Comments on: 5 Warning Signs of a Personality-Driven Church

By: Mbuh Eric Samtan

Mbuh Eric Samtan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:47:42 +0000

Hey parents who are Pastors I wish to tell you that You should allow your children on the hands of the society to be giving all kinds of abuses. your ministry should start from the house before it goes out side. if you don’t do that, then you are giving the devil a chance to destroy your home.

By: Mbuh Eric Samtan

Mbuh Eric Samtan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:41:43 +0000

Establishing priorities as an individual will allows you to give attention to those things that are most important. I as a pastor’s kids (PK) I have to establish my personal priorities and by so doing i will be able to give time and attention to matters that will have the most significant long term impart on my life and also the lives of other pastor’s children in the society

By: danmastrapa.com » Blog Archive » The Cult of Personality in the Church

danmastrapa.com » Blog Archive » The Cult of Personality in the Church — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:57:00 +0000

[...] Tony Morgan posted Phil Cooke and Brad Abare’s “5 Warning Signs of a Personality-Driven Church” in his blog today. The full article they wrote is in the current issue of Outreach Magazine. Here is a summary of the 5 warning signs they identify: [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:32:24 +0000

Double wow…my church too.

By: Tim P

Tim P — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:34:51 +0000

Just wondering when Christ and Paul took those unannouced vactions? When Christ tried to slip away they followed him…so is it wrong to have a great personality people want to learn from???

By: Al

Al — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:11:00 +0000

I just left a church for this reason. Everything was based on the senior. He preached every week and if (big if) he was on vaction and he let somebody else on staff speak it was def going to be a low attended Sunday. The church took out an insurance policy out just in case something happened to the pastor. There were 3 other pastors on staff and nobody had a voice. Everything revoloved around the lead and not Christ. I do believe that the pastor needs personality which people connect to, but when that personality eclipses the Gospel there is a huge problem.

By: Richard Westley

Richard Westley — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:48:48 +0000

I wonder if we would come to the same conclusions if we looked at the disciples of the first church after the resurrection. Peter certainly hogged the mic. Paul dominated the script. And I can hardly think of a message about love and action without thinking about James. These guys personalities came through in their preaching, teaching, writing, etc. Remember, Paul even went so far as to say, “Follow ME as I follow Christ.”

Hmm, why didn’t he just say follow Christ?

Probably because God works through men and women in the unique way that he’s shaped them. I don’t think of churches that have a gifted speaker in the pulpit 80% of the time or more as personality-driven…anymore than I think of churches that are heavy on biblical literacy as bible-driven. Both are leveraging their gifts for the kingdom. Neither are as healthy as they could be by constantly leading with one strong foot…to the neglect of the rest of the body.

So, I think it’s better to discuss the components of a healthy church. What else is the body (of the local church) doing in the community, state, nation and world.

By: Jeremy Greer

Jeremy Greer — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:10:39 +0000

I agree with the assessment having been at a church that meets the criteria they referenced. Here are some other signs that I’d like to add to the list:

The church becomes the platform for his other ministry organization / speaking ministry.

The small group attendance is far less than worship attendance because people are driving considerable distance just to listen to the preacher without a real desire to connect with others.

By: Bruce Cole

Bruce Cole — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:44:25 +0000

I’m the successor to a founding pastor in a scenario similar enough to the 5 warning signs. I’m proof of a succession plan, but I came from outside the system after over a year-long search. There was no internal succession plan, therefore no leadership development. As the “new guy” (I’ve been here for 2 years), I observe the corollaries/consequences to the 5 warning signs:

1. I’ll be the “new guy” for a long time.
2. It causes high anxiety in the system when I take vacation.
3. Ongoing anxiety because something did happen to the pastor – he retired. And ambivalence about the new pastor.
4. An expectation that I will have the answer and “be” the answer to every question, challenge, opportunity and task.
5. No real leadership pipeline beyond a relatively small handful.

It’s a journey of a lifetime to work through these things and help us better reach our full redemptive potential as a church. By the time God calls me to Macedonia, or home, or wherever, I intend that we’ll be way beyond these 5 “signs.”

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:23:58 +0000

I don’t know what I would add or subtract from this list, but I do think that probably all churches are personality driven to an extent. Some not necessarily because of the pastor but more because we as sinful humanity have a tendency (and a need?) to lift up our leaders and glorify them. Some of that is well-intentioned, I’m sure, but it can get seriously out of whack. It also may be attributed to our looking to leaders to lead which translates into, “then all I have to do is follow” vs. all of us leading together.