FINE TUNED STRINGS thoughts. ramblings.

Christian celebrities are an oxymoron in every sense of the word. The word Christian is used three times in New Testament (Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). Followers of Jesus Christ were first called “Christians” in Antioch (Acts 11:26) because they chose to act in a manner unlike any other; like Christ. In its original context, “Christian” was used in contempt rather than praise. The dictionary however defines a celebrity as a famous person, or the state of being well known. A celebrity is famous for who THEY are and what THEY do. A Christian serves a famous GOD, and lives to please Him. Jesus set the perfect example in John 6:15, where he sensed the people’s desire to make Him king, and He departed to the mountains alone.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for giving respect where respect is due. Men and women of God invest tears, countless hours, their time, heart and soul to achieve Kingdom feats. That deserves all our respect, but things start going wrong when we start treating them as celebrities. They are only human, and in doing so, notions of self-achievement and grandeur begin to develop. We have witnessed many influential men and women of God fall from grace after being set so high not necessarily by themselves, but by us. We do this a lot with pastors, leaders and worship leaders and it is WRONG! Regrettably, this has started to generate a negative trend wherein serving Christians aim for a status rather than exemplifying servanthood.  The focus begins to shift from Christ to imperfect human beings, and an unhealthy following of a single person ensues. Let us be careful to treat men and women of God with the utmost respect without crossing into stardom. We create such elephants in the pew, and then point fingers.

If you serve the Kingdom of God, do so humbly and faithfully. It is all for the sake of the Cross. Pride goes before a fall. Let us strive to keep the focus on Christ and His cross. Everyone else is simply just a carrier of that message. Christian celebrities are an oxymoron. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.