10 th anniversary guest
article
The Rise & Fall
& Rise Again
of the
Narcissistic, Celebrity Rock Star
Pastor
By Joseph Bachota Jr.
AS
promised late last year, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this little
blog, we will be publishing several guest articles written by individuals that
I have come to know & trust. One such person is PASTOR JOSEPH BACHOTA. Jo
is a Pastor, War Veteran, Author, Husband & Father, although not necessarily
in that order. I tuned into his YouTube channel (walking through the
scriptures) while writing the series ‘DOGS IN THE MANGER’ and we hit it off.
The rest, as they say, is history. Please enjoy this apt piece & I
encourage you to follow the links supplied. God bless. Take it away Jo!
As
we look over the church landscape today, one thing that has always rubbed me
the wrong way, was and is, the rise and fall but rise again of the
Narcissistic, Celebrity Rock Star Pastor. What do I mean by that? Well, we have
always had celebrity rock star pastors who have been narcissists. Where they
feel the people in the pews need to bow down to them and have the people kiss
their feet. That is nothing new.
When
one looks at the Shepherding Movement, in the 1970’s America, it was about
power and control. Pastors who would be called (fathers in the faith) and they
would then dictate to the congregants where to work, what jobs to take, whom to
marry, how much money they owed the church and to them etc. This was a system
of leadership abuse, systemic control by the clergy which led to all kinds of
abuses within the church and led to a wide road of abused victims along the
way. So again, this is decades old and therefore, not new.
Many,
of these pastors got caught and justice was done, but sadly, in many cases, many
pastors were not caught, they died, and victims, never got the justice they so
rightly deserved. In some cases, there are pastors that are still operating
like this today, shameful!
However,
what is killing me is even after some of these narcissistic leaders fell and
were found out, (thank God) after COVID and once the COVID ban was lifted,
there seems to be a rise of this kind of leadership and pastoring again. Let me
explain.
Celebrity
Rock Star pastors and Mega churches were huge before COVID 2020. Not that Mega
churches are bad necessarily, as long as the teaching is sound and the pastor
doesn’t let it go to his head and he becomes one of these celebrity rock stars
I’m referring to, but many pastors did, and it was a cancer within the body of
Christ. Then a funny thing hit America in around February 2020, COVID 19.
With
that came the shutdown of everything including churches. Funny thing that. Many
did not understand the prophetic writing on the walls. Because when that
happened, there were no longer mega churches open and no more celebrity rock
star pastors for a while. It was almost as if God was showing us something in
the Spirit, like God was trying to make us aware of something or trying to get
us delivered from something. The narcissistic celebrity rock star pastor and
formula. Yes, churches tried to do churches in different ways, internet,
smaller groups etc. But once the COVID ban was lifted, for the most part, what
Happened? Churches went back to the same old same old and went right back to
having church as usual. So, what happened? Narcissistic pastors got their jobs
back, and we thanked God for it! We completely missed it! It went right over
our heads like a cold wind during a winter’s day. All the while thanking God
for the cold, nonsense!
Prophetically,
I think God was trying to get our attention. He was trying to show us how bad
we had gotten and how far off track we were. In doing that, I also think he was
trying to give grace to the church to regroup, reset, and re-pent! Repent of
what we turned church into: a circus where people come to be entertained, where
the pastor is the showman, the sermon and praise and worship team the
entertainment and the show, and then you just leave your tithe and offering in
the bucket on the way out to pay for the happiness of the experience. Where was
the Gospel? Where was revival? Where was Jesus being lifted up on the cross so
all the world could see to be saved? Instead, we traded all that in for
entertainment and the people praised our churches and pastors for it and we
praised God it was so, all the while making the church one of the most
spiritually malnourished, weak, spiritually babes in Christ generation we have
ever seen. And we loved it! For me, it made me sick. And After COVID what did
we do, for the most part, we went right back to it.
So,
what happened? Churches never learned their lessons and neither did these
narcissistic pastors and they came right back in again. Just waiting to pounce
on their next victims. Who could they take advantage of today? How much sexual
sin can run amuck in churches today? How much money can we fleece from the
people? How much sin will go unchecked and or covered up? How many lives will
be ruined? How many victims will go across the land with their cries being
unheard by the very pastors and churches that should have been there to
minister to them? Hard to be blessed by a church when they are the ones hurting
you! I pray and I hurt for the victims! I pray for their wholeness and healing.
I also pray for justice for these pastors to repent, go to jail if crimes were
committed, and resign never to occupy a pulpit ever again. Lives are at stake
and someone needs to tell the truth, shame the devil and hold the line for
righteousness. It’s time we get back to discipleship again in our churches! We
don’t need circus’ we need training grounds for discipleship. A place where
hurting saints can find Jesus and be saved, not a place to entertain them and
then take advantage of them and then calling that ministry, SMH!
So,
what can be done? First, leave these pastors and churches if you are in them.
Pray for the victims and call authorities if crimes happened. Don’t allow abuse
to go unchecked! Call it out, make people aware of it. Be bold! Like the book
of Acts, Ask the Holy Spirit to give us Holy Ghost boldness to preach the truth
without compromise and make it about Jesus again and not ourselves. Scripture
teaches: Judgement FIRST begins in the house of God (with Believers) why?
Because it says if the church can’t get it right, then the world has no hope! Strong
words from the Apostle Peter indeed! It’s time we adhere to them!
I
hope this message leaves you encouraged, why? Because I hope it births a Holy
Ghost fire for righteousness. I call for justice, peace, and hope in believing
in the Holy Ghost instead of the facade we have been having with the smoke and
mirror shows with these Wizard of OZ preachers who really have no power! I pray
for a burning in our spirits again, where we get on fire for God instead of
these clown shows! In order for true revival to happen, it first starts with
us. We need to repent church in order to see this kind of passion again. Let’s
repent today and be blessed and see the power of God return to our churches,
who’s with me?!
Bio
I’m Joseph Bachota and I received my Honorary Doctorate
with Core Kingdom University in May of 2022, using my book to expose prosperity
gospel/word of faith theology, and I have my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees
from Wayland Baptist University. I’ve served in the army for 20 years with four
combat tours (3 Iraq and 1 Afghanistan). While serving in Iraq, the Lord
allowed me to pastor the Gospel service and I have co-pastored many other
services while deployed. I have served in many churches all over the world,
Iraq, Afghanistan, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington State, Virginia, just to name a
few. The Lord has allowed me to serve all over the world and I look forward to
continuing to serve anywhere, and everywhere, and any how God would have me to
serve. I’m married to a beautiful black
woman and have four beautiful black children. My wife (Teri) and I moved to
Wake Forest, North Carolina around nine years ago from the Seattle, Washington
area. We have four children, Alec, our son whose 31, and Nia our daughter,
whose 22, and we adopted two children, 3 years ago, Jeremy who is 9 and Kaylee
who is 7. We also have a little beagle dog named Kirby. Well, that completes
our family, blessings, Joe
Books:
Website
and YouTube page:
https://www.walkingthroughthescriptureswithjosephbachota.com/
My
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@josephbachota/featured
