During World War II, C.S. Lewis, Oxford professor and later writer of the Narnia stories, had become a forceful spokesman for Christianity. Apart from broadcasting on BBC radio, he was also invited to speak at many RAF stations.
These talks proved very popular. Hearing of this, a US Air Force chaplain travelled to Oxford to ask Lewis to speak at his base. He knocked on the door of Lewis’s study during a tutorial. Lewis graciously got out his diary and standing at the door they negotiated a date. But then the chaplain said something like: ‘You’re becoming really famous, Mr. Lewis, and a name like yours will draw a big crowd’. Lewis winced, put a line through the date and closed the door. He cancelled.1
Over-reaction?
You might think that Lewis’s reaction was rather extreme. But the apostle Paul probably would not. According to 1 Corinthians 3, setting up a Christian speaker as a celebrity is dangerous and a sign of horrifying spiritual immaturity. In the context of ‘church celebrities’ Paul writes, ‘Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly — mere infants in Christ... For when one says, “I follow Paul”, and another, “I follow Apollos”, are you not mere men?’ (vv.1-4). These ‘celebrity cults’ within the church were causing quarrels and tremendous damage (1.11,12). Yet, aping 21st-century ‘celeb’ culture, we seem to be quite at home with lionising individuals in the church today. ‘Who’s speaking at that conference?’ ‘O is he! He’s great!’ we say. Really? (We do the same for Christian bands and worship leaders too.)
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …