Granted, churches can\u2019t control whether church members find a pastor attractive. Physical appearance aside, power, talent and money \u2014 all of which can come with a megachurch pastorate \u2014 are pretty intoxicating, too. What churches can control, or at least monitor and scan for in hiring decisions, is whether a pastor clearly wants to be found desirable. Professor and author Alan Noble said it well, that he can tell when \u201cministers desire to be desired. \u2026 The way the person carries themself, dresses, speaks, gestures, and posts images signal to me that the(y) desire other people to desire them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This desire is at the heart of the hot pastor formula. Megachurches recruit spiritual leaders who are designed to be found desirable by congregants. Their mission becomes bound up in their need to fill their ego, a need to be loved and desired. <\/p>\n
Christian humility is about forgetting oneself. \u201cTrue gospel humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself,\u201d writes the Presbyterian minister Timothy Keller, who has planted several successful churches in New York himself. \u201cIn fact, I stop thinking about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard for anyone standing under the bright lights of a megachurch stage to forget about themselves. Maybe the problem isn\u2019t the hot pastors like Lentz but a toxic megachurch culture that makes narcissism a prerequisite.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n In light of the news of Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz's marital infidelity, I wrote for @RNS<\/a> about the problem with hot pastors, and the double standards applied to church conversations about modesty. https:\/\/t.co\/CUOKiqDfOC<\/a><\/p>\n — Katelyn Beaty (@KatelynBeaty) November 19, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n