MondayMorningInsight - Leadership & Encouragement for Church Leaders

Ed Young, Jr. on “Church Pirates”

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Tue, May 27, 2008
Viewed 141
(100) comments so far

For your response: Have you ever had a church pirate on your staff? Have you ever been a church pirate? Let me know your thoughts on this subject!

Ed Young, Jr. recently recorded this at a staff meeting at Fellowship Church in Dallas. What is a 'church pirate'? It is a person who serves on a church staff who suddenly decides to leave the church and start a new church 'plant' in the same city. Sounds like Ed may have been burned on this one a time or two. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Comments

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Ricky on Wed, May 28, 2008

Adam:

“He referenced people who had been with him for 20 years moving on and planting churches.”

But Junior only exemplifies the mentality of today’s “pastors,” those who believe that only THEY can preach or pastor effectively and that no one else has the “vision.”

This is why the so-called satellite “churches” are so popular right now: it’s not good enough to plant numerous works around the city, meeting the uniqueness of those areas with different personalities, but, no, it has to be “the Man” who gets all the glory, having his sermons beamed into those satellite buildings, as if no one else can preach like him.

It’s disgusting.
Peter Hamm on Wed, May 28, 2008

So, Ricky,

FIrst off, no, I’m not arrogant. Thanks very much.

If you pastor a church and someone joins your staff with the express purpose of gaining a following and then “splitting” that following off to start a new church, you think that’s just peachy? (Oh, I forgot, you seem to hate all churches.)
Ron Stanley, Jr. on Wed, May 28, 2008

I will admit, Loyalty goes a long way in the pastorate. You want to take a few guys and girls and go a long way. In other words, its always a good thing to start out as a team and build from their. Some place in there someone should talk about planting a church. Hopefully If the Lord leads one of the team members to start a church, the best thing we can do is assist them in doing so. Some times I think these guys get into it because it becomes the “pastor’s show” they , meaning the associate, has latent gifts, and they want to use those gifts, but for whatever reason; their gift is warehoused, denied or even discouraged. Any gifted motivated individual can only deal with that for only so long. As I state earlier, I think there are some people who felt the same way Ed does when he moved into downtown Dallas. Men and women who had been serving for years, no doubt saw a decrease in their youngest populations of members. Churches who might have been on their last leg might have saw instant death so to speak. In fact , some of those pastors might have thought that he was “sheep stealing” but with a church that big, why fuss with people. It makes you look insecure. Why not personally confront the individual. I would even reccommend him reading the book the “Emotionally Healthy Church” it talks about a situation that happened like this one. I believe in the end that Ed will be alright.
Brett Ballard on Wed, May 28, 2008

I tried to post a “constructive” critique of Ed’s video on his blog (edyoungblog.com). It was basically the same one I posted here earlier. It was friendly, conciliatory and not anonymous.

It was not approved.

I began to look at all of the 50 + comments and ALL of them were supportive and positive.

Seriously folks, this guy has issues.
Bruce van Heerden on Wed, May 28, 2008

This whole subject is very interesting and I suppose it comes down to this,

Ed Young is a very gifted man who loves God and believes that he is doing what God has called him to do, some people will go to his churches and stay, some will go for a few years and leave, but to be very carnal in a very carnal world it comes down to supply and demand, in a world full of very lonely people, there is a demand for comfort and love and people eventually get tired of being hugged by a video screen every week, and they find a man or a women who will hold them, comfort them, stroke them and that’s were they will go to church, the lifespan of a video church is very short and have great turnover of people and personnel and that’s ok we will not find a one size fits all church.

Let’s work with the gifts that God has given us
Kurt on Wed, May 28, 2008

Could Ed Young actually revealing a desire to “hoard sheep?” I found nothing in his talk edifying or Biblical. Sounded a bit whiny. And his conclusion about God’s will sounded too cult-like for me.
Don Chapman on Wed, May 28, 2008

The whole mentality that Ed Young, or any other mega church pastor, has built their own little empire and you had better not mess with it makes me ill. I thought planting churches was a good thing. Evidently not, unless you do it >their< way. Whenever you find a control freak in ministry you find trouble.
Ricky on Wed, May 28, 2008

Wilson:

“The associate said ‘all you have to do is put a large ad in the paper and let the people know ‘who you are’ He went on to say, ‘I did that and I had 300 the very first Sunday’”

Like it or not, that is the standard procedure for all new “church plants.”

You’ll find it in most “church” planting literature and classes.

It’s the system that breeds this sort of stuff…the system.
Nic on Wed, May 28, 2008

I think part of what creates this phenomenon is the promotion of large church pastors to celebrity status in a culture that worships celebrity. There is a way in which well marketed and branded pastors like Ed create an environment in which this kind of behavior seems plausible in the minds of the young guns in the supporting roles.

As a preaching pastor at a large church who could pirate a church very easily in my town, I think it is important for lead pastors to take care to reject the trappings and images of celebrity and empower gifted second tier leaders in their midst.

If the younger leaders embrace humility and the older leaders reject what makes pirating seem spiritually plausible, then the church can hang together.

If not, then both groups will hurt the other and self justify until they’re blue in the face. If you can’t tell your leader what you’re going to do and not get fired and get his open blessing, then your move lacks integrity.
Kurt on Wed, May 28, 2008

I showed my wife this video clip. She wanted to gag.