CHARISMATIC 'SUPERSTAR' SYNDROME - BY ANDREW ANAISIE YARQUAH

Pastor Andrew Anaisie Yarquah

In recent years we've had the unpleasant news of charismatic and evangelical superstar pastor's (authors and popular speakers) who have fallen off their pedestal—if not completely at least partially and with a loud noise. As always when this happens, their followers and fans are divided. Some support them almost unconditionally while others accuse them of spiritual abuse, abuse of power and various misdeeds. It goes viral. Most times, unfortunately, the national secular media and tabloids carry the news on their front page . I assume that’s because there’s always a sex scandal to feast on. (In my opinion Ghana's secular media exudes a rare combination of prurience and Puritanism.)
I’m not interested in delving into all the charges against these pastor's (whom Christianity Today describes as “Pastor Provocateur”). I’m not close enough to their situation even to form an opinion other than to say a significant number of their former friends and colleagues in ministry (elders of their church) departed and went public with accusations and charges of misconduct. The situation was severe enough that the pastors in question always had to take a leave of absence from the church and ministry they built up to mega-status.

Anyone who has been around in Ghana's charismatic and evangelical life for these past years can recall so many charismatic superstar pastors and prophets who fell off their pedestals with a thunderous crash. Sometimes the thunder is only local; sometimes its echoes and shock waves spread out nationally and even internationally. But it always leaves behind disillusionment and confusion.
Our tendency is always to point our accusing fingers at the minister who fell. He (it’s almost always a he) let us down, betrayed us, humiliated us (for being his fans), besmirched the reputation of charismatism. That’s understandable.

However, my concern is that we charismatics (and others) have not taken a deeper look into the causes of this pattern. Why does this happen so often? Could we have met the enemy and discovered it’s us—as much as the persons who fell?

Here’s my diagnosis and prescription for this chronic problem.
I believe we tend to put too much trust in mere mortals once they attain a certain crucial level of ministry “stardom.” We want to believe there are men who rise above the temptations and sins the rest of us face and fall into. We want to believe in near, if not total, Christian perfection. So we gradually allow, even encourage, lack of accountability. “That person,” we think, “is so close to God he doesn’t need to be accountable to mere mortals like us.” Gradually these charismatic superheroes, with their inevitable feet of clay (that we try to ignore), fall—partly because they are mere mortals and power corrupts mere mortals and unaccountability is power. We set them up for failure.
My first question about any minister or pastor is “To whom is he accountable?” Too often it’s nobody.
I once read of a world famous evangelist who founded a university. People close to him told said there was only one person besides God to whom he would allow to hold him accountable—his wife. I wasn’t surprised when I saw financial ruin slowly rising up to engulf his ministry. Its final denouement didn’t appear until he retired, but given his near total lack of accountability it seemed to me.

I also know a superstar preacher who fell and fell hard. He ended his fifty-plus years of ministry in prison. When I look back, I realize that he , with his church's help, was the very reason why he fell. They had total trust—in him. He counted the church’s offerings and recorded giving—alone in his office on Mondays. He traveled around the country to places and events without anyone knowing where he was or what he was doing there. He came and went and led as he pleased. The members of the church board who could have held him accountable and demanded answers didn’t—until it was too late. One of his elders retorted, "l participated in that and will always bear some shame for it.….’
“The problem with today's generation is that we elevate and hype popular Christian Pastors into demi-god statuses. We have a tendency to place greater value on what they teach than the even the Scriptures. We elevate their charisma, their eloquence, their humor and wit, their style, and even their cuteness and good looks. We even sow our finances into the same.”

Just because someone or something is big doesn't mean it's godly (and it is also understood that bigness is not tantamount to ungodliness either). In fact, it's a greater test of our devotion to be big (whatever ‘big’ means to us) and yet remain holy, than it is to be small (whatever ‘small’ means to us) and holy. And let's not forget that smallness is not equivalent to godliness either. Discerning the difference between hype and holiness is what's important. We are so often fooled by the "big" while being unaware and undiscerning of the ‘small that we end up becoming bootlickers and sycophant even when we see them deviating from core Christian values. We treat them as sacred "cows" and untouchables. To be perfectly blunt: The moment you hear someone say in response to criticism of a spiritual leader “Touch not God’s anointed,” beware and prepare to flee. Frankly, I blame those who take that attitude toward “great spiritual men of God” as much for their downfalls as the allegedly great spiritual men of God themselves.

My prescription is this: Never put total trust in any human being. Combined with that: Expect every human being to fail—especially if they are not accountable to others (and held accountable by others). There is no perfection this side of paradise and the kingdom of God. No human being deserves total, unconditional freedom and trust—to come and go, to handle money alone, to decide alone which ministry associates stay and which leave, etc.

Every pastor, minister and evangelist, like every government leader, whether elected or appointed, needs an accountability network with real authority and power to check him. At least some of the people in that accountability network need to be independent of the minister or evangelist—not under his influence.

When it happens I tend to look around at his followers and ask “Why did they flock to him and trust him so eagerly and unconditionally?” When everyone else is pointing fingers at the fallen one, I tend to point at them. My advice is simply this: Never follow a leader who is independent and unaccountable. And if you find yourself in such a situation, flee. There should not be such situations. And if you stay, you are part of the problem. And if he falls, you have yourself partly to blame.

Pastor Yaquah  is based in Kumasi Ghana