CELEBRITIES AND STARS- A WORRYING TREND IN THE CHURCH

“The English word celebrity derives from the Latin word celebrer, “to frequent” and more remotely from the Latin celer, “to hasten.” The desire for celebrity is, at its heart, the desire of a person to be “frequented”—to turn heads and command the notice of others. To become a celebrity is simply to succeed in being noticed regularly.” (http://dbts.edu/blog/author/msnoeberger/).

We are living in a time of celebrities, superstars and heroes. And it seems the world is divided into two categorizes the celebrities/superstars and those who want/claim to be associated with them. Stardom comes in different ways there are those who are specially gifted (athletes, speakers, musicians, actors etc.) and there are those who have achieved something great (i.e. Mandela, Thomas Edison) but there are yet those who either have LOTS of money (i.e. Carlos Slim, Bill Gates) or hold a public role or office (i.e. Queen Elizabeth, Barak Obama). Those of us who fail to make it in the above categorizes will often try our best to tick in at least one box and when all else fails then we try as much as possible to get associated with the people who are stars. Everyone wants to be noticed and everyone wants to be heard. No wonder we are obsessed with how many people are following us on social media or how many likes and comments we get on our Facebook statues or how many compliments we get about our achievements. The cult hero syndrome is here to stay!

Sadly this is true even in churches and among Christians and pastors! Ministers of the gospel are becoming stars and celebrities at an alarming rate. With the rise of social media we are daily trumpeting our achievements and marketing ourselves (like products). What is even more worrying is how that it is often about our success; how many people came, what we did, the buildings, how well we are doing, how many people follow us etc. Meanwhile the rest of us are busy trying to get as close as we can to them (superstars or wanna be celebrities) and are eager to show or prove our closeness to them and how that they recognise us and they know us and we actually have personal relationships with them. In extreme situations they have become the rule of faith and practice. How often do we refer to some celebrity rather than the bible when discussing how God wants us to live, serve and function as a church? (Am sure you have got my point!)

I think it is important for me to say that I am not saying social media is sin or evil. It is in fact a powerful to share the gospel and further the kingdom of God. I thank God for social media. More often than not I find myself checking my motivates and asking why am doing what am doing and checking if I am not simply looking for the praise of men and seeking to puff myself or up lift my image. Paul and John the Baptist were men who had every reason to boast and glory in their influence and success. If they lived in our days they would be great celebrities, they would have millions of followers yet their attitude was anything but that of stars and we can learn from them.

Paul tells the Corinthians; for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake… But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. And who can forget the humbling words of John the Baptist when answered; the one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease."

SIX THINGS THAT OFTEN BECOME IDOLS- PART 2

last week i proposed that there are six things that often become idols in our lives and we looked at three of them. Here is the second set of potential idols in our lives.

WORK

In line with the love of money is that of work. Some people are workaholics and pride themselves in it. They dream, breath and live work. Now we are supposed to work and do so with excellence, in fact the bible tell us that whatever our heart finds to do we should do it mightily as unto the Lord. Laziness is sin! My concern however is when work takes first priority in our lives and we begin to neglect other important responsibilities such as our worship of God and fellowship with other believers, (Hebrews 10:24-25), playing our role in the building of other believers (Ephesians 4:12-16) and spreading of the gospel to the lost (Matt 20:18-20) these thing s are the reason we exist and it is important to note that God has placed us in our work places so that we might be light. The other responsibility that suffers when idolize work is that of family. When your family is suffering or been neglected because of work then you are not glorifying God. Either you are outside his will or you have misplaced priorities.

CHURCH AND MINISTRIES

This must come as a shock to some, but sadly church and our ministries can easily become idols. It is very possible to love and be dedicated to your church and not be dedicated to the God of the church just as it is possible to be devoted to the bible but not the God of the bible. There are people who love their churches and will give their all to what the church does and its programs yet are totally far away from God. To them the church is just like a club that they are a part of and pay subscription fee. They are willing to defend the church and its confession of faith but yet their faith is not in God. They adore and revere their pastors but have no regard or fear for God. The same can be said about our ministries. We can easily be intoxicated with praise, our ability, our sense of importance and success. At the very core of sin is man’s desire to be on the throne and we seek to build our little empires through the ministries we have regards of the type or size. This is nothing but idolism! I am not in any way saying we should not be committed to the church and our ministries, but we should constantly examine our motives.  

FAMILY

I am a newlywed, so we are a family of two! I love Kunda (my wife) and my love for her keeps growing, but I constantly have to check that I do not love her more than I love God. And the same can be said of the rest of my family. My love for them should not rival my love for God. The moment anyone of them becomes the center of my affection and my life, they have just turned into an idol. Jesus’ answer to the lawyer about what the greatest commandment is should be instructive to us. He said the first is Love the lord your God with your entire mind, heart, strength and soul and the second is likewise, love your neighbor as yourself. Reversing that order is takes God off his throne! And someone has observed your horizontal relationships (with people) will not be healthy if you do not have a healthy vertical relationship (with God).

Exodus 20:2-5 says you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.

SIX THINGS THAT OFTEN BECOME IDOLS- PART 1

Exodus 20:2-5 says you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me. Idolatry often sounds like an ancient sin, we normally think it was for the primitive people who carved images for themselves and offered worship. However there are several ways in which we idea worship in the 21^st century. In fact I would argue that we are the most idolatrous generation in history. There are several things that often take God’s place in our world today and some of them are good things.

GADGETS

They say people (men really) do not grow; it’s just their toys that get bigger! And I would add more sophisticated. Gadgets in and of themselves are good. Be it cars, phones, laptops, I pads, cameras and all those dangerous things ladies use to beautify themselves, the list is really endless! All these things make life easier and help us become more efficient. They are meant to serve us and help us. However most times we are enslaved to these gadgets and they become our masters. They become the center of our attention, we spend more money on them than we are willing to offer to God’s work and suddenly it feels like we cannot live without them. Sooner or later we find ourselves obsessed with the latest of everything and the need to update and be ahead of others.

ENTERTAINMENT

I love to be entertained! I mean who doesn't? Either via sports, music or movies there is nothing like good entertainment. The just ended world cup in Brazil was simply glorious! And I must confess it left me a bit depressed. It is however alarming how easily we get griped by different forms of entertainments from that captivating series (Jack Bauer!!!), to the soothing captivating music group and not forgetting sports (yes there is nothing captivating about cricket but for the sake of the weaker brethren ). There are times I seem to be way more devoted to my entertainment than I am to my God, I will sacrifice my money, my time and even my energy just to get the desired entertainment. If only we were ready to give the same level of sacrifice to the work God.

MONEY

The love of money is the root of all evil the bible says. There is nothing wrong with making money and working hard to make money, in fact the bible urges us to work hard and invest wisely. The problem comes in when that is all you live for. It is worrying how people’s joy and happiness is determined by how much money they are making, when the money dries up the joy is sucked out of them. Success is equated to how much you make and the size of your bank account. It is no wonder that rich people turn to be the hardest people to reach out to cause money is their god. The Lord warned that you cannot serve money and God. You will love one and disregard the other. It is sad to see people make career decision solely based on how much they will make even at the expense of their spiritual well-being.

WE MUST LOVE HOMOSEXUALS

Homosexuality has become a hot topic in Zambia and it seems to generate interest by the day. And as much as the” Church” and Christians would like to deny it, this is a real issue even among Christians and many people in our communities are embracing homosexuality and are slowly becoming vocal in support of it. However homosexuality is still more than a sin and in our culture it is a taboo, an abomination. Those who commit such sin are outcasts who ought to be rid of by the most shaming way possible, as it is believed there is no room for them in our societies. I am however convinced that such an attitude is not biblical from Christians. We must show love to homosexuals.

Now before you pull your trigger, I am not in any way tolerating or supporting the sin of homosexuality. The fact that it is sin it is very clearly stated in the scriptures. The Sodomites were judged for it (Gen 19), 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 to 10 says “men who practice homosexuality will not inherit the kingdom of God” and Romans 1:24-32 says homosexuality is in fact as a result of God’s judgment on people who deny Him and His revealed truth and he gives them up to their passions that they forsake natural relations and end up in homosexuality. Homosexuality is a sin and those who embrace it and believe in God’s solution for their sins will not be found in God’s kingdom. What these people really need is the gospel, preached to them by people who care for the well-being of their souls, people who will plead with them to look to Jesus and live.

Why is it that this particular sin is drawing so much attention? Why are people not talking about theft or adultery? There are two reasons why homosexuality is drawing so much attention. The first is that it is unnatural, it is not the order of creation and hence the reason why it is a taboo in most cultures. The second reason is the publicity it is coming with. A lot of high profile people, countries and organizations are pushing that it should be accepted as a way of life. The amount of pressure and aggression applied by these people has really thrown homosexuality into the lime light. Such that there are two camps formed, those who support homosexuals and those who hate them.

And most Christians fall in the latter group.  That is not the biblical way however. Whereas Christians should not embrace homosexual practice they should not look down in disdain either. They should love enough to point out the sin and also share the grace of God through Jesus Christ. They plead with them earnestly and plead with them gently and tell the poor wanderers, Jesus is merciful, and Jesus will save. That, dear friend is the right attitude from a person who has experienced the grace of God. You realize you were also dead in your sins but God in grace lifted you up from the miry clay and set you on a rock. You do not then turn and look down those still hopelessly stuck in the clay, you lovingly point them to Jesus. Yes even homosexuals!

AFRICA, THE WORLD CUP AND THE GLORY OF GOD

I would be shocked if there was an individual who does not know that it is time for the biggest tournament in the sporting calendar- the world cup!!! The fact that it is in the spiritual home of football makes it all the more a great spectacle. As a soccer fan I am impressed by the football that is been displayed, entertaining, exciting, and attacking with lots of flare. No wonder the goals keeping coming, all I can say is more of the same.

And just like any other world cup our African teams have failed to match up to the standards, organization, and professionalism and indeed efficiency of the other teams. Such that our dream of seeing an African team break into the semi-final was dashed in the first round of knock outs. The stats do not make for pleasant reading. The five African representatives played 15 games in the group stages and only managed to win 3. They lost 9 and conceded 28 goals while scoring 18. Clearly you cannot progress with such stats.

However, it is not the football that bothers me, because quite frankly I never expect African teams to excel at the world cup. It is the level of disorganization and lack of professionalism coupled with petty politics that breaks my heart. Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon all went on strike either before or during the tournament due to lack of payments or disagreement on the amounts. We are not talking about a small by the way tournament, it is the world cup and people know way in advance if they are going to be part of the tournament, so what is the problem? It is clearly not a lack of money because they are paid after going striking. Ghana had to send an entire plane just take hard cash for the boycotting players. Furthermore we heard of players assaulting officials, swearing at coaches, fighting with each other and now some are being investigated for match fixing.

Now I am not in any way saying all these things are unique to Africans for they are definitely global and are due to our sinful nature. But the disorganization and lack of professionalism is a real problem on our continent and not just in football but many areas of life. It seems to be common practice not to do things well. We are normally not ready for meetings, we are often late, and people want to be cranked to carry out their responsibilities. It is almost as though we are allergic to excellence and therefore we try our best to not do things well.

It is not only in the area of organization where we struggle but also in being professional.  A simple definition of a professional is a person having impressive competence in a particular activity. I understand over generalizations can be dangerous but you will agree with me that a lot of people appear misplaced and frustrated. Hence service delivery and production is way below par.

Sadly this attitude seems to be no different with us Christians. In fact in some cases we appear more disorganized and very unprofessional in the way we do things. All you have to do is compare the music of non-Christians with that of some of our Christian gospel musicians and my point will be very clear. Shouldn't spiritual things be done without a level of excellence?  Shouldn't Christians follow the example of their creator who said of everything he did, that it was good? Christians ought to be different. The labor of our hands should be excellent, it should be worthy of praise because whatever we do is to the glory of God (1Cor 10:31) and whatever our hands find to do we should do it heartily as to the Lord (Col 3:23-24)