The Pastoral Mess of 2016

Great pastoral wisdom by James White.  Not everything that glitters is gold . . .

The headline for many for 2016 was that it was the year they couldn't wait to come to an end.

Depending on your view of things, the reasons seemed endless:

A ruthless political season, the deaths of many famed celebrities, mass shootings, racial division… and the list goes on.

But there was another reason for many to lament the past year: the crash and fall of pastor after pastor, many of them in the "celebrity" category. I won't name the names here – you probably know them – but you can read a sampling of those who come to mind here, here and here.

Most were young, relatively unmentored (or even unschooled) entrepreneurial church planters, rapidly platformed for being young, hip and "successful," and the "fruit" of their ministry was deemed an affirmation of their personal integrity and the worthiness of their platform.

Can anyone say, "trainwreck inevitable"?

It prompts me to suggest four truths, followed by four pleas.

First, the four truths:

Truth #1: Young and hip does not mean wise and insightful. It doesn't even mean you have the latest insights into how to be effective and relevant. In truth, it doesn't mean anything. Some of the most effective churches reaching Millennials and Generation Z are led by those in their fifties or even older. And their jeans aren't skinny. And those older, seasoned leaders are the ones who have true wisdom and maturity to bring to bear.

Truth #2: Numerical fruit is one of the weakest signs of a leader's walk with Christ, much less God's hand of anointing on an individual ministry. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control. It is not crowds and book deals, speaking engagements and followers on Twitter. God brings fruit because… well, God brings fruit. And it's often in spite of the leader's walk with Christ that He does it, not because of it. How else do you explain so many leaders of "successful" ministries being revealed for shadow lives?

Truth #3: Church planting in order to plant a church and extend the gospel to a fallen world is a good and noble thing; church planting to establish a platform for fame and fortune, acclaim and notoriety, is not. Even worse is when that church plant is designed to remove personal accountability, rather than provide it. Such self-created vehicles are destined to be driven into self-created ditches.

Truth #4: We are all sinners, but there is a difference between sin that we at least attempt to resist, and sin that is brazenly and unblushingly pursued and embraced. Even worse is when those in a position of leadership feel above the very teachings on sin that they propose to others.

Why propose these four truths? Because failing to embrace them has seemingly led to many of the downfalls among those leading churches.

With that being said, here are four pleas that might make 2017 a better year:

Plea #1: Please, can we slow down the platforming? Conference organizers seem more intent on getting the "next, next" person on their docket than whether that person has been tried and found worthy to be platformed. We are perpetuating the Christian "celebrity culture," and when it vomits on us through epic falls and fails, we have only ourselves to blame.

Plea #2: We must recapture the lost art of mentoring, and the lost value of being mentored. Church leaders should be apprenticed before assuming leadership. What that apprenticeship should entail can be a robust conversation, but that it should take place in some form or fashion should be without question. The danger of much church planting today is that young leaders can arbitrarily bypass any kind of preparation and simply create their own church/ministry and appoint themselves senior leader.

Plea #3: Church structure must provide accountability. While I am an advocate of creating church structures that release the gift of leadership (freeing it from the unnecessary constraints of bureaucracy), the current pattern seems to be creating – through church planting – structures that allow a leader to assume an unchallenged, unaccountable role that is autocratic, dictatorial and imperial.

Plea #4: We must regain the lost dynamic of repentance. We are all called to follow the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the truth of Scripture into repentance over sin. To repent is not simply to experience regret or even remorse. It is to enter into "metanoia" – the true turning from a course of action. This is when you realize what you've done, regret it, experience authentic remorse over it, and then seek to turn from it.

Granted, we all struggle with repetitive sin. This is not to diminish the scandalously inexhaustible depth of grace that God is only too willing to bestow upon those who continue to authentically confess that sin and seek forgiveness. But part of that confession must entail the commitment to repent, no matter how imperfect that might play out. What is perhaps most disturbing of the many stories of fallen leaders is how unrepentant they seemed to be as they engaged their double-life. There seemed to be more presumption regarding God than fear.

And perhaps that is what I feel seems to be missing most in so many leaders, and what I know needs continual cultivation in my own life: the healthy, grace-informed fear of the living God who will not be mocked.

Here's one pastor ready to renew and recommit himself to that bottom line so that 2017 won't be like 2016.

James Emery White

When the Popular Youth Pastor Gets Arrested Again

This analysis could describe some other mega ministries as well.  -David 

The city of Birmingham, Alabama, has been buzzing in recent weeks over the second arrest of the city's most well-known youth evangelist.  Matt Pitt, founder of The Basement, first ran afoul of the law in the early 2012 when he was arrested for impersonating a police officer while flashing blue lights at cars on the interstate. Pitt pled guilty and continued to lead his large ministry, which had as many as 7,000 in attendance at monthly gatherings, until a warrant was issued for his arrest two weeks ago. He was arrested again last week and now sits in jail for violating his probation. Why was he booked this time? He impersonated a police officer a second time, though in this case he flashed his honorary sheriff's badge at a concerned resident while telling him that he was police officer.

Until last year, the press for Matt Pitt, 30, had been overwhelmingly positive. His testimony began when he left college in 2004 because of a drug overdose. At the end of his rope, he cried out to God while lying on the floor of his parents' basement. Pitt says he is not exactly sure what happened in that moment, but he wanted his friends to experience the same thing. He met with a few friends in the basement of his parent's home for prayer and Bible study. Within a year, more than 100 cars lined the street as crowds worshiped in the basement of the Pitt's home. They later moved from church to church, only to find that they outgrew every venue. 

The Basement attracts teenagers with high-energy music, stirring dramas, and Pitt's rapid-fire style of preaching. He has described himself as "an ADD kid trying to reach an ADD generation." The crowds made him famous. He has been featured on CBN and TBN. The Basement moved to monthly meetings to accommodate Pitt's busy outside speaking schedule, and the crowd began meeting at one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in the United States, Church of the Highlands. They left that location in 2011 to meet in large civic venues in downtown Birmingham. So in a short period of time Matt Pitt went from praying with some guys in his basement to one of the nation's most prominent youth evangelists and then to being arrested twice in 18 months.

How Did This Happen?

As a pastor in the Birmingham suburbs, I have been drawn to this story. But my fascination has little to do with his arrests or the bizzare 12-minute local news station interview where he compared himself to Martin Luther King Jr. and accused the police of targeting him when he started reaching "black kids." Nor am I mostly intrigued by the drama of that same TV station reporting his parole violation to the police, who chased him down after he jumped off a 45-foot cliff. Instead, I want to know how we got here. How did this happen? 

Southern church culture, including Birmingham, celebrates nearly anyone who claims to reach teenagers. We often assume the inherent goodness of any ministry that draws large numbers. And we idolize reaching the next generation to the point that we largely ignore what we are winning them with and what we are winning them to. Despite warning signs, youth pastors continued to take busloads of teenagers to The Basement and Christian radio relentlessly promoted Pitt's meetings.

All the while The Basement's theology was largely ignored. Viewing the videos on The Basement's website reveals an exciting atmosphere that lacks substantial understanding of God as revealed in his Word. Pitt's sermons might have been "in your face," but they did not point teens to the Bible and the gospel message revealed in it. Much of the public also ignored the Bible's teaching about character in leaders because Pitt claimed to have a "calling" from God to lead this ministry. And who could question his results?

But internal calling is only part of what it means to be a gospel minister. The apostle Paul insisted that a man who would lead must not be a new convert. He knew young leaders can become puffed up with conceit and fall into the snare of the Devil. Unfortunately this concern seems to have been valid in the case of Pitt, as members of his board said he refused accountability as more mature men sought to mentor him.

Southern churches rightly desire to reach teenagers, as we should want to see every person in our region come to Christ. But this aim will not be accomplished with a more exciting atmosphere, louder music, and a central charismatic figure who can rouse teens. Churches would better reach the next generation if they emphasized compelling biblical preaching and intergenerational discipleship, and if they empowered parents to teach the gospel to their own children.

Our teenagers do not need someone who can put on a great show so much as they need people to love them, teach them, and model the Christian life for them. Such faithfulness would do more to grab the hearts of our teenagers than a large, loud event ever could.

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Editors' note: Learn more about the kind of churches we need in the American South when you attend Engage the South, an Acts 29 conference hosted in Birmingham by Beeson Divinity School and co-sponsored by The Gospel Coalition. This one-day event on September 24 features talks from Matt Chandler, David Platt, Bryan Loritts, Kevin Smith, and Ray Ortlund.

Scott Slayton is the lead pastor at Chelsea Village Baptist Church in Chelsea, Alabama. He graduated from the University of Mobile and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been married to Beth for ten years, and they have three daughters. He blogs on life, theology, the church, and mission at scottslayton.net.