[BBC List] pray for your pastors

Thu Dec 28 12:42:49 EASST 2006

Why Many of Today's Evangelical Pastors Are Cult-Like 
By Brannon Howse

I am very thankful for the many Bible-believing, conservative pastors in
America that love the Lord Jesus and serve Him faithfully. Sadly, many of
America's self-professing evangelical pastors exhibit some of the traits and
characteristics of a cult leader instead of that of a Biblically-minded,
servant leader. 

Recently, I was sharing my concerns with a friend of mine that is a pastor
and church administrator. I shared with my pastor friend the various stories
of churches in turmoil due to the lack of biblical integrity, leadership and
humility from their senior pastor. My friend commented that many of these
pastors sounded like cult leaders. 

A few hours after our phone conversation, my pastor friend e-mailed me a few
of the characteristics of cult leaders that he had uncovered in his
afternoon of research. 

While many of today's evangelical pastors don't reject the foundational
Christian doctrines such as the virgin birth, the trinity, the resurrection
and salvation through Jesus Christ alone; they do however exhibit some of
the following characteristics that are common to cult leaders. 

1.      Specially appointed by God 

I am stunned at how many church members defend the sinful actions, attitudes
and beliefs of their pastor by declaring that they were appointed or
ordained by God and thus should never be questioned. 

Many of the pastors in America were never called, ordained or appointed by
God, despite what their fans claim, and this is confirmed by the pastor's
lack of Godly proclamations, leadership, convictions, and lifestyle. 

Paul tells us in Acts 17:11 that the Bereans were of more noble character
than the Thessalonians because they examined the Scriptures daily to see if
what Paul said was true. 

Many of the leaders of today's churches are being enabled by the
simple-minded and not Bereans.  

2.      The cult's adherents often expound the virtues of the leader and
seek to cover the leader's sins and wickedness.

Some of the "virtues" espoused by the defenders of today's cult-celebrity
pastors include:

A.	Attendance has increased under his leadership
B.	Giving has increased under his leadership
C.	He is a very gifted speaker and communicator
D.	He is attracting and appealing to a younger audience that has been
missing from our church
E.	He is so personable
F.	He is a strong leader 

While these may be commendable leadership qualities resulting in "ministry
productivity," they are not a license for financial mismanagement,
unaccountable authority, blatant sin, or sexual misconduct.  Followers who
turn a blind-eye to this type of leadership activity contribute to the
denigration of the Gospel in the minds of believers as well as
non-believers.  

3.      Entangling Organization Structure: The less truth a movement
represents, the more highly it seems to have to organize itself; the absence
of truth seems to make necessary the application of the bonds of fear. Cults
often demand total commitment by their converts to an organizational
involvement that entangles them in a complicated set of human restrictions,
giving the impression of passionate and often irrational devotion to a
cause. 

Many of today's cult-celebrity pastors rule with an iron fist of threats and
intimidation. Some of these pastors don't like to be involved in the
intimidation themselves so they leave it up to some of their deacons,
elders, associate pastors, or ministry representatives. 

Biblically-minded Christians are often completely astounded by how committed
the sheep will be to their cult-celebrity pastor. Even in the face of
irresponsible, immature, unethical and even illegal activities by the pastor
or ministry leader, the flock will passionately defend them with arguments
and excuses that are completely irrational as they disregard the truth that
stares them squarely in the face.

Those that question the pastor or ministry leader are guaranteed to be
admonished by him and his leadership team to cease their criticism or find
another church or ministry organization. Indeed this kind of control and
manipulation on the part of the leadership entangles many of the
church-goers or followers because they don't desire to give up their freedom
of speech, conscience or convictions. Neither, do they desire to leave the
church in which many of them were raised, married, dedicated their children
and even held funeral services for their parents and/or grandparents. The
church members indeed find themselves entangled by fear that the truth with
banish them from what they have come to love dearly - the church. 

4.      Financial Exploitation

Under the leadership of a cult-celebrity pastor, financial exploitation can
take on many forms. Many of these pastors financially exploit the church by
receiving salaries that are no where near the average salary of the
congregation, but are more consistent with the salary of a CEO running a
Fortune 500 company. I have read of pastors that receive salaries from their
church that range from $250,000 to $500,000 or more. 

I once asked a friend if it bothered him that it was reported that his
pastor was receiving a salary of $500,000. I was quickly and defensively
told that it not only did not bother him, but that his pastor deserved a
million dollars a year. 

Am I the only one that sees something wrong with pastors receiving $250,000
salaries or more here at the beginning of the 21st Century? Are these
individuals interested in being a pastor/shepherd or a CEO? 

The perks that many of these cult-celebrity pastors receive, in addition to
their salary, continues  the financial exploitation of the church, and its
members, that have given generously and sacrificial by doing without the
many materialistic things that are now enjoyed by their cult-like pastor. 

The financial exploitation can also include the pastor's strict demand that
church members tithe according to his standards in order to be in good
standing, hold positions of leadership within the church, or receive great
financial blessings from God.  

If any of these cult-like characteristics sound like your pastor, you might
want to pay close attention the next time your church observes the Lord's
Supper. When you receive that little plastic communion cup make sure it is
filled with grape juice and not Kool-Aid. 

The 4 characteristics of a cult were adapted from the following sources: (1)
The Marks of a Cult, Dave Breese; (2) "Roman
<http://www.rapidnet.com/%7Ejbeard/bdm/Cults/Catholicism/isitcult.htm>
Catholicism: Is It A Cult?," Media Spotlight, Albert James Dager; (3) What
They Believe, Harold J. Berry; (4) Cults and the Church of Christ, George
Faull and Brooks Alexander of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project; (5)
"Patterns in the <http://www.watchman.org/profile/patrnpro.htm>  Cults,"
Rick Branch (Watchman Fellowship Profile, 1994); and (6) Examining &
Exposing Cultic & Occultic Movements, Jack Sin, April 2000, pp. 14-16;
73-78.

Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com

Thanks.

Charis,

Mike Abendroth

 <http://www.bbcchurch.org> www.bbcchurch.org

2 Tim 1:2b  "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord."

"The typical modern Christian breastplate is a little paper bib.  Absolutely
useless!  It's made up of a system, or a method, or a program... 10 to 12
sessions with a counselor.  That's not what you need.  What you need is
about 10 or 12 hours in the presence of God until you sort out the unholy
characteristics in your life and get right with Him." John MacArthur, The
Believer's Armor, Study Notes. Eph. 6:10-24, pg. 33.

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