Good posts on Armageddon, Jackson. Hagee, Jeffress, and the like create enormous problems for us church pastors because of the size of their influence. So many, so many, so many assume that because they write books and preach on TV then they must be right, true, and best. It's not just our preaching style, but our basic theology (especially about the End Times (TM)!) that is held up to the light against theirs.
They have created a brand around a dispensationalism; others create a brand around health and wealth; others over making people feel good or making them feel bad.
This is not sour grapes over the comparison, but an acknowledgement that what these guys do is not what actual pastors do. A pastor does not create a brand, but searches and teaches the whole counsel of God, humbly, proximately, in word, and deed, and sharing the ordinances, and living among, laughing and grieving and crying and challenging and apologizing and forgiving. When you do that - when you actually pastor - then you have no space for the hubris that forms personal brands.
Well stated, Dave. "Branding" is a good way to express the situation. The Apostle Paul's brand was "I determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
Good posts on Armageddon, Jackson. Hagee, Jeffress, and the like create enormous problems for us church pastors because of the size of their influence. So many, so many, so many assume that because they write books and preach on TV then they must be right, true, and best. It's not just our preaching style, but our basic theology (especially about the End Times (TM)!) that is held up to the light against theirs.
They have created a brand around a dispensationalism; others create a brand around health and wealth; others over making people feel good or making them feel bad.
This is not sour grapes over the comparison, but an acknowledgement that what these guys do is not what actual pastors do. A pastor does not create a brand, but searches and teaches the whole counsel of God, humbly, proximately, in word, and deed, and sharing the ordinances, and living among, laughing and grieving and crying and challenging and apologizing and forgiving. When you do that - when you actually pastor - then you have no space for the hubris that forms personal brands.
Well stated, Dave. "Branding" is a good way to express the situation. The Apostle Paul's brand was "I determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified."