He sort of explains the purpose of the satire in this post, and the closing paragraphs form a nice, sharp appraisal/rebuke of the Church's idolization of success:
I once read an audacious book that tried to synthesize Jesus' leadership example with the typical Alpha-Guy American one. (Hey, at least the author tried.) One "rule" was, "Make time for everyone. Jesus always did, etc." and another "rule" was, essentially, "Don't waste time with nobodies, you have to prioritize who's important," etc. Okay.
It's my belief that Jesus is the Greatest Leader Ever. But he was, by any reasonable American standard, one real big failure as CEO.
But, overall, the books really don't tend to deal much with Jesus. We're supposed to just presume that being an Awesomely Awesome Leader is what Jesus wants, because Jesus loves big successes in the church world, and why wouldn't He? Right?
And if you aren't succeeding, Pastor Man? Well, you haven't applied all the rules. Or haven't read them all. Or didn't subscribe to the series on CD. Or, if you have done those things? Well, let's face it: You're not the man the Leader of Leaders is. On Saturdays, while you're trying to fix your minivan? He's golfing with Big Christian Athletes. You're not him. You're little you.
I say if that's "success", here's to the faithful failures; people with true pastoral hearts, serving people God has brought across their paths, never getting book deals, never selling motivational CDs, and always aware that God humbles the proud, and exalts the humble.
2 comments:
http://branthansen.typepad.com/letters_from_kamp_krusty/2007/10/rule-94----be-a.html
Did you find the above post to be brilliant? I like a lot of what Hansen writes, but when he messed with Piper, he went too far in my book!
Hahaha. Yeah, despite disagreeing with Brant about the superfluousness of preaching, I thought that one was pretty funny too. :-)
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