Celebrity...

This topic has come up on a variety of occasions lately. A youth director from another church in the area was telling me that she polled her youth about what they want to be when they grow up. The kids overwhelmingly said, "Celebrities." She pushed them-- actors, pro athletes, politicians? No, celebrities like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richey. They want to be celebrities for the sake of being a celebrity.
And then I was talking to a friend who shared with me that she had a conversation with a pastor who informed her his way of growing his new church was to turn himself into a celebrity pastor. (How does one do that, I muse?) I wondered aloud if there was something you could get at the neighborhood Christian bookstore that, when taken twice daily with a meal, would turn you into a celebrity pastor.
And then in Kansas City, I had the chance to spend time with a couple of celebrity pastors and be at the church of another. For all the hype they receive, the ones we met were incredibly down-to-earth. And yet, at the same time, driven. I was thankful the celebrity status had not gone to their heads.
But it made me think...
There are some pastors out there who think the only way they are ever going to be validated is to become a celebrity pastor. There are some who can only look to celebrity pastors for inspiration. There are some who resent celebrity pastors because they do seem to get treated a little differently than the rest (for UMs, I'll talk specifically about this soon when I address itinerancy...).
What's become apparent to me is that our society has made it bad to be yourself. And that's precisely what I experienced of these celebrity pastors-- they were authentically themselves. It made me sad to think that folks might be chasing something they already have-- a createdness that could in fact be the difference they need as a spiritual leader.
While cliche, it is true in my book....celebrity is overrated....