The Only Object of Our Worship

What Are You Really Attached To in the Church?

The audio of this teaching is available on Spotify.

Message 20 | The Unstoppable Church Series | Acts 14:8-20

What Is the Jonathan Roumie Effect and Why Should Christians Care?

Bible scholar and theologian Wesley Huff raised an eyebrow-raising concern in a recent interview: after watching The Chosen so many times, he found that when he read his Bible, it was actor Jonathan Roumie's face he pictured when reading about Jesus. He called it the Jonathan Roumie Effect.

It sounds like a minor thing. But Huff's concern cuts to something deep in all of us — we are wired to put a human face on the divine. We want to see, to touch, to personify. And when we do that, even with the best intentions, we risk creating an idol out of the person whose face we picture. The actor becomes a surrogate for Jesus, quietly receiving a measure of the devotion that belongs to Christ alone.

This isn't a critique of The Chosen — millions of people have been genuinely moved by it. It's a warning about a pattern in human nature that shows up not just on streaming platforms, but in local churches every single Sunday.

Why Do Celebrity Pastors Fall — And Why Does It Hurt So Many People?

In recent years, the falls of several high-profile pastors have shaken the faith of thousands of people across America. Carl Lentz built Hillsong NYC into a cultural phenomenon, attracting celebrities and drawing crowds that lined up for blocks. Robert Morris built Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas into one of the largest churches in the state. Mark Driscoll planted Mars Hill Church in the secular Pacific Northwest and grew it into a multi-site empire. All three were gifted. All three were genuinely used by God. And all three fell from ministry in public, devastating ways.

What did they have in common? Their churches had been built around a personality more than a purpose. When the messenger became more important than the message, the entire structure became only as stable as that one person. When the person fell, so did the church — and so did the faith of thousands who had tethered themselves to the man rather than the mission.

The warning is not that gifted leaders are dangerous. The warning is that no leader, no matter how gifted, can bear the weight of being someone's primary object of worship. That weight belongs to Jesus alone.

What Happens in Acts 14 and What Does It Teach Us About Worship?

Acts 14:8-20 contains one of the most dramatic — and most instructive — scenes in the entire New Testament. Paul and Barnabas arrive in Lystra, a small Roman colony city with no synagogue and no Jewish population. They are preaching the gospel to a purely pagan audience for the first time.

Paul heals a man who has been lame from birth — someone the entire community has known his whole life and has never seen walk. The crowd's reaction is immediate and total: they declare Paul and Barnabas to be gods come down in human form, name Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, and arrive at the city gates with bulls and flower wreaths ready to offer sacrifice.

The cultural backstory here is fascinating. The Roman poet Ovid recorded an ancient legend set in this very region of Lycaonia — that Zeus and Hermes had once visited the area in human disguise, and only one elderly couple showed them hospitality while everyone else was destroyed. The people of Lystra knew that story. They were not going to make the same mistake twice.

Paul and Barnabas respond by tearing their robes — the ancient Jewish gesture of absolute horror at blasphemy — and rushing into the crowd. Their first words: "We are people also, just like you." They refuse the worship, redirect every eye to the living God, and keep preaching.

Then the whiplash: the same crowd that wanted to crown them as gods stones Paul, drags him outside the city, and leaves him for dead. One moment Zeus. The next, a body in the dirt. Paul gets up, walks back into the city, and leaves the next morning to preach the gospel again. The mission never stopped — because it was never about Paul.

What Are the Four Things People Get Most Attached To in a Church?

In his book Future Church, Christian thought leader Will Mancini identifies four things that people most commonly attach themselves to in a local church — and warns that while none of these things are inherently wrong, all four of them make very bad gods.

Place — the building, the campus, the physical space that makes you feel connected to God. Maybe it's the church where you were saved, or a beautiful sanctuary that gives you a sense of awe. When the place becomes the primary attachment, losing the building feels like losing the church.

Programs — the ministries and activities that helped you grow, find community, or discover your gifts. Programs exist to serve the mission — but when they become ends in themselves, changing or losing them feels like a personal loss.

People — the friendships and community that make church feel like home. Relationships are essential to healthy church life, but when they become the primary reason you're there, they quietly replace the mission with something smaller.

Personality — the pastor, the preacher, the person whose teaching makes God's Word come alive for you. Of all four attachments, this one carries the most risk — because pastors are just people, and people sin, and when a pastor falls, everyone who was primarily attached to that personality falls with them.

The invitation is to move from being a first-floor disciple — attached to the place, programs, people, and personality — to being a second-floor disciple, attached to the mission itself: helping people find real life in Jesus.

Is It Wrong to Want to Hear a Pastor Preach Before Joining a Church?

No — and it's worth being honest about this. As Bear Creek Community Church has been hosting Launch Parties and inviting people to join our launch team, we've acknowledged openly that it's highly unlikely any serious Christian in North Texas is going to commit to BC3 without first hearing our pastor preach. They can hear the vision. They can get excited about the mission. But eventually they want to hear the man in the pulpit — and that instinct is completely understandable.

What Acts 14 invites us to notice is that this is exactly the same impulse the crowd in Lystra was acting on. They experienced something real and their first move was to find a face to put on it. We do the same thing — even in healthy ways, even with good intentions. The question isn't whether we're wired this way. We are. The question is whether we stay there.

No pastor — including ours — should ever be the reason you are at any church. Pastors are just people, broken and capable of failure. If your faith is tethered to the charisma or gifting of any individual leader, that is a fragile place to stand. But if your faith is tethered to the mission — to seeing people find real life in Jesus — nothing can stop that.

How Do I Know If I'm Too Attached to My Church Instead of Jesus?

Here is a practical diagnostic: think about the church you have loved most in your life. What was it that made you love it? Was it the building — the way it felt when you walked in? Was it the programs — a ministry that helped you through a hard season or a worship style that resonated deeply? Was it the people — friendships that carried you through loss or a community that finally felt like home? Or was it the pastor — someone whose preaching changed the way you saw God?

Now ask the honest follow-up: are you looking to recreate that at your next church? If the place was important to you, and the next church meets in a school cafeteria, will you stay? If the programs don't match what you had before, will you dig in anyway? If the pastor preaches differently than the one who first wrecked you for Jesus, will that be enough to make you leave?

This isn't a guilt trip. Almost every attachment we form in the church forms around something genuinely good — a real experience of God, a real community, a real transformation. The question is whether those things are pointing you to Jesus, or quietly replacing Him.

What Does It Mean to Build a Church on Mission Instead of Personality?

It means making a decision — early, intentionally, and out loud — that the purpose is more important than the methods. The mission of helping people find life in Jesus does not change when a building is lost, when a pastor moves on, when a beloved program ends, or when a community scatters. The methods will always need to change as culture changes. The people implementing those methods will always come and go. But the mission is the same today as it was in the first century.

At Bear Creek Community Church, we are building something from scratch in Lavon, Texas. That is a gift and a responsibility. We get to decide what we attach ourselves to before unhealthy habits form. We get to build a culture from the ground up that keeps the mission — and the Person the mission points to — as the only celebrity worth following.

An Unstoppable Church has only one celebrity. His name is Jesus.

About This Sermon

This message is part of the Unstoppable Church series, an expository journey through the Book of Acts exploring what the early church can teach us about following Jesus today. Each sermon answers the question: What can we learn from the early church and apply to our lives today to continue the movement of Jesus going forward?

Want to continue your faith journey? Visit us at www.bc3.church to connect with our community, find more sermons, and take your next step in following Jesus.