It’s easy to pick on celebrity culture, but I wonder how often this plays out in the local church? You’ve got a gaping whole in your children’s ministry. It seems that all of your prayers are answered as Mr. Good-Theology expresses interest in heading up the department. He has passion, great theology, and tremendous talent. He’s also got a good deal of arrogance to match his gifts. So what do you do?

Please keep reading after this next sentence.

I used to be a fan of the Cleveland Browns.

Stay with me. I’ve got a point about leadership and in order to do so I need to confess my error of judgment in cheering for the Browns. You see, I love to cheer for the underdogs. That’s why I’m also a huge fan of the Kansas City Royals—have been for several years. I like seeing teams rise from the ashes and prove everyone wrong. (You can psychologically analyze me on this if you desire).

The truth is I’d still be a Browns fan if it wasn’t for Johnny Manziel. Once they drafted Johnny Football I knew that they’d never be rising from the ashes—at least not until the culture of leadership changed. The thing about Manziel is that he has a ton of talent. He’s also got amazing passion. But they knew he had serious character issues when they drafted him. They drafted him in the hopes that they could fix the character issues—or at least minimize them—while they reaped a harvest off his talents.

I wonder how many churches—and para-churches, for that matter—use the same logic in picking their leaders. If you look at some of the celebrity pastors who have recently fallen you can see a pattern. They had obvious talents and gifts and passion, but there were a few questions about character. But we let some of those character issues slide in the hopes that character would eventually catch up with the talents.

Think with me about that logic. Take someone who struggles with pride and arrogance. And say that these character issues are evident in the early stages of their celebrity. What in the world makes us think that the spotlight will serve as an incubator for holiness?

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