please but a famous personality.

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