Its Time to Shatter Christian Idols

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When I talk about Christian idols, I’m not talking about a Buddha statue sitting on a fireplace mantle of a Christian home.

I’m not talking about Christians who have some sort of feng shui going on, that dream catcher on a bedroom wall, or the prayer rug pointing east; thinking they can mingle the God of the Bible with other gods and religions.

Nope – not talking so-called inclusive Christianity.

I grew up in the church of the 80’s and 90’s when Christian idolatry was in full swing.

Mega TV evangelists broadcast in every Christian home were the last word and authority on theology, and few people took the time to examine whether or not this name-it, claim-it theology was actually biblical.

The Christian music market was exploding into the stratosphere as Christian music artists moved from doing concerts in churches to doing them in huge stadiums.

The topic of church growth was burgeoning and mega churches were beginning to bust at the seams.

The bar for success was raised, and there was a clear distinction between successful ministry and the minister who was….well….average.

Combine that with the blossoming message of “don’t settle”, “don’t be average”, “mediocre is a bad word”, “reach for the stars”, and “you can be anything you want to be”.

Read the post: How Christians Should Respond to a Counterfeit Gospel

Image and perception became crucial.

Measurable results were the goal.

God’s call was equated with notoriety, nickles, and numbers. If you were successfully fulfilling God’s call, surely people would know about it and the more God blessed your ministry, the more the word spread.

God’s blessing was equated with:

• The amount of popularity you enjoyed
• The size of your bank account
• The square footage of your home

This definition of success came with a great price. Once the ante was upped, those who achieved success now had to maintain it.

The perception of a perfect life, a perfect marriage and a perfect home had to be maintained.

Because anything less that perfection meant that God’s blessing must be waning.

Its Time to Shatter Christian Idols

Who are we really worshiping?

We were made to worship.

Mankind was created with a desire to look to someone greater than himself as a standard for achievement. And God’s design was that He would be that standard.

We were designed to look to God as our standard.

We were designed to make God’s approval our measure for success.

There is great danger in elevating fallen man to a standard of success and achievement. Not only because it sets them up for failure at some point….

It is a mirage. It is a distortion of truth.

The very foundation of idolatry is distortion. It takes what God designed – worship – and distorts the image so that someone or something else becomes our object of adoration.

And its hard to see the Christian idols in our own lives.

It sneaks in with our favorite speaker or blogger, a singer or worship leader we highly respect. If we are not careful, that respect begins to turn into adoration and that adoration comes with certain expectations of what that marriage blogger’s marriage and family must be like…

what that worship leader’s personal life must look like…

what that pastor’s home life must be like…

And suddenly, in the news we read about a moral failure and divorce, their son announces that he’s gay, or that worship leader was spotted in bar drinking beer or smoking a joint.

That image is shattered.

Our idol has fallen from it’s throne and shattered in a million pieces on the floor, because he or she wasn’t created to be worshiped and adored.

They were made to worship, not be worshiped.

Friends, Christian idols are falling from their thrones one-by-one. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t read of a pastor’s moral failure, financial crisis, divorce, or family crisis….

we read of Christian stars gone rogue with their personal behavior and their theology being hijacked by political correctness.

God is shaking our perception of Christian success.

There is no formula for spiritual success.

Spiritual success can’t be measured by notoriety, numbers and nickles:

• How perfect your family looks
• How perfect your marriage looks
• How many book deals you have
• How big your bank account is
• How Pinterest-perfect your home looks
• How branded your face is

God has a different kind of measuring and it’s His pleasure.

You can’t see that, you can’t elevate that or wear it like a badge.

You can’t even measure that, blog about it, or write a book about it.

Because God’s pleasure wasn’t meant to be bragged about, it is based on the reality of our relationship with Him, not perception of reality.

Each person looking to God alone as the standard, not to fallen man as a paragon of Christian success and God’s blessing.

Do you look at things according to the outward appearance?

“If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s.

For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed—lest I seem to terrify you by letters. ‘For his letters,’ they say, ‘are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.’

Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present.

For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves.

But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise…not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s sphere of accomplishment.

But ‘he who glories, let him glory in the LORD.’ 

For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.” 2 Corinthians 10:7-18