When the church is at its healthiest,
many people contribute to the life of the
body with gifts they’ve been given. One
of those gifts is “pastoring”, or care-
taking. Mixed with all the other gifts in
the body, the whole community is
healthy, alive, free, and an expression of
God’s love in the world that is obvious
and undeniable.
But this is very rare among church
gatherings.
Much more often, the group is
dominated and defined by the
personality of one person: the Pastor-
god.
The Pastor-god is not merely a
contributor within the body; he is the
voice, the face, and the authority in the
church. He is the boss, the CEO, the
example, the teacher, the father-figure.
In the Cult of the Pastor-god, they are
called “God’s anointed”. They are the
one who communicates God’s word to
the followers. They are the mouth, while
the church is the ears. Their part is to
provide care and discipline to the
people; the people’s part is to listen,
honor, and follow.
And in many churches, this model works
flawlessly. People really want someone
to lead and protect them—without it
they feel vulnerable and lost. And of
course there are no shortage of people
willing to assume this role of the Pastor-
god.
The Pastor-god claims to not want
adulation and adoration from the people,
but inwardly they crave it. The people
claim they don’t believe their pastor is a
god, but they treat him like he is. When
the pastor makes them proud, they heap
accolades. When the pastor does not
live up to his god-like standard, they look
for ways to take him down.
When the Pastor-god is there, the people
feel safe. When the Pastor-god goes
away, the people are devastated.
Of course this is nothing new—people
are afraid to be leaderless, as was the
nation of Israel when they demanded a
leader:
But the people refused to listen to
Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a
king over us. Then we will be like all
the other nations, with a king to lead
us and to go out before us and fight
our battles.” (I Samuel 8:19-20)
God reluctantly gave them their leader,
an outstanding young man named Saul.
Their craving for a leader was satisfied,
but it was wrong; what resulted was
anxiety, strife, war, madness, and death.
One of the reasons churches suck today
is because they are much less like the
body of Christ and much more like the
Cult of the Pastor-god—or "the cult of
personality." More and more within the
church are recognizing this disturbing
reality:
“...evangelicalism is not so much a
religion as a series of fast-moving
personality cults.” ― Frank Schaeffer
Thinking about this, I could not get the
image of an old Star Trek episode out of
my mind. It’s called Who Mourns for
Adonais and it’s about the Enterprise
crew coming face to face with Apollo,
one of the gods from earth’s ancient
culture.
Remember this one?
As the episode goes, back when the
gods (turns out they were actually
aliens) came to earth, the primitive
people saw their power and naturally fell
down to worship them. Under their
authority, people felt cared for--and the
gods were happy to have the attention.
It was a comfortable, but immature and
ultimately dysfunctional relationship.
The gods’ part was to provide care and
discipline to the people; the people’s
part was to listen, honor, and follow…
…just like in the Cult of the Pastor-god.
In those days, to defy the gods was a
fearful thing—as Captain Kirk discovered
when he dared to defy Apollo’s
authority:
Kirk: “Apollo, we’re willing to talk, but
you’ll find we don’t bow to every
creature who happens to have a bag
of tricks.”
Apollo: “Agamemnon was one such as
you, and Hercules--pride and
arrogance. They defied me, until they
felt my wrath.”
Have you ever been called “proud” or
“arrogant” by a pastor-god when you
questioned their authority? If you have,
you have come face-to-face with the Cult
of the Pastor-god.
Apollo expected these people to fall
down and honor him just like people did
in the ancient days. But Kirk,
recognizing the dysfunction of such an
authoritarian relationship, continued to
defy—and the conflict escalates:
Apollo: “I could sweep you out of
existence with a wave of my hand,
and bring you back again. I can give
life or death. What else does mankind
demand of its gods?”
Kirk: “Mankind has no need for gods.
We find the one quite adequate.”
Apollo: “We shall not debate, mortal. I
offer you eternal rest and happiness
according to the ancient ways. I ask
little in return. But what I ask for I
insist upon.”
The one thing he cannot handle outright
defiance; he can only insist on its
authority, and promise judgment upon
the one who dares defy them. If you do
decide you need to escape the cult,
understand one thing:
There is no gentle way to get out of
the cult of the Pastor-god.
If you are struggling to get free from a
pastor-god cult, please re-read that last
sentence a couple more times. This will
be a battle of wills.
Eventually, Kirk and his crew had use
force to disable Apollo’s source of
power. Apollo was reduced to his true,
powerless nature.
In the end, Apollo lost everything and is
reduced to tears:
Apollo: “I would have cherished you,
cared for you. I would have loved you
like a father loves his children. Did I
ask so much?”
Kirk: “We’ve outgrown you. You asked
for something we can no longer give.”
And there’s the thing. Even people who
have been raised life-long in a pastor-
god cult are realizing they can no longer
give outright honor and obedience to a
religious authority figure. And they
shouldn’t.

BE WISE!!!!!