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Is Your Church Built on Personality?

Orginally published on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 7:42 AM
by Todd Rhoades

One of the blogs I read regularly is BrianJones.com. Brian is the lead pastor of Christ Church of the Valley and has a real heart for leading his church to maturity in Christ. I had the opportunity to meet Brian a few weeks ago in Orlando. He's the real deal.

On a recent Sunday Gene Appel spoke at Brian's church, and Brian was a little disappointed that more people didn't attend the services to hear Gene speak. Someone on his staff suggested that maybe people didn't come to church that week because Brian wasn't speaking.

Ever have a moment of righteous indignation? Well, Brian did, and he posted his honest and very direct open letter to his church on his blog. (Brian has a great dialog with his church members on his blog. They trust him. And that gives him the respect he needed to pull off this post). Here's what he wrote:

This past Sunday one of the great pastors in our country spoke at our church.

Yet, a significant number of you chose to either sleep in or blow off church to do something else. Attendance on Sunday was 1,062, which is just pitiful for our church.

Many leaders at CCV wonder if people chose not to come because you knew I was not speaking.

Please understand that if that turns out to be the case, honest to God you won’t hear me speak until 2009. I will hire first-year Bible college interns who can barely chew gum and talk at the same time to rotate the speaking responsibilities for the next 6.5 months.

I will not have any part in helping build a church around a person, personality, or particular style of preaching.

What a strong and powerful way to communicate your passion and integrity as a leader. This is a great example, as far as I’m concerned, of leading out of love. As a matter of fact, Brian later shares in the comment section:

The issue here is discipleship. Are we trying to put on a “religious show” where people will attend based on the person presenting God’s word, or are we fashioning a gates-of-hell-storming-community of disciples?

1 Corinthians 1:17ff makes it drop-dead clear that leaders cannot participate in exacerbating personality adoration in the body of Christ. “I follow Paul.” “I follow Cephas.” “I follow Christ.” Paul went nuts over this, as he should!

The focal point of CCV can never be Brian Jones, ever. And as one of its servants, if I sense that I am getting in the way of someone’s ability to grow as a disciple, it is my God-ordained responsibility as a pastor to remove that barrier. That’s not a threat, or un-Christ-like behavior; it’s spiritual leadership.

Thanks, Brian, for the transparency and the guts to share some tough love when it’s needed.

I wonder…is your church built on personality? If so, how can you communicate the importance of getting back to the one thing that IS important?


This post has been viewed 3655 times so far.


  There are 38 Comments:

  • Posted by Peter Hamm
    Monday, June 16, 2008 at 2:49 PM

    Tommy,

    That is BRILLIANT!

  • Posted by
    Monday, June 16, 2008 at 4:00 PM

    The question is...being faithful to man (Pastor) or to ministry where God has placed you.  This usaually reflects the maturity or commitment of the members.  Hopefully they grow in understanding but you will always have some that don’t really commit.

  • Posted by
    Monday, June 16, 2008 at 4:12 PM

    I found this letter troubling.  Blanket rebukes because the pastor is upset rarely if ever produce life change. I’m sure he felt better getting this off his chest, but you know what? The 1052 people who had to endure this tirade did attend service and no doubt felt pretty stupid listening to him blather on. In my view, the man should humble himself and repent.

  • Posted by
    Monday, June 16, 2008 at 4:13 PM

    I say hoorah for this pastor who knows the needs of his flock—because that is what shepherds are supposed to know.  I’ve been in churches that have died when a popular shepherd has left, and it has been really sad (and certainly not a good witness to the unsaved/unchurched.).... This man fulfilled part of his responsibility by discipling his flock in how he felt the Lord led him. 

    By the way, thus far no one has commented on the “spanking adults” comment.  I wonder if Christ ever “spanked” his followers and disciples?  If so, did he “spank” only the already-mature ones? We all should know the answer to those questions.

  • Posted by Tony Myles
    Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 12:18 AM

    (I was thinking about responding to this, but I am going to wait until a few more people show up to it)

    wink

  • Posted by David
    Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 9:02 AM

    A hearty “AMEN” to the words of Phil DiLernia.  I stopped reading the comments after I read his because I believe he hit the proverbial nail on the head.

  • Posted by
    Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 9:02 AM

    Agreed Phil, all churches are built on personality.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  It can become bad but is not inherently bad.  I do not tell my church when I am going to be gone for this reason and I work really hard to make sure there is quality in my absence. 

    As for his rebuke, I kind of took it with a bit of humor and a little rhetoric.  It was an overstatement to prove a point.  I am not saying he was trying to be funny, I am saying it was funny.  Hire 6 first year bible interns… Now that is funny. 

    Sometimes pastors of churches do not call out people because they do not want to make waves.  Leadership requires astute observation and work towards a goal and if the goal is disciple making, then as he stated in one of his comments he must remove barriers to that goal.  I appreciate a lead pastor being a passionate leader, but the problem with much of white middle class religion is that when we see passion we get confused and call it anger.  I think some of the posts here make that point clearly.

  • Posted by Sam Shultz
    Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 1:20 PM

    There are many comments on this issue. I haven’t read them all, so forgive me if I’m repeating what someone else as spoken about.

    We all know people are not attending as frequently as they used to. I think the latest statistic I heard in Orlando a few weeks ago was that people now attend 1.5 Sundays each month. This number is lower than what it was a few years ago.

    When I was in high school and especially college, though I knew attendance was good for me, when the prof wasn’t there, it was prime time to skip class. Sometimes our people use the pastor’s absence as a way of skipping church to do something else without being noticed or counted.

    It would be interesting to see if Brian’s numbers would have been as low if he was seated in attendance when his guest spoke. My hunch is that they wouldn’ thave been as low because he was there and people would know they’d be spotted.

    On the other hand, now that I think of it, he has a larger church and it’s easier to be absent than in, say, my church of 130. Be that as it may, I think it’s something to consider.

  • Posted by Derek
    Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 1:34 PM

    Leonard,

    I appreciate you pointing out the humor in his rebuke. Some people have commented that Brian’s rant seemed a bit out of line, but he seemed to be mixing in a lot of humor into what we was saying. This is certainly a personality thing. I share that kind of sarcastic, hyperbole-ladden humor. Mixing humor in with a rebuke is a good way to soften the blow, but only if it fits your personality type.

    Derek

  • Posted by
    Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 10:04 AM

    It probably best not to announce that you will be gone or having a guest.  Some churches use the special guest to draw even larger crowds, same case for spiritual immuturity.

  • Posted by
    Monday, June 23, 2008 at 10:36 AM

    Hey - do you think sometimes we get a little idealistic? Sheep follow shepards - and faithful sheep recognize the shepards voice. Could it be that just maybe it’s a natural thing for people to prefer their Pastor and as they mature their tolerance for other speakers will grow"naturally?"
    My experience is that a general and corporate “spanking” doesn’t render as many positive results as negative.

    But hey - I’m just Plain Ole Jim...lol.

  • Posted by
    Monday, June 23, 2008 at 7:56 PM

    In response to Tommy L’s comment on Pastor Rick using his “father-in-law Tom Holladay as a tag team member” - Tom is Rick’s brother-in-law.  And a very gifted speaker in his own right.  With six services, it becomes even more important to have partnership in sharing the load.

    Saddleback also used several of the base pastors as well as Doug Fields to share in the weekend teaching.  It makes for a great mix.  I suppose many have their “favorite” speaker, but the team is good at providing a variety of teaching through different personalities.  It works for us!

  • Posted by prasala
    Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 6:55 AM

    wow!  great post.Your perception on the topic looks good.I should appreciate the work put on for bringing the article with great stuff.It is awesome man.
    http://www.vacationrentalhotspots.com

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