Kalafi Moala
The breaking news this week was about the fall from grace of a well-known spiritual leader, a man who founded one of the largest and fastest growing Evangelical Church movements in the world.
Brian Houston, 68, the leader of Hillsong Christian movement, has resigned and removed by His eldership from leadership, for what they call “breach of moral code of conduct for pastors.”
Houston was being investigated and found guilty of trying to hide the criminal activities of his father, Frank Houston, a well-known Assemblies of God pastor from Wellington, New Zealand. He was charged for sexual abuse of young boys at the church. This happened over a decade ago. The senior Houston has since died.
The elders of the church have also had to deal with complaints from two women, who claimed to have been “harassed” by Mr. Houston. One of the complaints referred to Houston sending “inappropriate” text messages to a staff member a decade ago.
The second incident is related to Mr. Houston going to a woman’s hotel room after a Hillsong conference in 2019. It was reported he had taken medication mixed with alcohol, and ended up in the woman’s room.
The Hillsong church in Sydney, Australia was founded by Mr. Houston in 1983, and since experienced an explosive growth with new churches started in different parts of the world with a weekly attendance of 150,000 in 25 countries.
Brian Houston’s net worth is estimated at $10 million.
The New York branch of the church was known for hosting a number of music celebrities, like Justin Bieber. But Bieber left after their popular pastor, Carl Lentze, was dismissed for inappropriate sexual relationships with several women.
In an emotional address to the church during an online service on Sunday, the elders of the church announced the fate of their pastor, that he has been removed from leadership.
“We as a leadership of Hillsong church have repentant hearts in this season,” the new interim global pastor Phil Dooley announced.
The impact of this incredibly damaging fall from grace of one of the most well-known and “successful” pastors in the world has shaken the faith of so many in Hillson, to say the least.
If there’s one thing at the outset to learn from this episode, there is no one that is safe from failure. When choices are made contrary to the character traits of the Almighty, even someone who is one of the spiritual leadership celebrities of our time, tragic failure is the result.
The burden of celebrity status
There is a curse, it seems, that comes with so-called leadership that holds the view they are special and significant to the point they demand unconditional commitment from followers, and undying adoration of their self-inflated egos.
This is the kind of leadership I am calling in this article “celebrity leadership”. These leaders view themselves as celebrity – or part of the elite group in any society that expect special rights due to their self-appointed celebrity status.
This is a trend that has washed up on the shores of our small country. Preachers, especially Pentecostal ones, have projected themselves more as celebrities rather than servants. They use TV, Radio, and Social Media to project images of themselves that have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God.
Several preachers go around and take pictures of themselves giving gifts to “poor people”; and record videos as they pray for the aged and sickly… with claims of healing. These are not for their personal records but to be shown on social media how they operate… as the celebrities of God.
The dictionary describes celebrity as “the state of being celebrated.” A celebrity is a person who is well known and gets a lot of public attention, or attention from other people.
The celebrity term is well used in the USA as referring to someone who is famous, well-known, or celebrated for something – an achievement in the field of sports, an actor who is popular, or anyone from any field of work (mostly in entertainment) that attracts exceptional attention.
There is nothing untoward or wrong about being celebrated in itself. Jesus of Nazareth was celebrated. After all, he fed 4,000 people in one place, and 5,000 in another, just with a few loaves of bread and fish. He also healed the sick and even raised the dead. Thousands followed him, even just to listen to his rare teaching.
But His celebrity status was not something he sought. People put it on him; they created the status. And they expected Him “to perform” according to their wishes and their perceived needs. They sang songs of praises to Him, but in the end when He did not live up to their expectations, they crucified Him.
Jesus never sought celebrity status; he never cared about people’s opinions of Him; His whole focus was not on Himself, but on doing the will of the Father! He cared for others far more than he cared for Himself. He lived for God and others!
For Jesus, even though others made him a celebrity (an idol), he denied that status, in order to take up his assigned status of being a servant.
Can we learn from failure?
What can we learn from the Houston debacle? And how can we rearrange our lives to escape the lure of celebrity status, and the problems that come with it?
We live in an age where popularity and “being liked” or thought of well especially by peers, have become the all-encompassing goal of many current or aspiring leaders.
Even ordinary practitioners of any profession normally have deep desires to rise in the ranks, and be celebrated as they reach the epitome of success in their profession.
But success and the celebrity status that comes with it can make one loose perspective, for it is when we focus too much on ourselves and on what we’ve done and can do, that we lose perspective.
It is not only a fundamental Biblical truth, but also a reality of life: pride comes before a fall. “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2).
The book of wisdoms declares: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” And it goes on: “Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.” (Proverbs 16: 18, 19)
It is pride that causes us to think we are better than others, that we look down on others, and put ourselves before others. It is being prideful of who we are, and what we can do, that will bring us down. God resists the pride, and He gives empowerment to the humble.
The temptations that come with celebrity leadership can allow one to feed on their egotistic demands, without consideration of moral right and wrong. Our focus gets blurred and we end up doing what is contrary to good moral values.
Pride puts our ego or self in the place of adoration and worship so that God and others are only there to serve our needs. But humility gives us a proper perspective of ourselves and the true purpose of life.
It is often in failure that we grow to be humble, and it is in humility that we learn to move on from failure. And who has not failed? Managing failures in our lives is the kind of stuff that makes great leaders. And great leaders are made, not born!
Pride hardens the heart in failure. In humility, we can learn from failure and grow!
END.