My Pastor, The Rock Star

We’ve been attending a really big church since we moved here last summer, and it’s been a good experience for us. We’ve been able to see some of the pros and cons of the mega-church culture firsthand. The most negative aspect for us has been our inability to connect to a smaller and more personal community within the church. It’s difficult to get to know people in a church of over 8,000 in attendance. I don’t want to blame this all on the stereotypical “mega-church” problem. They really do try hard to get people connected. Part of our inability to connect is due to the limited amount of time we will be staying in Lexington and our realization that most relationships we have here will be temporary. We could have done a lot more to get to know people in the church, but we’ve failed to make much effort. Plus, we have some good friends at the seminary, so we have even less motivation to get connected at church.

For me, the best part of our church has been the ministry of our senior pastor. It’s been an excellent experience watching his ministry over the past year. I have learned so much from him, and I have grown to deeply respect him as a minister and as a person. He’s only about five years older than I am, but I see in him that kind of man that I want to become. He exudes passion and excellence in his ministry, and he does so with a spirit of humility and grace. He is a great leader, but he seems to be more defined by his love for Jesus than his need for power. He has been a great example for me and has revitalized my desire to be in ministry.

The weird thing about this is that I don’t know him, so he feels more like a rock star to me than a pastor. Despite not knowing him, I really do care about the guy. He’s told several stories in his sermons about people attend the church that run into him in the city, and they will do things like come up to him and hug him in the middle of a grocery store, even though he doesn’t know them…..and the strange thing is, I know why they do it! I’ve never loved someone so much whom I’ve never met. I think for the first time I understand how people can become infatuated with famous people. There is something about the celebrity that inspires the fan, and the fan ends up feeling close to the celebrity, without knowing the celebrity.

The public nature of ministry, leads people to think they know the minister better than they really do. This puts a lot of responsibility on the part of the minister, but it also gives him the chance to influence their lives in more ways than he could ever realize. Even when I served at a church with only 225 attendees, I remember feeling strange at times because some people whom I had only met once or twice treated me like I was their long-lost son or their best friend. It always felt odd to me. I didn’t know why they treated me that way, nor did I realize the kind of influence they were allowing me to have in their life. After attending our current church for a year and loving my pastor the way I do, I think I now understand.