Most of us have probably heard about the tremendous outpouring at Asbury University, Kentucky, in early 2023, where they had weeks of continuous prayer, repentance, and worship. I got the chance to talk to one of the pastors who is over the chapel at Asbury, and he told me that one of the things he felt the students were hungry for was a nameless, faceless leadership.
Our young people are just swamped with celebrity culture on social media and through Hollywood. People become obsessed with rock stars, and there are so many famous individuals now who aren’t well known for any kind of skill; they’re just famous because they’re famous. Our culture is full of who’s-who and who knows whom, who’s wearing what brands. More and more, though, our younger generations are becoming sick of it. They want something authentic. I think we all do, honestly.
We get nervous when young people start deconstructing and pulling at the strings of tradition, and I don’t think that uneasiness is unearned. However, I think a lot of the younger generation is turning away from excess and hypocrisy, and they should.
God and Scripture have always had the answer to this desire. The culture of this world is self-acclaim, popularity, and success. At the same time, the world also despises its own system. This is what makes our faith so distinctive when it pulls away from fame and fortune. When we say, “We just want to see more of God”, it directs the spotlight off a certain preacher or evangelist and onto the God we’re longing to see.
It sounds so easy, right? Along the way, though, it seems like the names and faces of the leaders or the “stars” become so important that there isn’t room for Christ. My friend Pastor Carter Conlon has so accurately said, “We pray for these big moves of God, and then we can’t get out of his way.” It feels like we must keep adding and expanding, but sometimes that’s more than God ever asked of us.
Instead of focusing on exalting people, we should focus on the work of the Holy Spirit.
Billy Graham was a great evangelist in his generation, and countless souls responded to his invitations to the Lord, but shouldn’t there be hundreds of thousands of souls leading whole nations to the Lord? I think that’s better because then we’re all responsible and involved. Paul even addressed this when he wrote: “For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name” (1 Corinthians 1:11-15, ESV).
So even Paul contended with this part of our nature, basically saying, “You’re going to want to call yourself after someone else’s name, but don’t get into that. This is not about the person, it’s about the work happening behind that particular person—the work of the Holy Spirit, radical love, revival, humility. That’s what is exalted in the kingdom of God. We don’t exalt man. We exalt the person of Christ and Christ alone.”
The English minister George Whitefield, a great revivalist and preacher of the past, once wrote, “Let the name of Whitefield perish but Christ be glorified. Let my name die everywhere, let even my friends forget me, if by that means the cause of the blessed Jesus be promoted.”
There’s another side to this that I want to look at, though, because we can get wrapped up in an idea and not think about all the complexities. I don’t think God is at all glorified by any kind of false deprecation. Refusing to be thanked or recognized for our work can very quickly become its own kind of pride and a way that we judge others if they do accept gratitude.
When I think of men like Billy Graham or my father, David Wilkerson, I think people were drawn in some ways to them because they weren’t self-promoting men. They didn’t hide from people, but they weren’t out there fighting for their name to be known. They just wanted to see Christ glorified.
Whenever my father talked about Teen Challenge or Times Square Church or any of the other great endeavors he was part of, he always said, “When God started his ministry…” Even now, when people remember him, including other evangelists, they don’t think so much about the individual as the moves of God that they were associated with in their day.
The old saying “Give honor where honor is due” exists with good reason. Part of our God-given nature, I would argue, is to respect elders and leaders, giving honor where it’s deserved. I think there’s a difference between becoming known for being faithful to God’s Word with people admiring that and being self-promoting. This calls for wisdom and wrestling with where our heart is, when we receive honor, in the moment someone recognizes us.
God’s desire is that we seek humility, glorifying him, rather than seeking the praise of others.
I truly believe that God’s reasons for cautioning us away from glory of self are both eternal and so practical. First, all glory belongs to Christ. The moment we step in and try to take what is rightfully his, we are reenacting the fall in Genesis 3 all over. When we begin to joyfully redirect glory to God, we experience the spiritual rightness of living as we were made to be. Second, not glorifying ourselves protects us when the fickle crowd turns on us. Here’s what I mean: Many believers have heard of the 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon, and we love quoting him, but even the darling “prince of preachers” was once disowned by his own denomination.
A third thing to consider: “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). When we start enjoying the praise of men too much, we get onto the dangerous ground of compromising the Word so that people will continue to speak well of us, often without even realizing it at first. A little compromise about this Bible verse or softening that prophetic word that you received during your Bible study can feel very justified in the moment.
If this is something you’ve caught yourself falling into, there’s no shame in repenting and coming back around. It’s in our fallen nature to self-promote; we’ve been doing it ever since the Garden of Eden, and it’s hard to let go of the posturing. Once we do, though, we’ll find true substance. When we’re no longer consumed with how we’re going to frame a moment or spin our image, then our words will have a weightiness. And as John the Baptist said of Christ, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, ESV).
I want to return to something that struck me when I was wrapping up my conversation with that pastor from Asbury University, who witnessed firsthand the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I asked him where he was going next, and he mentioned to me, “I’m going to take some time off and get away with my wife and kids.” I can’t speak to what was in his heart, but it really felt like he was withdrawing to reflect on where God wanted to go next.