Pastors or "PA-STARS".
Religion is a microcosm of society at large. In society people possessing gifts that are used to entertain are elevated to celebrity status. In the “church” world some people who are called pastors are also elevated to a celebrity status. “PA-STARS” as opposed to pastors are the ultimate entertainers, gifted through oratory skills to motivate and inspire and entertain. Their audience is more of a follower of them then they are of Christ!
How did the regression from the FUNCTION of pastor to the POSITION of “PA-STARS” evolve. If we look at it closely it is much our fault as the “laity” and the fault of the traditional religious hierarchy structure that has caused the regression. We flatter over and encourage others to flatter over and cater to the whims of leaders. As parishioners, we are fearful to ask the questions that count and we measure their spirituality on the Sunday-performance-hour. As parishioners, we are eager to the point of being giddy while in their presence. As parishioners, we give them more power than God gave them, you must understand that God gives them no more power than He gives you. Every believer can lay hands on the sick. Every believer can speak to God for themselves and God desires to speak to every believer, every believer can approach God on another person’s behalf and intercede for them. No pastor is more God’s child than we as individuals or as a collective body are. God does not favor pastors with more love, more power or more authority than He does every believer. They are not the one-man-pipeline that conduits God’s ways and means to the believer as they are esteemed to be in the religious world.
Is the function of pastor important? Absolutely! Have pastors and parishioners made the pastor more important than he should be by changing the function of a pastor into a position that is attained because of their seminary education and affiliation with an organization?
Absolutely!
God appoints pastors but man created the celebrity that could be called “PA-STARS”.
How did the regression from the FUNCTION of pastor to the POSITION of “PA-STARS” evolve. If we look at it closely it is much our fault as the “laity” and the fault of the traditional religious hierarchy structure that has caused the regression. We flatter over and encourage others to flatter over and cater to the whims of leaders. As parishioners, we are fearful to ask the questions that count and we measure their spirituality on the Sunday-performance-hour. As parishioners, we are eager to the point of being giddy while in their presence. As parishioners, we give them more power than God gave them, you must understand that God gives them no more power than He gives you. Every believer can lay hands on the sick. Every believer can speak to God for themselves and God desires to speak to every believer, every believer can approach God on another person’s behalf and intercede for them. No pastor is more God’s child than we as individuals or as a collective body are. God does not favor pastors with more love, more power or more authority than He does every believer. They are not the one-man-pipeline that conduits God’s ways and means to the believer as they are esteemed to be in the religious world.
Is the function of pastor important? Absolutely! Have pastors and parishioners made the pastor more important than he should be by changing the function of a pastor into a position that is attained because of their seminary education and affiliation with an organization?
Absolutely!
God appoints pastors but man created the celebrity that could be called “PA-STARS”.
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