Pastor or Rockstar?

There’s a great post over at kinnon.tv about the appeal that church leadership has to those suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). You should go read the whole thing as it certainly seems to explain a lot of behaviour that one sees in the pulpits of megachurches everywhere. Sadly, it’s nothing new either. Kinnon concludes:

For the NPD church leader, church is all about numbers and size. The church reflects who they are. And provides them with the lifestyle they believe they deserve. NPD’s are particularly gifted at winning affection by selling you what you want to be sold. “Converts” in their churches, to them, are really an increase in their adoring fandom. And should you choose to stand up to them, beware. They will stop at nothing to destroy you.

This sort of thing just bolsters my admiration for how they used to pick church leaders. Maybe we could weed out the NPD sufferers (and give them the help they need once we find them) by requiring something really unglamourous of seminary students before they start. Maybe 1000 hours changing bedpans or leading a bible study for sex-offenders in prison. The catch for all this would be that you would have promise that you would never reveal what you did to anyone other than the seminary – no cashing in on your good works.