Why Celebrity Pastors Deserve Less Honor

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. - 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

A friend recently told me something with which I strongly agree: “We honor all the wrong men”. While it is true that we ought to esteem “those who labor among us” very highly, it is far too common that many Christians highly esteem those that do not labor among them – usually celebrity pastors, online Christian influencers and leaders of large churches. The difference is big. 

Not long ago, this trend became personal. An individual in our church plainly told a group of our elders that he did not respect our church’s leadership. The reason he gave was that our church was neither large enough nor did it offer the requisite ministries that would deserve his admiration.

Putting aside the fact that a church’s size and its ministries tell you very little about the character of its leaders, this individual’s comments were especially baffling due to some highly visible moral failures at several large local churches. More importantly, this individual’s standards for admiration are woefully unbiblical.

Contrast this with the writer of Hebrews, who zeroes in on a better criterion for giving honor to spiritual leaders.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. - Hebrews 13:7

While this text likely has former leaders – perhaps recently deceased leaders – in mind, the standard is still sufficiently informative for who we ought to highly esteem and how we honor such men.

Who ought we highly esteem?

1. “Those who spoke to you the word of God”

One of the primary roles for church elders is to carry on the apostolic tradition of ministering the word of God and prayer (Acts 6:4). Therefore, it should be of no surprise that the writer of Hebrews cites the speaking of the Gospel word as a foundational standard for showing honor.

In our digital age, however, we have quick access to countless Christian leaders that speak the Gospel word, often clearly and compellingly. It is therefore not surprising that many Christians choose some of the most magnetic personalities to lead them from afar. But the Hebrews text has something else in mind.

The text says to “remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God” (emphasis mine). If your local church leaders faithfully speak the Gospel word to you on a regular basis, they are doing their job and ought to be the rightful, primary recipients of your high esteem.

2. Those whose life outcomes are commendable

This second criterion should be unsurprising. The apostle Paul urges his protégé, Timothy, to “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching” (1 Tim 4:16), and goes on to say, “Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers”. Teaching sound doctrine is not enough. Paul is reminding Timothy (and us) that a pastor’s life needs to be consistent with the Gospel he preaches.

When a leader persists in applying his own teaching to his own way of life, his life will usually bear good fruit. Is the pastor’s household in order? Does his wife reflect a woman that has been “washed in the word” (Ephesians 5:26). Do his children obey him? Are his children believers? If his children are adults, are they still following the Lord? Do his adult children marry spouses that love and pursue the Lord?

Many more questions could be asked, but the point is this: It is good to highly esteem those who show a propensity for producing consistently good fruit from their manner of life. Unfortunately, this is an area where many celebrity pastors and Christian influencers show their greatest flaws. And even if they aren’t flawed in this area, knowing whether or not they live godly lives outside of the public eye is almost impossible from a distance. But if your local church leaders, whose lives and whose families demonstrate consistent godliness, you should highly esteem them.

And how ought we esteem such leaders?

1. Remember them:

The idea here is simple:  We honor our leaders by directing our thoughts to them. If they have faithfully led us with regular doses from the Word of God, we should be mindful of them. After all, the Lord has entrusted such men with the care of our souls (Hebrews 13:17). 

Perhaps, rather than spending extra time listening to sermons from our favorite celebrity pastors, our time would be better spent relistening to our local leaders as they sought to bring the word of God in a way that would apply more specifically to us, and feed our souls with Scripture in areas we need. And maybe such remembrance should also increase our level of prayer for them too.

2. Consider their outcomes:

Again, while this text is likely addressing the end results of prior leaders’ manner of life, we can still apply the principle to current leaders. The idea is to pay particular attention to the observable good fruits of a church leader’s life. How did they get there? What did they do? Good outcomes to a pastor’s life should stir us to curiosity. However, with current leaders, we need not guess; we can ask them.

One of my greatest joys as a pastor is offering biblically informed, life-tested wisdom to church members that show a genuine desire to grow in Christlikeness. Unfortunately, such curiosity has become increasingly rare in recent days.

Over the past five years, I’ve noticed a significant drop in church members seeking biblical counsel. Curiously, this drop in seeking pastoral counsel corresponds to an uptick in people bringing "concerns". Of course justifiable concerns are welcome, but the rise of such concerns combined with a decrease of counsel-seeking is worrying.

Whether it’s the quick access to an avalanche of online resources or the increased distrust of authority, many Christians are foregoing one of the better resources for biblical wisdom. Chances are that your church leaders are eager to receive your curious inquiries. If the outcomes of your leaders’ lives are commendable, honor them by asking for specifics of how they got there.

3. Imitate their faith:

The idea here is to literally mimic or follow in the footsteps of your pastor’s faith. The Apostle Paul boldly urged his churches to imitate him (Philippians 3:17). In Hebrews 13:17, the writer says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account…”. There is very little that gives a pastor more joy than to watch a parishioner obey his counsel, imitate his own faith and thrive.

On the other hand, one of the most disappointing experiences for a church leader is watching one of his flock ignore such counsel and reap the consequences. Thus, the back half of Hebrews 13:7, “…Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

In conclusion, consider what would happen if a church’s members would regularly seek and heed their local pastors’ scripturally informed, life-tested wisdom. The character of such a church would change dramatically over the course of time. Such a change would be a potent demonstration of Ephesians 4:11-13 in action, seeing the equipping of the "saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”.

While the size and programs of a church reveal little about its leaders' character, choosing to honor the right men will shape a congregation. The transformed lives of such a body speaks volumes about the true strength of the church.