Christian people should be careful not to be too influenced by the celebrity culture of our age when being guided in some way by spiritual leaders who are not their local pastors or elders. Podcast preachers and YouTube teachers are not your pastors. Christians should commit to membership in a local congregation and eagerly sit under the preaching of that church for their primary spiritual nourishment.

It struck me as odd recently when a person I know expressed his personal devastation about a popular preacher falling into sin and being removed from his pastoral position and connected social media teaching platforms. My friend never met the well-known preacher in person, yet he acted as though he was his personal pastor who had fallen into a disqualifying sin.

Several years ago, Carl Trueman demonstrated how celebrity culture has greatly impacted evangelical Christianity in this country. He noted if you ask a person who their most influential preacher was, they would almost always list a well known “celebrity” pastor before their local church pastor(s).

Christian pastors and Christian people need to think honestly about whether this is true. Have we been unduly and unhealthily influenced by celebrity culture?

Allow me to postulate a bit…

The vast majority of those called to be Christian pastors should be satisfied with faithfully pastoring their local congregation and not seek after a wider “platform.” Pastors should know their ministry is to shepherd the flock of God “among them” (1 Pet 5:2). Shepherding includes feeding and tending. “Pastor” means shepherd. It is a hands-on, personal, localized ministry. If a pastor is doing these things in a particular local church, he won’t have much time to be online trying to influence everyone else’s flock. The idea of a pastor building his platform outside his local church seems to be a overestimation of his importance to God’s Kingdom. It’s hard to see how “He (Christ) must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30), comports with “building my platform.” There are obviously exceptional Christian teachers, but they are much rarer than we think. For most of us local church pastors, we need to know our very limited place, put our shoulder to the plow, pray for God’s sustaining grace, eventually die and be forgotten. Faithful perseverance is our goal, not a massive “platform.”

Allow me to get to meddling…

Christian people should be careful not to be too influenced by the celebrity culture of our age when being guided in some way by spiritual leaders who are not their local pastors or elders. Podcast preachers and YouTube teachers are not your pastors. Christians should commit to membership in a local congregation and eagerly sit under the preaching of that church for their primary spiritual nourishment. It’s certainly a blessing to have so many sermons at our disposal digitally, but I sometimes wonder if such easy access has inoculated people from accountable application of biblical truth. We have a generation of hearers of the Word but not doers of the Word. Your best opportunity to live out biblical truth happens in your local church family where everyone is under the preaching of Scripture (what is true) that will include ways to live it out (what to do). Detaching a person’s feeding (preaching/teaching) ministry from their tending (personal interaction/example) ministry is a recipe for disappointment. Follow your local pastors/elders for spiritual nurture, where you can see their lives as well as hear their preaching and teaching.

In a nutshell, we will know Christianity is in a good place when its adherents cite their local church pastors/elders as their most influential preachers instead of Tweeters and Youtubers. “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith (Hebrews 13:7).”

Dr. Tony Felich is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as the Pastor of Redeemer PCA in Overland Park, Kansas.