Ministry is not a way to become famous. Ministry is not a show where some perform while the rest are entertained. There should be no ministry celebrities. All believers are workers together for God in His field and in the building of his church. In Lystra, when people tried to make Paul and Barnabas celebrities and treat them like gods, even offering them gifts and sacrifices, Paul protested and pointed them to the one true God.

One of the most talked about sections of De-sizing the Church is chapter 7, Inevitable: Why the Christian Celebrity Culture Guarantees Moral Failure. This is obviously a crisis that has become far too evident in recent months.

Rich Brown shows us that our obsession with celebrity is nothing new. It happened in the first century church, as well. Because of this, the New Testament offers wisdom about its dangers, along with some helpful solutions.

— Karl Vaters

Our youthful fascination with celebrities doesn’t end as we get older. We may go about it a little differently, but adults can still be enamored with the rich and famous.

In the American church we have developed our own born-again celebrities and evangelical superstars. What Karl Vaters identifies as the Christian celebrity culture can affect how the average Christian thinks about and lives out their Christian life.

Much of what is written about the repercussions of the Christian celebrity culture addresses the celebrities’ tendencies toward spiritual abuse, narcissism and excessive lifestyle. But it can also create a Christian celebrity mindset in the American church-goer that has severe consequences — of our own making.

Biblical Precedents

In the middle of the first century AD, even though there was no media to hype people, and when men like Paul, Peter, and Apollos were not seeking to be religious stars, some of the believers in the Corinthian church had become fans of one or another of these religious leaders (see 1 Cor 3:4 “I follow Paul, Apollos”; 1 Cor 1:12 “l follow Peter, I follow Christ.”).

Paul would eventually have something to say about those who were considered celebrities and “super apostles” (see 2 Cor 11:5; 12:11), but first he had something to say to the followers of those man-made religious celebrities.

In 1 Corinthians 3 he dared to talk about the consequences that a first-century Christian celebrity mentality was having on the lives of the Corinthian Christians.

Not surprisingly, these consequences look all too familiar twenty centuries later.

Consequence #1: A Christian celebrity mentality stunts our spiritual growth (1 Cor 3:1-2)

When the Corinthians were new believers and infants in Christ, Paul gave them milk. He did not blame them for needing infant-level teaching.

But when Paul wanted to speak to these Christians as spiritual adults, (people controlled by the Holy Spirit), he couldn’t.

Initially, Paul said they were just sarkinos (people made of flesh). Then he said they were sarkikos (people dominated by the flesh). They ought to have been able to ingest solid food, but their pre-occupation with Christian personalities had arrested their spiritual development.

Eugene Peterson wrote, “Fan clubs encourage secondhand living.” We become spiritual adolescents engaging in “compensatory heroism.” We quit aspiring to grow and have settled for watching our Christian heroes do it all.

In today’s Christian celebrity culture, we experience what has been called “the vicarious voyage of identity.” We substitute the fame of our Christian stars for our own personal spiritual growth.

Consequence #2: A Christian celebrity mentality promotes immature behavior (1 Cor 3:3-4)

One of the words Paul used to describe the Corinthians was nepios (infant, 3:1). This word implies that the Corinthians were adults who were displaying the irresponsible characteristics of a child.

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