The newest trend in modern Evangelical megachurches is to set the lead pastor up as the primary visionary to which the rest of the church must conform without question. We’ve seen this evident in many of these megachurches from Hillsong to Elevation. In 2015, In a blog post on Hillsong’s website entitled Five Things That Should Matter to a Worship Leader, one of Hillsong’s foremost worship leaders, Jonathan Douglass writes:
We are about fulfilling our Senior Pastor’s vision (not our own)
It is so important that as amazing as our creative ideas might be, if they don’t ultimately line up with what our Senior Pastor and leaders want, then we happily put them aside. The church doesn’t exist to build our worship teams… our worship teams exist to build the Church!!
Similarly, Steven Furtick of Hillsong Church released a coloring book of himself naming himself as the “visionary” that the church is “united under.”
Here’s the problem. Biblical churches don’t exist to fulfill a leader’s “vision,” churches exist to glorify God, preach and teach the Scriptures, and make disciples. These cult-like churches have made it clear who it is that they exist to worship and serve. (Hint: It isn’t Jesus.)
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Now, in the latest episode of this rotten fruit of cultish man-worship, pastor of C3 Church in Toronto has released an entire manual dictating to the church and staff on how they are to interact with him. According to this manual, everyone at C3 church “works for him,” (not Jesus), and everyone there exists to serve him. “I am here to serve my leader,” the manual reads, “so the key to my success in the organization is my ability to work in the way my leader wants me to, even if it is not my preference.”
The manual also instructs church members and staff not to tell him he’s wrong about anything in front of other people and it also instructs them not to say things like “I’ll do my best.”
The fact that a manual even exists makes it clear that Sam Pickens looks at himself as the king and Lord of this church rather than Jesus Christ. Pickens leaves no room for grace and the fact that he views himself as the one whom others “work for” is evident that he is a cult leader. Here are screenshots of the manual:
