God Doesn't Want Christian Clones

I know people who pepper their spiritual talk by quoting Beth Moore's pithy observations, Joyce Meyer's motivational aphorisms or Mark Driscoll's take-no-prisoners bluntspeak. I've known others who take their Christian life cues from radio personality Nancy Leigh DeMoss, social activist Shane Claiborne, Charismatic teachers Heidi and Roland Baker, or simply borrow the convictions of their favorite pastor.

While these "Christian famous" speakers may be seated at the same banquet table at the marriage supper of the Lamb someday, a fair number of us point at what's on the plate of a favorite teacher and say, "I'll have what she (or he) is having."

Leaders aren't immune to the imitation bug. During a conversation with several staff members from a large local church, I noticed each one of them spoke with the same gee-whiz speech pattern and aw-shucks mannerisms of their head pastor. One of them joked about it, noting that like the Borg characters in Star Trek, resistance to the clone trend in their church culture was futile.

Admiring the words and lifestyle of a teacher, preacher or leader is one thing, but if we allow the words or an idealized image of a local or national Christian celeb to form both boundary and substance of our own faith experience, we will drift from the person God has called us to become. He doesn't need a fleet of Nancy Leigh DeMoss wannabes to do his will. He just wants you.

While the problem of branding ourselves by our teachers or theological camps isn't new, our propensity for subdividing into tribes based on our taste preferences has particularly public, painful consequences today.

The author of Ecclesiastes observed, "…of ...