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This is also a time to recognize that the visible church matters, polity (accountability) matters, doctrine matters, and all these matter bec the sheep matter. All these were neglected in the rise of HBC/MacDonald.
Discoll, HBC/MacDonald are a symptom. Julie is right about tbe evangelical machine. That it took a shock jock on WLS to bring him down is telling. It took someone with a lawyer & a bigger platform.
Look, Big Eva is (relatively) Big Business. Sundays are a show. They’re selling a product. You are the mark(et).
There is an alternative. Laugh at the NAPARC churches if you will but most of our pastors are anonymous and intentionally so. It’s not about them.
There is an alternative. Laugh at the NAPARC churches if you will but most of our pastors are anonymous and intentionally so. It’s not about them.
The typical NAPARC congregation is 100 members or fewer. The minister is just that, a servant. He serves Christ. He serves the Word and sacraments. He’s not a rock star. There are no blue flood lights. He’s not prancing on a stage.
The typical NAPARC minister went to a real seminary, where he struggled to learn Greek and Hebrew, theology, history, in order to be a faithful servant of the Word. He’s prepared and willing to visit your house and to see you in the hospital or nursing home.
Your typical mega-church star (or wannabe) thinks of himself as a CEO. To him You aren’t one of Christ’s little ones. This is why the metaphor of “rancher” (vs. pastor/shepherd) is so important. He’s not in your house (except for the “big ask”), hospital room, or nursing home.
After Driscoll and now MacDonald, we should all think carefully about those groups and celebrities that elevated and promoted them. Just like Driscoll, MacDonald will be back. He’ll move. He’ll re-brand (Driscoll is now Pentecostal and a fave of Charisma Mag).
People will show up. They are drawn to the Osteens, the Tullians, the Driscolls, and the MacDonalds. They love the show, having a “celebrity pastor.” It buoys their self-esteem and the celebrities know it. They brand themselves and sell their “brand” to “the market.”
They know that they are asking (and persuading) people to identify with “their brand.” It’s an image, a style. After MacDonald, there will be someone else. That’s a major part of the story of American Christianity since the early 18th century.
One can tell the overarching story by telling the story of this celebrity pastor (e.g., Whitefield, Edwards, the Wesleys), and that celebrity preacher (Finney et al in the 19th century) followed by Moody, followed by Billy Sunday, then Billy Graham.
Episcopacy is nature; Presbyterianism is grace. What I mean is that most businesses are essentially episcopal in structure, they are hierarchical. Presbyterian/Reformed is essentially a series of committees. No one in their right mind wants to run a business by committee.
Why not? It’s painfully slow and inefficient. That’s by design. People get run over in “efficient” organizations. The church is not meant to be “efficient” or “successful.” The church is meant to be FAITHFUL, TRUE, and GRACIOUS (not yelling, just emphasizing).
Yet we reward the “successful” (i.e., entrepreneurial) guys who “meet the quarterly goals” or whatever. Some church “staff meetings” are like radio station sales meetings. It’s essentially the same thing just a different product. That’s not Christianity.
At the heart of the Christian message is the proclamation of God the Son incarnate who “failed” the revolutionaries and powerful and who was crucified for it. “Success” is a theology of glory. Christianity, however, is a theology of the cross.
Does your pastor know your name? Has he ever been in your house to pray with you, to visit with you or is the church too big and he too “busy” (being “successful”)?
Calvin (probably did too much, granted) preached weekly, lectured, taught catechism to the children, taught weekly Bible studies, counseled members, and attended consistory meetings. We’re still reading his work. We won’t be reading MacDonald or Driscoll 450 years later.
The Website for “The Elephant Room” is gone. The last version I can find on The Wayback Machine (27 July 2016) features this: 
Remember this? christianitytoday.com/news/2012/febr…
Not saying that the NAPARC churches have everything together. Not at all. We’ve had scandals (but no one outside NAPARC notices much). Am saying that committees (consistories/sessions, classes/presbyteries, synods/GAs) are inherently superior to ersatz local episcopacies.
What hath Reformed theology to do with modalism and “the prosperity gospel?” (Nothing!)
Here’s an interview with @nocoradio’s Mike Abendroth, Carl Trueman et al on The Elephant Room
vimeo.com/47844054
vimeo.com/47844054
