Podcast: Celebrities for Jesus

 Celebrity culture has invaded the church. Pastors, who should be shepherds serving the flock, have become idols attracting adoring fans and commanding six- and even seven-figure salaries.

What has happened to the church? How did we get here? And what can be done to counter this truly anti-gospel culture? On this latest podcast, host Julie Roys explores this pervasive problem with Katelyn Beaty, author of ‘Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church.’ In light of scores of people becoming disillusioned with the church, Katelyn describes the historical development of celebrity culture in the church, the three major temptations celebrity culture has spawned and what believers can do to counter celebrity culture in the church. This program was also released as an audio podcast and transcript on December 7, 2022: https://julieroys.com/podcast/celebri...

Diane Langberg: Understanding Abuse of Power in the Church

 

EXCLUSIVE: John MacArthur Shamed, Excommunicated Mother for Refusing to Take Back Child Abuser

 By Julie Roys

On August 18, 2002, prominent radio pastor and author, John MacArthur, took time during an evening service to address a grave matter at his 8,000-member Grace Community Church (GCC) in Sun Valley, California.

A woman at GCC was living in sin, MacArthur alleged. And though shaming her publicly was “sad,” MacArthur said it was necessary to maintain fidelity to God and His Word.

So, as men were distributing the elements for communion, MacArthur stated: “I want to mention a sad situation, a person who is unwilling to repent. And the church bears responsibility before God to be the instrument of discipline. . . . This is what the Lord wants. He wants discipline . . . to be put out of the church, to be publicly shamed, to be put away from fellowship. In this case, it applies to Eileen Gray.”

According to MacArthur, Gray’s sin was that she had decided “to leave her husband, to grant no grace at all, to take the children, to go away, to forsake him.” This, MacArthur emphasized, meant rejecting “all the instruction and counsel of the elders, all instruction from the Word of God.”

MacArthur then encouraged the church to pray for Eileen and to “treat her as an unbeliever—for all we know, she may be.”

He also urged the church to pray for her husband, David Gray, who taught music and Bible to children at Grace Community Church (GCC) from 1994 to 2001. “Pray for David, for the sympathy and compassion and the lovingkindness of God to be his portion.”

MacArthur then invited the church to sing, “Amazing Grace.”

Today, David Gray is serving 21 years to life in a California prison for his 2005 convictions for aggravated child molestation, corporal injury to a child, and child abuse.

To be continued at The Roys Report REPORTING THE TRUTH. RESTORING THE CHURCH.

Crisis in church leadership: How celebrity pastors can avoid failing the fame test (Part 4)

 By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Assistant Editor 

When a months long independent investigation found credible evidence that Ravi Zacharias leveraged his reputation as a world-famous apologist to carry out years of sexual abuse, the response from the Evangelical community was predictably one of shock, horror and grief.

Many questioned how this pastor could effectively masquerade as a humble servant of Christ and fool millions of adoring supporters? How could this respected intellectual who preached the Gospel of Jesus with clarity and passion brazenly manipulate vulnerable women into providing him with sexual stimulation?

As the empire Zacharias built — all in the name of reaching the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ — came crashing down, perhaps the most devastating realization for many was just how damaging the blow his posthumous downfall was to the witness of the Body of Christ. 

From the fraudulent ministry of Jim Bakker in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the recent slew of scandals surrounding Hillsong Church and one of its most popular pastors, Carl Lentz, the phenomenon of well-known Christian leaders engaging in misconduct is nothing new to the Western Church. 

What then drives the dysfunction and lack of health seen in many church leaders today? Why do so many pastors in Western Evangelicalism fail the fame test despite the biblical example set by Jesus Himself? 

The problem isn’t with being a "celebrity Christian" itself; in fact, Jesus was regarded as a celebrity in the first century, as He was known far and wide for His miraculous acts.  

Rich Villodas, the Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, explained: “Generally speaking, celebrity and Christianity are not necessarily contradictions in terms because notions of celebrity are often projected onto people,” he said.

Redefining success in a secularized culture 

In 21st century American Evangelicalism, it can be very tempting to shift toward a different model of success — one focused on money, fame and numbers — than the one outlined in Scripture. 

That’s according to Scott Sauls, the senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and bestselling author. He told The Christian Post that biblically, success is defined as demonstrating faithfulness, character and integrity. 

“Integrity means being whole in our lives and in our ministries, and that means that we are whole disciples of Christ following the whole Scripture and the whole way that we do life and ministry, including the administrative part of it,” he explained. 

“While administration and faithful and excellent organization are important to steward God's resources well, the measure of whether or not we're doing administration well is the character with which the churches are run and led.”

The onus is on the Church to "redefine success" — and before hiring, churches must “look deeper into a person’s life, soul and background,” according to Ed Young, the founding and senior pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas.

“We cannot allow someone's great gift to overshadow a lack of integrity in some other area,” he told CP. Many of the pastors who have publicly fallen in recent years exhibited “patterns” that were ignored by those closest to them because of their gifts, he continued.

Egyptian-American pastor and televangelist Michael Youssef of the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia, lamented that in the Western Church, many pastors are not shepherds but “celebrities and CEOs of an operation called the church."

"That’s fine if that’s what they want to do, but don't call it the Church of Jesus Christ. Call it something else,” Youssef said. 

“We have become a marketing operation and celebrity preachers. We're not servants of the living God. We're not there to serve God's people, minister to them, admonish them, rebuke, uphold, encourage, comfort and all of these things that the Scripture is very clear about. We have departed from that.”

The secularization of culture, Youssef added, is a driving force behind this phenomenon — and it’s not to be ignored.

“The secularization of the culture at large is impacting the Church, especially those who might not have their feet on the solid ground of the infallible Word of God who are ministering and pastoring out of an emotional, experiential kind of Christianity, rather than the solid Gospel foundational New Testament preaching," he relayed. 

Pastor and author Tim Keller acknowledges that he’s viewed as a “celebrity pastor in some circles.” The founding pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City, Keller’s sermons are heard around the world and his books are read by millions. 

And Keller understands that if he misuses his platform, “a lot of Christians can be put to shame” because of him. 

“And therefore, if God gives me a bigger ‘platform,’ then I actually have a responsibility to not disappoint people,” he told CP. “Not to just look like a great person; I actually have to be holy; I have to actually mortify my sin. I have to have a prayer life. I have to do the stuff that every Christian needs to do. I don't have to be better than other Christians. I just need to be what God wants a Christian to be.”

When pastors get to be “well known,” he said, the praise can turn their heads, the criticism can prompt self-pity and the overwork can cause them to neglect their prayer life. 

“For all those reasons, very often, so-called ‘celebrity ministers and figures’ live lives less consistent with the Christian faith than Christians who are not so famous,” Keller said. 

'Dumbed down what it means to be a pastor'

Young argued that pastors are bred for insecurity: “We want to be cool. We want to be accepted. We want to be liked. And when we do that, we’ll start down that road of compromise.”

Social media also gives a dangerous “wrong impression” of what it means to be a pastor, saying that pastors who get the most views, clicks and likes are the ones seen wearing trendy clothes while standing next to celebrities.

“We’ve sort of dumbed down what it means to be a pastor,” he explained. “When it comes to celebrities or people who are far away from God, you can't play on their playground. You have to meet them in areas that will not cause you to compromise. Evangelism is sometimes used as an excuse for compromise.”

The Church Body must prop up leaders whose aim, desire and vision are organized around the love of God and neighbor — not the person with the most appealing social media accounts, Sauls contended.

“The Apostle Paul didn’t say, ‘Watch your brand or your reputation closely and persevere.’ Sauls added, ‘Watch your life and your doctrine and persevere in that.'"

Christian leaders must wrestle with the tension between Jesus' call to be humble and be careful not to draw attention to themselves, Sauls added.

“That's sort of the essence of humility. It's not that we think less of ourselves; it’s that we think of ourselves less. We don’t brag, we don't boast, and yet at the same time we are called to draw attention to ourselves,” Sauls said, citing the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men that people may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.”

“We have to figure out what that tension is, where on the one hand, we are very shy about ourselves and very boastful about making our faith public in such a way that the world sees a demonstration of the beauty of what Christ does in people and communities.”

Friendship and accountability

Research from the Barna Group has found that pastors can often experience difficulty when making friends. Pastors are more likely than the general population to suffer from loneliness and isolate themselves from others.

The inability of many pastors to keep close friends, Sauls said, is a severe problem in church leadership.

 He challenges pastors and church leaders to ask themselves: “Are there people in my orbit who know me well enough to discern clearly and accurately whether or not I'm walking with Christ? If they sense something’s off, do they also have the freedom to challenge me without fear of punishment or retaliation or being pushed out?”

“The common thread seems to be that the person who falls into those traps has either created or had created for them a situation where they were no longer accountable to anyone or answering to anyone but themselves," he said. "And then slowly they drifted away from having friends and close companions to a different model where functionally they have servants and admirers."

Every individual in a ministry organization, the Gentle Answer author said, needs accountability congruent with their authority.

“I think that’s why God put us in community; I think that’s why Paul had traveling companions,” Sauls stressed.

The “one-anothering” passages in Scripture — Love one another (John 13:34); be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10); Build up one another (Romans 14:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:11) — are “very instructive in terms of how we can create a community life together,” Sauls said.

Young added that while accountability is essential, pastors can “only be held as accountable as they want to be."

"You can’t legislate morality and purity," Young said. "It has to come from that relationship with Jesus and walking with Him and being as wise as a serpent is innocent as a dove."

“When you're down and emotionally drained, you're susceptible to temptation. You can over eat, over sex, overspend — it’s deadly,” Young warned, adding that the overarching issue is a “personal one with the pastor and his relationship with God, his spouse and others around him.”

“You can have all of the elders and boards and meet with people for prayer, and all of those things are great, but at the end of the day, it's a person's standing and lifestyle before God. … It's a sin issue and it's a holiness issue.”

In addition to demonstrating transparency with his accountability partners, Youssef said that three people are aware of his whereabouts at all times. He releases his finances and tax returns to five members of his leadership and his technological devices are fully accessible to his spouse and staff.  

Such measures are “necessary,” Youssef said, adding that everyone — regardless of their title — is “very capable of self-deception.” 

“We can never get to the point where we say, ‘I trust my own judgment,’ because you cannot,” he said. “Scripture tells us the heart is deceitful above all. So what do you do? You build a wall around those areas that are going to cause your downfall.” 

Discipling the next generation 

For the Church to be an effective witness in an increasingly secularized culture, Youssef believes the next generation of church leaders must have a firm grasp on the Word of God and focus on discipleship. He said it is vital to uphold the authority of the Scripture and pass it on to the next generation "unmolested.”

“I tell younger pastors, 'Don't even go into the ministry if you are not going with the absolute commitment to the authoritative Word of God; not the clever quips and the nice stories and the jokes and trying to be a comedian,'” he said.

“'If the Rock of Ages is not under your feet, it’s going to get on top of your head and smash you. If the Rock is not under your feet, holding you, it will crush you.'”

Young emphasized the importance of young pastors finding mentors outside the church who constantly point them to Jesus. He also stressed that being a pastor is "extremely lonely and isolating."

“They need to know they are specifically called by God into the ministry," Young said. "There has to be a moment, a time period, where they understand that. Walk with God each and every day. They need to know they are doing this for an audience of one and are called to please their Heavenly Father." 

“Lean into the Lord for your spouse, for your kids," he continued. "Be faithful as a leader before God, and just let the chips fall where they may. It's about glorifying God and everything that we do, say, touch and feel."

Sauls agreed that for the Church to flourish, young pastors and ministry leaders must make sure that their personal lives align with their “professional faith.” 

“Make sure that you are the same man at the dinner table or same woman at the dinner table as you are when you're leading a Bible study or preaching a sermon,” Sauls advised. “Watch your life closely and watch your doctrine closely. Stay aligned with Scripture and stand under it, don't stand over it. Let it revise you — don’t revise it.”

“If we can follow those two instructions consistently, we'll be fine, and the Lord will be glorified,” he added. 

Pointing people to the cross 

Instead of using their platforms for their own fame and glory, pastors and ministry leaders must continually point people to the cross, Youssef said. He challenged pastors: “Please return to your first love, and allow Jesus to bless you, instead of trying to bless yourself and manufacture a blessing.”

“His blessing is permanent, His blessing is lasting, and His blessing is eternal,” Youssef said. “Go back to the Word of God, uphold the infallibility of the Word of God. Go to the trouble of expounding the Scripture, explaining why these difficult passages are there, go to the trouble of expository preaching because that's the only thing that's going to convert listeners.”

Pastors need to get "back to that to believing that the power to convert is in the Gospel, not in our own slick presentation," according to Youssef. 

Sauls urged pastors — particularly those of successful, growing churches — to routinely examine their hearts and ask themselves: Are we stewarding these resources for good? Or are we distorting them? Are we in this for our own glory, fame, reputation and honor? Or are we in this for Jesus’ glory and fame and reputation? 

“Are we stewarding the things that have been entrusted to us for the glory of God and for the benefit of our neighbor and the flourishing of the priorities that God has put forth in His Word? Or are we using those things to serve ourselves, whether it's to boost our own egos and platforms or line our own pockets?” Sauls asked. 

Sauls assured that there’s nothing wrong with running a well-led organization that prioritizes excellence and wants to flourish financially. “But it all depends on why you want to flourish.”

“Do you want to flourish financially in order to have long pockets and in order to be powerful and have control? Or is it because you want to have a greater capacity to serve your community and bless your neighbors and meet the needs of the neediest among you and the hurting?”

'Pandemic of narcissism': Seminaries respond to the Evangelical church leadership crisis (Part 3)

 By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor 

The last few years have seen multiple instances of well-known Evangelical leaders entrenched in scandals and misconduct. Some have questioned if seminaries are doing enough to train future pastors to lead churches and disciple their congregations virtuously.

Darvin Wallis, a pastor and founder of Mission U Online, an online biblical education resource group, penned a provocative op-ed published by The Christian Post earlier this year about the problems facing American Evangelical pastoral leadership.

"For about three decades now, the Evangelical church has embraced corporate leadership paradigms. This has worked wonders for the bottom lines of attendance, giving and the number of reported conversions. Yet, it has also created a crisis in leadership," asserted Wallis, the pastor of Mission Lakewood Church in Colorado.

"Church scandals like Bill Hybels, Mark Driscoll and James [MacDonald] are not random anomalies. Scandals are a natural part of the risky corporate leadership structure. We have accepted the corporate, bottom-line goals for the church. We have accepted the corporate personality traits for our church leaders."

As part of his critique, Wallis suggested that seminaries — which aim to prepare students to become pastors, missionaries and religious leaders — are not providing adequate leadership training.

"While seminary prepares pastors for scholarship, we graduate with nearly no knowledge on how to practically lead a church," continued Wallis, who received a master of divinity from Denver Seminary. 

In its place, he argues, things like books and conferences are "helping to create" a "church leadership industry" that is "forming the ethos of the American church."

As part of this series on the church leadership crisis, The Christian Post interviewed seminary leaders about how their institutions prepare pastors to lead churches and their take on Wallis' criticism. 

'Evangelicalism is in a very problematic place'

Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and had about 30 years of pastoral experience before becoming head of the academic institution founded in 1947 by radio evangelist Charles E. Fuller. 

Fuller is based in Pasadena and has satellite campuses in Arizona and Colorado. 

Labberton, who has led the seminary since 2013, believes that the "cultures of many churches and denominations or networks" will often deprioritize a "transformative life" and focus more on "cleverness and shiny objects."

"The caverns that exist between the mind, the heart and the hands of many Christians reflect the Church's failure to disciple people deeply and holistically," he said.

Labberton said he finds the arguments of Wallis' piece merited.

"Evangelicalism is in a very problematic place, and the issues Pastor Wallis names are among the reasons," he said. 

Labberton said Fuller seeks to provide "formational education for diverse Christian leaders." That means "measuring and retuning ourselves to be aware of the personal formation of our students" and to provide "the knowledge and formation needed on the ground to best minister to those God is calling our alums to serve."

"The whole of the scriptures need to inform a pastor's life and vision," the former senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, continued. "In this particular season of the Church's internal and external crises, I feel like we should never be more than five minutes away from reading the Gospels."

"Our central identity comes from the life and ministry of Jesus, not the forms, structures, strategies, budgets and technology of our ecclesiastical industrial complex to which we have yielded," he added.

'Pandemic of narcissism' and 'cardinal vices'

Missiology professor Scott W. Sunquist, who serves as president of multi-site Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary based in Massachusetts, had extensive pastoral experience overseas, serving in the Republic of Singapore.

Sunquist said that in Singapore, "we had to negotiate government regulations and restrictions, languages and cultures" and wanted to make sure that the Church there "did not simply parrot American Evangelical words, music and even liturgy."

"The big lessons I learned about church leadership had to do with being attentive to diverse cultures and leadership training," he said.

"In some ways, the Singaporean experience encourages me to challenge U.S. seminary students to take their devotions more seriously, to be more committed to cross-cultural mission work and to freely witness to their friends and neighbors."

Sunquist, who became the seminary's president in 2019, brings expertise on Christianity in the non-Western world. He believes that being a missionary can be "excellent preparation for seminary leadership." He observed that through such work, people learn "some resilience and courage, both of which are important characteristics of a pastor or even a seminary president."

When it comes to the problems in the American Evangelical church, Sunquist believes that the lead issue is not "learning from non-Christians," but rather "our unwillingness to confront what the Church Fathers called the cardinal vices."

The "three core vices" that the early Church was concerned about, according to Sunquist, were greed, passions such as "food and sex," and pride. He said leadership failures are the result of "succumbing to these three vices."

"We have a pandemic of narcissism today. Social media feeds our small self-esteem appetite until it becomes a narcissistic monster. Most leaders fall into this trap," he said.

"We see leaders fail because they did not name the demons, and they did not have strong people around them to guide them toward holiness."

Sunquist also told CP that he believes it is "troubling when we reduce seminary presidential leadership to a secular model of business leadership."

"A pastor can learn a lot from secular leaders — I know I have — but they also need to have actually been a pastor to lead pastors," said Sunquist.

The president of Gordon-Conwell noted that his seminary focuses more attention on "discipleship and virtue formation in theological education," including "communal formation." He said the seminary is "trying to be attentive to the culture while providing the best in classical theological education."

"This is intentional, personal and communal formation that is not detached from academic formation," he said. "Thus, we are working hard at biblical contexts — as we always have — but we are now working harder than we previously had to understand contemporary contexts: social, political, economic, etc."   

"Thus, we are adding virtue formation, in the form of discipleship, to the lives of all of our students while they are students at Gordon-Conwell," Sunquist added.

'Unnecessary dichotomy'

Angie Ward is the assistant director of the doctor of ministry program at Denver Seminary in Colorado, where Wallis attended. She has about three decades of experience in church and education ministries. She is also the author of I Am a Leader: When Women Discover the Joy of their Calling.

"Whether at the master's or the doctoral level, our pastoral leadership courses are taught by instructors with a wealth of field experience," she told CP.

"We believe that leadership flows out of the person of the leader; it's not just a skill. Therefore, we strive for holistic formation: not just education in the classroom, but experience in the field and formation through an integrated training and mentoring component."

Ward said she is concerned that there is a "growing but unnecessary dichotomy between 'pastoring' and 'leadership.'"

"But to view the pastor as a shepherd — a theme that is repeated in Scripture in the words of Jesus and the writings of the Apostles Paul and Peter — means that pastoral leadership involves both caring for individuals, and tending to and moving the overall 'flock' toward maturity and mission," she explained.

"The Church is — or should be — more than merely an educational institution or even a mission center. It should be a center for formation — again, moving people toward individual maturity as disciples of Christ, and the gathered community toward public witness of God's love."

Ward said she "would agree wholeheartedly that the American church, broadly speaking, has over-focused on leadership, and on drawing from corporate models."

"I believe the issue is that we — again, the Church, broadly speaking — do not have a clear or robust ecclesiology. We don't understand the nature and purpose of the Church and how it is unlike any other organization in the world," she said.

"Therefore, we default to what we know, which is a 'corporate' model. We need to look not only for different answers; we need to start by asking different questions about Church."

The crisis of leadership in American Evangelicalism (Part 1)

 By Christian Post Editors

Regular readers of The Christian Post are well aware of the moral failures at the highest levels of Evangelical leadership in the recent past. Formerly revered figures such as Ravi Zacharias, Bill Hybels and Mark Driscoll and earlier harbingers like Jim Bakker are the reminders that all is not well within the multifaceted movement that is American Evangelicalism.

When an Evangelical icon such as Zacharias can fall so drastically from the Evangelical firmament, clearly there are cultural and spiritual dynamics at work that require investigation.

CP has tasked three of our reporters, Michael Gryboski, Leah Marie Klett and Brandon Showalter to investigate the problem and possible causes and solutions with a broad cross-section of the Evangelical community. There are obvious factors that must be taken into consideration.  

The rise of the “megachurch” and the consequent vitiation of formal denominational influence and the structures and oversight it provided is certainly one factor.  

Another factor is the hypersexualization of American society, a cultural phenomenon that is one of the first things foreign visitors to the United States notice. Pastors and other Evangelical leaders are impacted by this virulent phenomenon. It should also be noted that American pastors of this generation have a dramatically increased and unprecedented number of women in their churches who are not married and not living with their parents or other relatives. The rising tide of pornography that has increasingly saturated society is another powerful potential snare that Evangelical leaders contend with on a daily basis. In reality, pornography is the Madison Avenue ad campaign for sexual immorality.  

The so-called “cult” of celebrity and the rising corporate model of leadership are other troubling factors surfaced in this series.

Another factor that is also surfaced and that commands attention is that an increasing number of Evangelicals and their leaders are adult converts to Evangelical Christianity, and thus do not have a family background and “grounding in the faith.” As our series suggests, there needs to be more attention given to personal spiritual formation and grounding in the faith in seminary for those Evangelical leaders who did not have the advantage of being reared in such spiritual circumstances.

All of these factors and doubtless more will surface in the days ahead. As people from various Evangelical traditions identify causes and propose answers to the leadership crisis roiling Evangelicalism in America.

CP presents this series as a contribution to that discussion in the hope and prayer they will ignite an ever more inclusive discussion of this critical problem and how it can be addressed successfully for the betterment and flourishing of His church.

Prophecy: The Lord Is Getting Ready to Reconstruct Much of His House!

AMANDA SHIFLETT



Although I have shared this particular word several times since the original post in January of 2018, I felt led to share it again, and to focus on a different portion than I normally have. Although this word speaks of many earthquakes and volcanoes happening (which we have seen much), it also speaks of what that will symbolize prophetically.

The Lord showed me there would be some great deconstruction and then a "reconstruction" of much of His church. Some would be taken down to studs and some down to the foundation before they would be rebuilt according to His kingdom blueprints. In light of much of what we have been seeing in a lot of areas lately, I felt the Lord wanted me to highlight this word once again. We can never forget, everything He does for and to His church is ultimately for her good. May the master architect do what is necessary to reconstruct according to His plans!

Excerpt From Word, January 2018:

Many things not built on His rule and His kingdom, but on the kingdoms of man and on their thoughts and plans, will be brought down. This will happen in His church more than any other mountain, although it will happen in many other spheres of influence.

The Lord is getting ready to begin a reconstruction of much of His house! He will take many structures down to the studs, and others down to the foundation, before He begins to build again. Some things have been tolerated by the Lord for some time, but they were not His plan, and they are no longer serving His purpose, and some never did. Some were the traditions of men, and although many were fine and good in their own way, some were not, and they have become a stumbling block to His ultimate purpose for His ekklesia. These things will need to be brought down, as they are hindering the flow of His Spirit. If they are not brought down by leadership, the Lord Himself will deal with them and bring them down.

It is time for His Spirit to flow freely once again. If He has to tear everything down, and start again with just the foundation, then He will. Other structures within the kingdom are faulty even down to the foundation, and they will be completely brought to the ground.The plumbline of the Lord will be released in His house, and everything that does not line up with His structure and His purposes will be brought down or reconstructed by Him.

Many churches and ministries will falter, and some even fall apart this year and over the next several years, but this is not for utter destruction, but simply so He can rebuild according to His plans. For those who must go through this .. .do not get discouraged if you are one of these. Do not give up hope or vision.

The Lord is shaking everything out into the open, that it may be dealt with, and that His purposes may be revealed in and through His church. There are some things that have been compromised, but He is giving an opportunity for those things to be corrected, reconstructed properly and set in place according to His blueprints. Only those who will not surrender to His will and His reconstruction will be brought to ruin, but that is never His purpose. His purpose is for reconstruction and restoring, if they will repent, surrender and allow Him to do the work in them and their ministries.

Now is the time for the shaking and rebuilding that has begun to come to a pinnacle. He is doing a new thing, and His new wine cannot be contained in old wineskins, so we must embrace all that the Lord has purposed to do in this new era! Your kingdom come; Your will be done, Lord!" 

Amanda Shiflett is the founder of Prophetic Reformer and co-founder of Kingdom Life Ministries along with her husband, Darin. She is a prophetic minister who heard the Lord's call from a very young age. She is a heralding voice of truth, holiness and purity within the prophetic and calls others to stand in a place of no compromise in their callings. She longs to see reformation come to the prophetic movement, as well as the other parts of the fivefold within the body of Christ. Along with her calling as a prophetess, Amanda also flows in a powerful worship and healing anointing and is a gifted teacher and writer as well. Darin and Amanda live in North Texas.

British court orders Malaysian tycoon Khoo Kay Peng to pay $112 million in divorce settlement

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian tycoon Khoo Kay Peng, who owns the Laura Ashley brand, has been ordered by a British court to pay £64 million (S$112 million) to his former wife as settlement for their divorce in a long-running row.

Judge David Bodey said in his ruling on Friday (April 7) that Chai should receive the divorce settlement in the form of both cash and property, the Guardian reported. The judge's detailed judgment on how the matrimonial assets would be split is expected to be released soon, said the report.

"I just want to thank my superb legal team ," Chai said in an e-mailed statement to Malay Mail Online after the court ruling.

Her lawyer Ayesha Vardag said in the same statement: "This litigation has been long and arduous. It is a journey which has now ended in the affirmation of the principle of fair sharing. It emphasises that there is no place in England for discrimination between home maker and bread winner."

Chai, who was crowned Miss Malaysia in 1969, had sought £100m from the 78-year-old tycoon following their split after 42 years of marriage. She claimed their assets were worth at least £205m. The 68-year-old said she had contributed to her ex-husband's success by being a "traditional" wife, and that they had made a sharing agreement entitling her to half of the family wealth.

"I looked at marriage in the traditional way," Chai had told Justice Bodey at hearings in the family division of the high court in London. "He is the breadwinner and I stayed at home and looked after the children. It was a daunting task."

Khoo, who owns 44 per cent of Laura Ashley Holdings, argued that his former wife should only receive £9m, the Guardian reported.

The two married in 1970 and had five children before splitting in 2012 and have spent more than £6m between them on lawyers to fight their financial dispute, according to the Guardian.

The tycoon had wanted the divorce proceedings heard in Kuala Lumpur where Chai would likely be awarded a less generous settlement. But Chai wanted a British court to decide on the divorce proceedings, claiming she had not been living in Malaysia since 1980 and is a resident of Britain.

In 2014, Chai gained the upper hand in the divorce battle after London's High Court ruled it could hear the case.

In January 2016, a London court granted a preliminary divorce decree to Chai, which entailed she would be entitled to half of Khoo's fortune once the marriage was officially dissolved.

Megachurch Pastor Kong Hee Pleads for 8 Year Prison Sentence to Be Overturned as Court Case Resumes

Singapore's City Harvest Church founder and Senior Pastor Kong Hee is back in court, pleading for his eight-year prison sentence for misappropriating $35 million of church funds to be overturned.



Kong's lawyer, Edwin Tong, argued on Thursday that the pastor should see all three of the criminal convictions against him overturned, Channel News Asia reported.

Tong said that the CHC founder put money forward to support the church's mission, which was supported by virtually the entire congregation, and that the church had not suffered any actual financial loss.

Although Kong is accused of being part of a scheme that funneled $35 million to the pop star career of his wife, fellow CHC pastor Sun Ho, the lawyer noted that the singer was synonymous with the Crossover Project, the church's ministry through music effort.

"It is beyond question that the accused believed wholeheartedly that they were using church funds for an approved church purpose," Tong explained.

Judge See Kee Oon said last year that Kong and five other CHC members had a major role to play in channeling millions of dollars that were set to be used for investments and building-related projects into sham bonds, used for Ho's career.

All six of the convicted church members have appealed their guilty verdicts and sentences, pleading innocence.

The prosecution has insisted that Kong and the others were well aware that they were misusing the church's money, however, and said that the sentences are "manifestly inadequate," calling on Kong to face a jail term of 11 to 12 years instead.

Tong said on Thursday that it is wrong to believe that Kong acted dishonestly and was only concerned with funding his wife's music career, however, and gave evidence that Kong had consistently consulted auditors and lawyers on two bond investments.

"Every cent was used entirely for the church's mission," the lawyer said. "Even if (the church's funds — meant for investments or building-related expenses) were put to 'wrongful use,' they were 'applied in good faith," he added.

Kong has said in his own words that he was not the mastermind behind the misuse of money, and said that the sentencing against him was "erroneous."

"My lawyers will also address the prosecution's appeal at the appropriate time. I sincerely need your prayers during this process for a favorable outcome. The road ahead is long and arduous, but God's grace is sufficient for me," he told supporters last year.

Ho has stood by her husband in the long standing court case, though she has not herself been accused of wrongdoing.

The Straits Times reported that the trial will resume on Friday, with former CHC fund manager Chew Eng Han and former finance manager Sharon Tan expected to present their own appeals.

The prosecution, on the other hand, is scheduled to present its case on Sept. 20.

Kong Hee's City Harvest Church Hit by New Police Investigation Into Fraud by Ex-Fund Manager

Eight members linked to Pastor Kong Hee's City Harvest Church in Singapore have been hit by a new police report by former CHC fund manager Chew Eng Han, accusing them of "fraudulent misrepresentation" of facts, as Kong, Chew, and four other members await appeal decisions on a prior conviction.



TodayOnline reported on Wednesday that Chew, who was one of the six CHC leaders convicted and sentenced to prison, pending appeal, for misusing close to $35 million in church donations, has filed a police report regarding eight church members accusing them of fraudulent misrepresentation of facts about the church.

Police officials confirmed that a report has indeed been made, but could not provide many details.

"As police investigations are confidential, and the complainant Chew also has an appeal against his conviction and sentence pending adjudication by the Supreme Court, it is inappropriate at this juncture for the police not to comment further," a police statement told Today.

Lawyers for CHC have already responded to Chew's report, calling his statements "bare allegations."

"Further, these allegations are misconceived and/or erroneous as a matter of law," the lawyers added.

The eight members reportedly include Kong and his wife, fellow CHC pastor Sun Ho, along with CHC Kuala Lumpur founder Kevin Loo, former CHC Executive Pastor Derek Dunn and CHC Executive Pastor Aries Zulkarnain.

Kong has insisted that he is innocent of all charges despite being sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the alleged misuse of church funds, which are believed to have gone into funding the music career of Sun Ho in America.

The CHC lead pastors have been touring several countries across Asia and even into Africa, focusing on healing and revival services, while Kong awaits the result of his appeal back home in Singapore.

Back in May, the Sunday Times reported that the legal troubles have been taking a toll on the CHC ministry, with the congregation having dropped to 16,482 members in 2015. Before the trial began in 2009, the church had 23, 565 members, meaning it has lost close to a third.

As Today noted, Chew and CHC have been embroiled in a civil suit concerning millions in unreturned investments, with CHC accusing Chew of owing close to 3.5 million USD in accrued interest.

THE MISTRESS OF MINISTRY by Mike Robinson

I had anticipated this moment with an emotional mixture of intimidation and challenge. The intimidation was generated by the fact that I was standing before a large group of my fellow pastors and I was to deliver the opening address at our annual Pastors' Conference. The element of challenge found its focus in the question, "How can I outflank their professional communication skills and their ability to anticipate what they think I'm about to say? How can I arrest their attention long enough to make my point?"

I decided to take a risk and begin with a confession that would need more than a little explanation!

"I begin tonight with a very difficult confession before you, my fellow Pastors. There is no simple or easy way to say this; so I will just say it: I have been guilty of having an affair."

The tension level took a quantum leap upward! Some of those sitting in front of me were my peers. I had trained with these men for Ministry. I noted some looks of stunned disbelief. Others showed their disbelief in smiles that indicated that they knew I had to have an angle here of some kind!
I continued... "In one sense, I can think of no better place to make such a confession than in the presence of other Pastors because most of you will have long since recognised your own vulnerability. In another sense, I can think of no worse place to acknowledge my failure because the judgment of my peers has the potential to be the worst kind of condemnation.

Now I can almost hear your ask the question, 'How can one who is supposedly committed to the Lord Jesus and to his own wife ever allow another relationship to develop to the point where those two holy relationships are endangered?'

As best I can determine, it began with a flaw or weakness in my own character that was (and is) wide open to exploitation. Like many of you, I have a need to be needed and to be affirmed. sometimes I think that need is above and beyond what might be considered healthy. I further acknowledge that I am at my most vulnerable when there is an absence of encouragement and affirmation in my emotional diet".

Well, so far my explanation was not doing very much to lessen the tension level. I pressed on....

"My mistress was very subtle. She knew my emotional need for praise and affirmation in my life and she was quick to meet that need. Time and again she was ready to speak warmly of my qualities as a person and my endeavours as a Pastor. In return, she seemed to require so little - initially, at least. She repeatedly assured me that our developing relationship need not negatively effect my relationship with Bev, my wife, or with the Lord. At first she had told me she would be satisfied if I only offered her the time that was left after my prior relational responsibilities. It seemed that I could have my cake and eat it, too! It all seemed so legitimate...so rational...so inviting.....so fulfilling....just too good to be true!

But as time passed, this seemingly free liaison became increasingly demanding. I began to realise that I was becoming both enmeshed and addicted to the relationship.

My mistress was demanding more and more of my time. She began to begrudge the time I gave to Bev and my family. She also began to make demands on the time I had initially reserved for the Lord".

It was at this point that I became aware that a number of my listeners were becoming restless in their chairs while others sat like statues as though any movement might betray an inner response. of guilt. I was beginning to wonder if my approach was a bad choice. Too late now. I continued:

"As I tried to meet those demands, the intensity of my guilt began to increase. My priority commitments to my Lord and my wife came under enormous pressure. I found myself making excuses for the decreasing amount of time I was spending with Bev. I kept telling her that my lack of time with her and the family was part of the sacrifice we had to make for the sake of the Lord's work. I seemed to be forever asking forgiveness from God because of what I was allowing to happen in my relationship with Him".

"Another complicating and destructive factor in all this mess was that my mistress was now claiming that she, too, had needs that only I could meet. I found myself in the terrible situation of becoming indispensable to her and that just added to the feelings of fragmentation. The whole dynamic had become like a spiritual "Fatal Attraction". It sounds stupid even as I say it but, as demanding as she became, even that price was worth paying when I lost sight of where my needs were supposed to be met and tried to meet them with her. The paradox is that I have both warmly welcomed her and deeply resented her. I have sought consolation with her and yet I have despised the cost of that comfort".

I now began to note some further changes in the facial expressions of my listeners. Some, at least, were beginning to suspect that this was not what it first appeared to be! Some mental gears were beginning to turn in another direction as they tried to pre-empt just where I was going with this 'confession'? It seems that even pastors don't want to be the last to get it!

"I began by confessing to you that I had a mistress. I deliberately made that statement in the past tense. I did so partly as a statement of fact and partly as a statement of hope. It is a statement of fact inasmuch as, at this point of time, I do not have a mistress. That destructive relationship is now broken and is part of my history. I have owned it and I have been forgiven".

"It is a statement of hope inasmuch as I fully realise that I am capable of re-commencing that liaison at any time; particularly during those periods of emotional weakness when others seem insensitive to my needs. I know that she is always there ready to meet that need.

And now, as part of my confession, I have determined to complete my confessional atonement before you by actually naming my mistress to you".

The tension that had started to ease with some was quickly restored with this last remark! In fact, I was to find out later that two or three had determined by this time to get out of their seats and leave the room.

"I name her in your presence because, as I have listened to fellow pastors talk over the years, I believe some of you also know her and you may want to join me in my confession and atonement.

Her name is 'MINISTRY'".

The tension level, which had varied quite noticeably to this point, now relaxed very noticeably!

Ah, yes! I can see from the looks on some faces that there are those of you who are acquainted with her. That being the case, perhaps you might like to journey with me a little further as I try to explain the process of recovery and restoration to my wife and to my God that has happened for me.

Before I ask you to walk further with me in this expose, I need first to make another confession and, perhaps, an apology.

I recognise that, in using the analogy of an affair to make a point, I have run the very serious risk of piercing the hearts of those who may be struggling with a more literal affair or relationship than what I have described. If I have unwittingly and unhelpfully wounded you, I do ask for your forgiveness and understanding. On the other hand, if my analogy has pierced your heart with conviction, I do not apologise for that.

The reason I have been prepared to take the risk in describing the dynamics of this unhealthy relationship with "ministry" in terms of an affair is that I really believe that "ministry" can become a destructive "affair of the heart" that has the capacity to estrange us from our families. I, for one, have felt times of enormous pressure and conflict of interest as I have sought to be both a loving husband and a faithful Pastor. In retrospect, I can see that those pressures have been largely of my own making and have emerged in my life because of my failure to understand the true relationship that I was to have with "ministry".

Let me explain first how the Lord Jesus moved to expose and correct what had become an idol in my life. Even now it sounds strange to refer to "ministry" as an idol. But if an idol is something to which one devotes the major portion of one's time, energy and effort....if an idol is that for which I am willing to sacrifice just about everything in my life...if an idol is anything that comes between me and my God and competes for that devotion, loyalty and commitment that ought to belong only to Him.....then "Ministry " had become such an idol.....such a mistress.

As I think back now, one of the factors that led to the emergence of this form of idolatry was the confusion that developed when I lost sight of the fact that God had called me to Himself before ever he called me to "the ministry".

I have been challenged again by the call of the early disciples recorded in Mark 3 where the purpose for which Jesus called His disciples was "...that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach..."

That sequence has now become so important to me. God has called us first of all to Himself. He first says, "Come to me....." before He says, "Go into all the world...." All ministry must flow out of that reality. Of course, if you had asked me at any point in my 30 years of pastoral ministry if I believed that, truth I would have answered with a prompt "Yes!" But that answer would have come from my head, not my heart. The truth is that there is a lot that I affirm with my head which, if my actions are any indication, I do not really believe in my heart.

There is a key passage in Luke 10 that has helped me regain a perspective that my former mistress took from me. When the seventy-two disciples returned from their ministry assignment, they were ecstatic that even the demons were subject to the authority that Christ had given them. They had experienced a good time with "ministry"!! I hear in their words feelings of fulfilment, excitement and anticipation for what the future might hold by way of further ministry.

However, Jesus firmly added a corrective to their understandable enthusiasm. He said to them: "I have given you authority to overcome all the power of the enemy. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven". (Luke 10:20)

Jesus was identifying for them - and for us - the only source and basis of joy and rejoicing and it was not be in the "ministry". Sure, we may be grateful for those times of blessing that result from what we do for Him but the only appropriate, unchanging and dependable source of joy is in our relationship with Jesus....the fact that our names are written down in heaven and we are secure in that fact!

Like some of you, I have often made the mistake of finding my joy elsewhere... especially with "ministry" ....and she has a way of becoming a mistress....an idol. Too often my perspective and mood swings are directly effected by "ministry"! My source of joy becomes confused and I find myself on an emotional roller-coaster. I have also discovered that it is so easy, as a pastor, to develop a "professional" relationship with Jesus. In that kind of relationship, He is the "employer" and I am the "employee".

By contrast, I was challenged by the basis of Jesus' joy identified in the same passage: "At that time, Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth...Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure". (Luke 10:21). Here is the heartbeat of Jesus in terms of His relationship with His Father. His source of joy was in the other two members of the Godhead - the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Maybe that is why we never see Jesus centred upon the results of His ministry as though that was the beginning and end of everything. He never allowed "ministry" to become His mistress. He knew how to say "No" without feeling guilty. He knew how and when to serve and how and when to retreat...even in the midst of the demands and expectations of those about Him. Luke records these simple but telling words in chapter 5:16: "The news about Him spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed".

Prayer retreats in the midst of human need! What kind of Pastor is this?

I hear echoes of that same demanding insistence in the words of the disciples when Jesus had gone out early in the morning to pray. In Mark 1:37, we are told that they came to him and said, "Everyone is looking for you!" Roughly translated that seems to me to mean, "You are indispensable! They can't do without you! Prayer is nice in its right place but you don't have time for that luxury right now! We are surrounded by need!"

Jesus response is both startling and instructive: "Let us go somewhere else - to the nearby villages - so I can preach there also. That is why I have come".(Mark 1:38)

What kind of Pastor indeed! The answer is simple and disturbing. Jesus was a Shepherd/Pastor who knew what His Father wanted Him to do and He did it - nothing more, nothing less and nothing else. He was the kind of Pastor who, at the end of His earthly ministry could say, "I have completed the work that you gave me to do"! (John 17:4). He fulfilled God's agenda for Him, not the expectations of countless other people. He was the kind of Pastor who found his joy in His relationship with God; not in what He did for God!

While I am grateful for what God does through "ministry", I am nowhere called to rejoice in the ministry or to rejoice in who I am or what I am doing. I am to be with Jesus and to rejoice in Him and in the relationship He has established with me as expressed in the fact that my name is written in heaven.

Part of my restoration process has been to set aside every Wednesday afternoon for a personal retreat time when I go away from my office and my home and I spend time with Jesus - not Jesus, my employer but Jesus, the lover of my soul. That's our time. I try not to talk "business" with Him in that setting. ....if you understand what I mean.

Knowing my own initial response to God's call for that time to be set aside, I am fairly certain that there are those of you who are now assuring yourselves that there is no way you can afford to be so extravagant with your use of time. In your priorities, such time allocation, while perhaps desirable, is not possible. You are busy telling yourself that the demands on your time are such that they exclude any possibility of 3 or 4 hours spent with the Lord in a block like that each week. Brothers and sisters, those words are being seductively whispered in your heart by the mistress....."ministry". I know because she has seduced me time and again with the same rationale. There is so much to be done, isn't there?

All that brings me to another biblical address that I have often had to visit. It is again in Luke 10. This time it is the domestic scene recorded in vs. 38-42.

The Lord has repeatedly drawn my attention to the difference between Martha and Mary.......Martha, the activist, and Mary, the listener. The question with which God has often challenged me is, "Who most clearly reflects your priorities - Martha or Mary?"

The answer is usually Martha. Now, you and I are hardly in a position to question her heart and her motives. They may well have been of the highest calibre. But what we are told is what was happening to her on the inside as she gave herself to 'ministry'. The three words used of her emotional condition are "distracted", "worried" and "upset".

Please don't get me wrong here. Someone had to prepare the meal. Someone had to be out in the kitchen. But the challenge to me is what was happening to Martha in terms of her attitude. Did you pick up on the resentment that was fermenting towards her sister? The water on the stove wasn't the only thing boiling out in the kitchen that day! "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" (Luke 10:40)

She was becoming resentful towards her sister and dictatorial towards her Lord! She presumed to direct Jesus as to what He should do to get her immobile sister mobile!! How often I have done that over the years! Jesus was again gracious but firm in His evaluation of the condition of Martha's heart.

He corrected Martha and commended Mary. Martha was committed to the urgent whereas Mary was committed to the important. Martha opened her home whereas Mary opened her heart. Martha gave her service whereas Mary gave herself.

I don't think it is coincidental that I hear in that inter-change an echo of what God has often said to my heart. Have you not had times when, in your genuine desire to serve the Lord, you have become distracted by all the things that had to be done? You have become worried and upset over the many things. You have become resentful towards your brothers and sisters in Christ because they seem to have been immobile when they should have been up and working. You have become resentful and guilty about the time your wife and family seemed to expect.

You have even presumed to complain to the Lord of the Church in such a way as to suggest that, if He paid some attention to your plight, He might just begin to do things the way you think they should be done. When those dynamics begin to emerge, we can be sure that "ministry" has successfully seduced us and become our mistress.

But what about that other prior relationship in all this...my relationship with my wife, Bev? We have just celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary. We have three great kids, two delightful daughters-in-law and 5 wonderful grand-daughters!! As I look back over the almost 40 years that I have been a Pastor, I can say that my wife has been very understanding about many, many aspects of what it means for me to be a pastor and her place as my wife.

She has been less than understanding about my mistress!!

I recall how, when we were in our sixth year of pastoral ministry back in the early seventies, Bev first tried to speak to me about how "ministry" was coming between us. I couldn't understand why she felt as she did because, after all, we were doing the Lord's work! From time to time she tried to explain how she felt and why but it was to no avail. I was blind to the fact that the dynamics of the "eternal triangle" were appearing in our relationship. Only it was not another woman. But it was a mistress, sure enough.

Bev was teaching school at the time and, because I had relatively little time for her, she began to apply herself in her work to the point where, on one day of rare enlightenment for me, I found myself thinking that she seemed to care more for her work than she did for me!

And suddenly my eyes were opened! Within 24 hours of that revelation, I was down at the travel agent trying to organise a holiday just for the two of us. It proved to be a smart move! We had a great time away together and a new start in our relationship when we came home.

You would think that I would have learned from that experience, wouldn't you? The truth is that my mistress was waiting to seduce me as soon as we came back. I have had to learn that the commitment of giving my wife the priority she deserves as my God-given partner in life is never static. It is always dynamic in the sense that it is a daily choice.

Over the years since that first realisation, I have sought to give to Bev the time commitment she deserves as my wife but it has been with varying degrees of success and failure.

From time to time, she has suggested that I should take time out from pastoral ministry so that we could have extended time as a family without those unique demands and expectations that constitute pastoral ministry. The very idea was anathema! Didn't she realise I was needed...even indispensable?!

Somehow I had become so involved again with my mistress that to even think of extended leave was tantamount to a betrayal of some kind! I look back now and I can see that what Bev was suggesting, in effect, was a sabbatical....a God-ordained principle.....a period of refreshment and renewal of our spiritual and emotional lives and our relationship together.

It was still some time before I began realising something else that was obvious to Bev long before it dawned on me. I was loosing my cutting edge. The vision of the Lord and a right understanding of my relationship to ministry had again become fuzzy. I was getting tired in the ministry....not physically tired but emotionally and spiritually weary. Although I took holidays and long service leave, the benefits seemed very short-lived.

It was towards the end of the 1980's that these realisations began to dawn and I can recall sharing with the Church Leadership what Bev had been saying for quite some time: namely, a growing sense that I was finding little fulfilment and a lot of tiredness and that I needed to take extended leave. So clearly did the Lord seem to say, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest". (Mark 6:31)

We resigned from that Church at the end of 1989 and we spent the next 14 months obeying and enjoying the biblical principle of the Sabbath. The level of renewal and refreshment that came to us is beyond my ability to describe and we both returned ready to embrace the Lord's call to service in a new and enthusiastic way.

We went to a new Church at the beginning of 1991 And guess what? The mistress called "Ministry" had moved to the new Church!! But there is now some understanding of how she operates and the way she seduces.

I feel free of her at the moment but I know that I need to daily monitor her attempts to seduce me and my response to her. I have come to accept that I will live with this tension for the rest of my pastoral life. It will involve daily choices for me. Somehow, I feel at peace about that prospect now that the "enemy" has been identified and her tactics are out in the open. I am also encouraged by the fact that the antidote to her poison has also been identified - a daily yielding of my life to my Lord and to my wife.

When Ministry Becomes a Mistress (by Dave Kraft)

Ministry idolatry is becoming increasingly widespread, reaching epidemic proportions. It is showcased at network and denominational gatherings, where the focus and conversation is often not about Jesus, but about us and what we are accomplishing and achieving. Leaders discuss the latest poster children for ministry success and their methods so we can all emulate them, buy their books, and attend their “how we did it” seminars and conferences.

“Idolatry creep” sneaks up on you because you can easily and quickly justify it by saying that everything you do is for the Lord, believing your motives are pure. We recognize this in businessmen who work obscene hours while insisting they do it all to benefit the family, when in reality it’s all about them.

Leaders must guard against ministry becoming a mistress. A mistress is someone who takes the place that only your wife should occupy. Ministry must never take the place of Jesus himself in your heart and in your values. As 1 John 5:21 says, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” The New Living Translation says, “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” Our hearts are idol factories, and ministry, for many leaders, is the king of idols.

Why Do You Want to Lead?

We can start to rely on ministry instead of Jesus to meet deep needs in our own lives. I am convinced that many people move into leadership roles because of people needing them or because being in control satisfies something missing in their own sense of value or worth. I remember John Maxwell once saying, “If you need people you can lead people.” One leader told me that the motivation for “his call” to ministry was the opportunity to resolve the problem of his own insecurities and feel better about himself. The devil is out to snare Christian leaders, rendering them “ineffective or unfruitful” (2 Pet.1:8), and if he can’t achieve his purposes through obvious sin, he will achieve it by taking something that is admirable and good and turning it on its ear to cause us to stumble.

The apostle Peter, in his insightful chapter to leaders, says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Our enemy can devour us through ministry by letting the ministry itself replace Jesus in our affections. Unfortunately, we are often quicker to recognize this happening in others than in our own lives.

What Now?

There is no “four easy steps to deal with ministry idolatry.” But I do want to share some things I am learning about dealing with each of the mistakes leaders make. Let me state again that I have made all these mistakes myself, and I have seen people in ministries, organizations, groups, and churches that I have been associated with make them.

So, how have I dealt with ministry idolatry?

For me the first step is realizing that this is a problem for me. I deeply desire to want to confess and repent when this sin comes to my attention, as opposed to making excuses and rationalizing. It should grieve my soul that I am allowing something to take the place of Jesus in my heart and affections. Like King David, I want to pray, “Against you, you only, have I sinned” (Ps. 51:4). My primary sin here is against God!

Most every day I make the issue of ministry idolatry a matter of prayer, asking for the power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit to occupy center stage in my life. For me, I find that ministry idolatry is an attitude, a mindset, as opposed to an action. It begins with the way I look at things, the way I think.

Colossians 3:4 is helpful to me: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.” Jesus is my life—not ministry, success, converts, disciples, developing leaders, being respected by my peers, etc. I need to keep being reminded of this truth. Paul says in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” For me to live is Christ, not someone else or something else. I have several passages of Scripture memorized (in addition to those just mentioned) on ministry idolatry, including 1 John 5:21 and Revelation 2:4.

When the Lord makes it clear that I am starting to drift, I want to immediately own it, repent, confess, and ask for his help in agreeing with him that he is central. I want to be especially sensitive to others in my family or on the teams I am a part of when they bring this sin to my attention. One of my life values is to immediately respond to God’s revealed truth, whether that truth comes directly to me through Scripture or through the rebuke of a family or team member. Pity the Christian leader with no friends or coworkers who care enough to confront him, especially in the area of ministry idolatry.

The Dangers of Hierarchy In Christian Organizations by Roger Smalling, D.Min

Hierarchicalism is an organizational structure based on ascending ranks, like a ladder. The military is hierarchical, with generals, colonels, sergeants, on down to privates. Authority is entirely vertical with little or no accountability at the top. Privates cannot hold a general accountable for his actions. Blame is always passed downward.

Large corporations are also structured hierarchies, with CEO’s, vice presidents and department managers, on down to those who stock shelves. Again, authority is always from the top down with no accountability at the top. Lower ranks usually take the blame for the errors of management. Officers within hierarchies do not represent the will of their subordinates.

Biblical government is the opposite, fundamentally simple. Officers serve the people in a representative system.[1] When it comes to the relationship of officers to one another, as in a Presbytery,[2] every member has equal voice and vote. There are no ranks, merely differences in function. If there is blame, it accrues to the group as a whole.

The difference between the two is like a ladder versus a round table. Since the goals and purposes are different, so are their structures.

When Christian organizations mimic the world’s system, the central principles Christ taught tend to be thwarted. People become lost in a maze of bureaucracy as a monolithic machine feeds itself rather than the people. The organization focuses merely on its own existence as though it had intrinsic value.

During many years in ministry, I have had opportunity to closely observe the effects of hierarchicalism in a Christian context.

By mirroring the world’s structures, Christians may unwittingly forget a central aspect of biblical theology, the corrupt nature of man. In a Christian organization the issue is not efficiency, but sanctification.

Dictatorship is the most efficient form of government known to man. That is why dictators are hard to defeat. They dehumanize people, depriving them of the free expression necessary to reflect God’s image. It is the straight line between two points but casualties are strewn along its sides.

To discern the morality of a leadership structure, one should ask what it stimulates… the fallen nature, or the new nature in Christ.

THE PETER PRINCIPLE: Mediocrity and Incompetence

In his classic book, The Peter Principle[3], sociologist John Peters describes how each member of a hierarchy tends to rise to his level of incompetence. As a person performs well at one level, he may be promoted to the next, until he attains a position beyond his abilities. He will remain at this position generating problems for himself and others. Meanwhile, many frustrated, yet gifted people abandon ship. With time, incompetence multiplies until the organization as a whole becomes mediocre.

Good Christian leaders, functioning within an hierarchical system, try to mitigate these negative effects. Their efforts may be laudable, but often end up futile. Human nature, including in Christians, is susceptible to the temptations generated by hierarchy.

Hierarchies tend to stimulate the worst in our fallen nature

Arrogance
Hierarchies provide a platform where one person feels inherently superior to those of lower ranks. “I have a superior rank because I am a superior person.”

Unholy ambition and jealousy
A person sees another in a rank above his and says to himself, “he is no better than I. In fact, I can do his job better. So why shouldn’t I have that rank?”

Dirty politicking
If a person wants a superior rank, he may be tempted to try to pull strings to get it. This is morally questionable and wastes time and energy for productive work.

The Apostle James notes, For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. James 3:16

The term evil practice translates phaulon pragma, literally foul business.[4] Dirty politicking expresses it well.

Blame shifting
Human nature has a tendency to blame a subordinate when something goes wrong. Blame shifting was Adam’s first reaction after the fall. This is a form of moral cowardice.

Imagine a man carrying a load up a ladder. If he drops it, where does it fall? On whoever is beneath, who in turn, dumps it on the one below him. The guy on the very bottom gets the full load.  In a hierarchy, the load is the blame.

Man-pleasing
Since a person’s rank in the hierarchy depends on the good will of the rank above him, this tempts him to focus on pleasing the person above him rather than God.

Loss of competent personnel
According to Dr. Peters in The Peter Principle, hierarchies tend to squeeze out people who question the way things are done, even if they are highly competent.

A hierarchy, like any organism, becomes more focused on perpetuating its own existence than on what it was created to produce. People who rock the boat will be tossed out of that boat. It doesn’t matter if they were among the few doing the rowing.

Disregard of the ordained office and its spiritual authority
I mention this last for emphasis, not because it is least in important. In fact, I consider it the most serious repercussion of authoritarian structures. In a Christian hierarchy, man-made titles or ranks sometimes negate the spiritual authority of biblical ones. The Word of God accords certain rights and privileges to all ordained officers. Hierarchical structures overlook these.

What if you are a leader in an authoritarian Christian hierarchy?
With a little imagination, you can install administrative devices to minimize the damage. Doing so requires a rare moral courage. Why? These strategies require accountability to the people you lead.[5]

Safety devices

Periodic evaluations of your leadership, anonymous and in writing, from the people you lead. This gives subordinates the opportunity to say what they really think and to do it in safety. You will get the truth about your leadership style.

Create an anonymity committee This may consist of two or three people who can receive complaints without revealing the sources. If there are enough complaints about a particular leader, this can be brought to the attention of upper level management before the leader is able to do serious damage. The reason this requires moral courage is because the leader in question might be you.

Tip: Do not insult the intelligence of your subordinates by announcing an open door policy unless they can hold you accountable for what you say or do to them inside the door. [6]

Memos to subordinates about proposed policies asking for their feedback, gives people a sense of participation in the decision process.

Any device that allows you to be vulnerable to your subordinates and accountable for your actions will gain respect and credibility. Ironically, once you have respect and credibility, those devices will likely become unnecessary.

Are you joining a Christian organizacion?
A good way to discern if the organization is authoritarian is to ask them, “In what way can you be made to stand accountable for the way you treat subordinates?” If you get no answer, look elsewhere.

Summary
Authoritarian hierarchicalism is unbiblical for Christian organizations or churches. It stimulates latent tendencies in our fallen nature. Christian leaders should be aware of these tendencies and establish measures to minimize them. This may require an uncommon moral courage and commitment to absolute integrity and accountability to those we lead.

From this article we learn:

• Authoritarian hierarchicalism is a secular form of organizational structure, antithetical to the leadership principles Christ embodied.

• Authoritarian hierarchicalism stimulates the worst in human nature, leading to arrogance, selfish ambition, politicking, blame shifting and more.

• Christian leaders involved in such structures can mitigate the damage by instituting administrative devices to make themselves approachable and accountable to those they lead.

Smalling's articles and essays are available at www.smallings.com

The Great Ecclesiastical Conspiracy

by George Davis, Michael Clark, & Kirk Pearson

Introduction

This book was written as an expose' of an 1800 year old conspiracy. It is intended to define the conspiracy, leaving you to judge for yourself. Consider it a primer, covering only the basic elements of the subject. It is not intended to be exhaustive, since the total truth of this matter could not be told in such brevity. It is written with the utmost confidence that its readers will be its perfecters. It is the result of a million prayers, asking, "Why? Why Lord, is the Church before me so unlike the one I read about in the Bible? Why O God is there so much failure and defeat in what is supposed to be the representation of you in the earth?" This book may present more questions than answers, but questions are not to be feared.  God is not like the haggard parent who resents the seemingly unending barrage of questions proceeding from the inquisitive child. God is eager and attentive to them all.

While not written for everyone, this book is dedicated to those analytical ones who have dared to ask the forbidden question, "What is wrong with the church?" It is dedicated to all those who are willing to pay the price to see Christ's Ekklesia restored. The reformation is not over. In fact it is just begun, and this book is dedicated to all reformers everywhere. It is dedicated, as we are, to the restoration of all things. It is written to those who willingly suffer the loss of all things for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. It is written in the deepest respect and honor for those of whom the world is not worthy, who laid down their very lives to expose this conspiracy. What qualifies us to write such a work? Nothing, except perhaps an indescribable burden, a passion that can only be characterized by the heart of a Father yearning to see His children set free from their oppressors, and a desire for the final deliverance of His family from the conspirators’ hands.

George Davis and Michael Clark

Continue reading The Great Ecclesiastical Conspiracy

Why Team Ministry Is Better Than a One-Man Show

by J. Lee Grady


Last week I served alongside a team of pastors at a ministry school in Debrecen, Hungary, a city I've visited four times. Even though I don't speak Hungarian (it's one of the most difficult languages on the planet), I had a blast working with my friends Zsolt, Eugene, István, Pál and Attila. We shared meals, worshiped and prayed together and opened our hearts on a deep level—with the help of my interpreter and, on a few occasions, the Google Translate program on my phone.

Nobody tried to be the star as we shared teaching slots during the week. We preferred each other and encouraged each other. And we laughed a lot because we really enjoyed each other's company. Every leader contributed his part—and in the end the students were blessed that their teachers flowed in harmony.

Teamwork is an essential part of God's plan for ministry. In both the Old and New Testaments, we see teams of people working side-by-side to further His kingdom. Moses shared leadership with Aaron and Miriam (see Micah 4:6) and David had a group of "mighty men" who performed valiant deeds under his command. Solomon appointed a team to serve as his deputies, Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem with teams of workers, and Esther's maidens prayed and fasted with her before she saved Israel from genocide.

Jesus loves teams. He gathered a group of hand-picked disciples and then sent them out to minister in pairs (Luke 10:1). He involved them in feeding the multitudes and healing sick people. In the same way, the apostle Paul never traveled anywhere alone, and he always credited the people who helped him. His love for Timothy, Phoebe, Luke, Silvanus, Titus, Priscilla and other team players is an obvious backdrop in his epistles.

So if teamwork is so essential to Christianity, why do we prefer the celebrity model of ministry today? Here are five clear reasons that teamwork is a better approach:

1. Teamwork accomplishes more. Anybody who has ever chopped down a tree with an axe or painted a house knows the job gets done quicker and easier when more people are working. Ecclesiastes 4:9 says: "Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor." Ministry leaders are compared to oxen in the Bible, and Jesus said He would place a "yoke" on us when we are called to ministry (see Matt. 11:29). A yoke connects a team of oxen. Jesus never referred to his followers as renegade stallions who run off on their own. He called us to be yoked together with others. You will not achieve as much if you insist on doing everything yourself.

2. Teamwork unlocks people's potential. In a one-man show, a leader performs the up-front job, a few overworked people help in the background, and the crowd watches. Religious spectators are trained to sit—as if they have nothing useful to contribute. Yet the New Testament tells us the Holy Spirit gives every believer certain gifts, and we all are to use these gifts for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7, 11).

In today's megachurch culture, the celebrity pastor looms large on the big screen, and he may even broadcast his message to several satellite congregations. This might effectively reach some people for Jesus, and it might be a short-term solution for growth, but does it encourage every church member to discover his or her potential? The best leaders know how to involve lots of people to reach God's goal.

3. Teamwork encourages healthy relationships. It's easier to do ministry alone. But you will never grow if you do a solo act. When you are part of a team you must deal with competitive attitudes, jealousy, pride, complaints and hurt feelings. This is exactly why Jesus wants us to work together! You will never confront the flaws in your character unless you work with others. They will expose your selfishness, and you will expose theirs. Proverbs 27:17 says: "Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." God will use Brother Bothersome and Sister Sandpaper in your life to make you more loving—and more humble!

4. Teamwork prevents scandals. Years ago after televangelist Jim Bakker was released from prison, he admitted that he had surrounded himself with yes men who didn't have the courage to tell him he was making unethical business decisions. Leaders with a one-man-show mentality are in danger of doing incredibly stupid things because they lack accountability. Team ministry encourages transparency, and senior leaders recognize the value of getting honest feedback from their colleagues. You will fail as a leader if you don't have wise counselors who have access to you. Surround yourself with team players and ask them to point out your blind spots!

5. Teamwork keeps us from idolizing men. A well-known pastor in Nigeria was known to record his sermon each week and then send tapes of his message to his pastors throughout the country. The pastors were then expected to stand in their pulpits the following Sunday, play the recorded sermon ... and move their mouths to the words! They had no message of their own. They were simply clones of the "All-Important Man of God."

That may sound silly, but aren't we guilty of similar foolishness when we put leaders on pedestals and idolize their preaching style? The one-man show may have worked in the past, but the emerging generation has zero tolerance for religious phoniness. People today want healthy leaders who know how to share power instead of grabbing or abusing it.

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. He is the author of The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale and other books.