The Rise and Fall of the Celebrity Preachers
MARK W. PFEIFER
My generation came of age at the height of televangelism. We were the first generation who had the opportunity to become celebrity preachers.
I was saved in 1980, started traveling on tour bus in 1981 in a singing group, made our first television appearance in 1982, went to college in 1983, got married in 1985, helped produced a weekly TV program in 1986, graduated from college and became a father in 1987, and published my first article in Billy Graham’s Decision Magazine in 1988.
Just in time for the Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals to burst on the scene, casting a shadow across the landscape of the church.
But it didn’t last long!
The American Christian Entertainment Complex was too strong and too far along at that point to get derailed by a temporary setback.
Through the formative years of my ministerial life, the possibility of signing a book deal, having a TV program, leading a mega-church and becoming a Christian celebrity was always in the forefront of a person’s mind. The church had changed over the last 25 years and my generation was poised to take advantage of it.
Sure, there were celebrity preachers before the 1970’s and 80’s. One could think of a string of famous preachers dating all the way back to the First Great Awakening when George Whitfield drew thousands of people to his meetings in the late Sixteenth Century.
But the advent of mass media with satellite and cable TV created a whole new genre of 24-hour Christian broadcasting that became a celebrity-making machine. This ushered in the Golden Age of Televangelism.
The rise of the "celebrity pastor" has become a defining feature of modern Christianity in America. With massive social media followings, bestselling books, and megachurch platforms, pastors wield significant influence. While their prominence can be used for good—spreading the gospel to wider audiences—there are serious dangers that come with a celebrity culture in the church.
And my generation come of age when it was in full swing!
Before, let’s say, 1980, the likelihood of a preacher becoming famous was remote. If you were called into ministry like my dad was in 1948, you understood that you were giving your life away to the Lord and His people. Back then, a person dedicated themselves to help shepherd Christ’s flock without much fanfare, sometimes in remote parts of the world where fame and fortune were an impossibility.
Although many of us started out with pure motives, the lure of the celebrity culture that exists ubiquitously in America, sang its siren’s song and we found ourselves dangerously adrift among the rocky shoals where so many ships have met their doom.
Reaching a personal breaking point in 1991, Nicki and I sold everything and moved to the small town in which we presently reside. We started a church with five people in a home and told our friends and family that we were “leaving professional ministry.”
At that time in our lives and in our marriage, Nicki and I decided that we would rather work “secular” jobs and teach people the Bible in the purity and simplicity of that living room than to continue chasing the kind of ministry that depends upon becoming a celebrity to succeed.
The ministry here has grown since then and we haven’t always done things right. But as I sit here this morning in the quietness of our home, surrounded by the sublime reminders of my family and friends, I can honestly say, for us, we did the right thing.
When I see so many Christian celebrities questioning their faith, getting divorced and remarried for the third or fourth time, having to answer for sexual misconduct, and their sad attempts at hanging onto dying fame in the wake of growing old and unwanted, I can’t thank God enough for the path He put Nicki and I on almost 35 years ago.
People wonder why there are so many scandals in the church these days. They wonder why their leaders are falling prey to seducing spirits and immorality. People wonder why pastor’s marriages are falling apart at an alarming rate and young worship leaders are deconstructing their faith.
Why?
Because the entertainment spirit, welcomed and accommodated in the sanctuaries of churches across America by leaders yearning celebrity status, is a trojan horse. Inside its devious belly lie all the trappings of Hollywood stardom – egotism, competition, manipulation, idolatry and immorality.
The moral problems that have plagued Hollywood for decades have now come home to roost in the church.
Many leaders, it seems, are more concerned with their online presence and social media followings than they are their marriages, families, personal integrity, holiness and the congregations they are responsible for serving.
Even though TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and podcasts have largely replaced Christian TV as the preferred delivery system of our messages, the motive for many is still the same – create a fanbase, become famous and fulfill my dreams at other people’s expense.
I don’t know where all of this is going to take the church in America. I don’t know how many more Christian leaders are going to experience a moral failure. I don’t know if the Celebrity Culture in the church will ever totally disappear.
Probably not.
So long as people are willing to worship golden calves, there will be a slew of Aaron’s willing to make them!
But I’m hopeful!
I truly believe there is a generation arising that will return us to true ministry.
✅ What this looks like is a company of leaders who are more concerned about the dreams of their followers than using people to fulfill their own dreams.
✅ It looks like true spiritual parents who celebrate the success of their spiritual children more than celebrating their own success.
✅ It looks like good shepherds who will give their lives for the benefit of the sheep.
✅ It looks like leaders who are more concerned about people then they are their own popularity, fame and celebrity.
✅ It looks like Moses and Joshua and David and Daniel and Nehemiah and Paul.
✅ And it looks like Christ.
With a cross.
Giving His life for His sheep.
May we all follow suit!
THE END