Don’t Idolize Your Leaders
First, let me take a moment to thank you all for reading my previous post on the changes at Liberty. The fact that 600+ people have taken the time to read my words means so much to me. Thank you!
Don’t idolize people.
Ever.
People mess up. People will fail you.
Don’t idolize Billy Graham. Don’t idolize Tim Tebow. Don’t idolize the Republican nominee. Don’t idolize Obama. Don’t idolize Stephen Harper. Don’t idolize John Piper, Francis Chan, Alistair Begg, Joel Osteen, or any notable pastor.
Don’t idolize Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, Emma Stone, or any other movie/music stars.
Don’t idolize your favourite sports team or athletes.
Don’t idolize your significant other.
Don’t idolize your pastor.
Don’t idolize Johnnie Moore, Justin Kintzel, or President Jerry Falwell.
Also, don't idolize dead humans like Ronald Reagan, C.S. Lewis, or A.W. Tozer, either.
Don’t idolize people.
They're sinners. They've messed up. They've done things they aren't proud of. Things, that to this day, they are ashamed and embarrassed about.
Your idolatry will destroy them and limit their impact for the Kingdom of God.
Remember that the goal of every Christian leader should be to point others towards Christ.
As Christians, when we reduce Christianity to our favorite speakers or worship leaders we’ve missed the whole point. Those gifted leaders are not in their position for their own benefit. They have felt called by God to do what they're doing. They should not want us to be their biggest fans - they want you to be pointed to Christ. They want you to be Christ’s biggest fan. They should never be focused on being well known. They want to make Jesus known!
When you idolize your leaders and say things like this,
"Justin Kintzel was the only person who could lead me to worship Christ."
"Justin Kintzel/Johnnie Moore were the only people who can lead Convo. I don't want to go anymore now that they're gone."
When you say those things you are placing those people above the One who created them and blessed them with the talents they possess.
One thing that I know is that no matter how talented or smart a person is - they are absolutely nothing but instruments of the Almighty and should not be placed above Him. He has blessed them with their gifts and talents. God can take those gifts and talents away at any moment.
By idolizing someone, you are placing a TON of pressure on them. I would hate to have that kind of pressure to maintain a certain level of perfection in order to please everyone else. I place too much pressure on myself as it is. Would you want that added pressure on yourself? I think it’s safe to assume you would not.
Please, by all means keep honouring, loving, respecting, and learning from your leaders, but don’t idolize them. Doing so keeps you from seeing the reason for their existence - to bring Glory and Honour to our heavenly Father.
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