Critiquing again the market-driven churches, Dr. David Wells describes the type of pastors who emerge out of these churches. If one compares Dr. Wells' description of these pastors with passages like I Timothy 3:1-8, II Timothy 3:15-4:2, and Titus 1:6-9 - it should be very clear that the market-driven pastor is not modeled after what God sets forth to be the kind of man He calls to shepherd His sheep:
"Across much of evangelicalism, especially in the market-driven churches, one...sees a new kind of leadership among pastors now. Gone is the older model of the scholar-saint, one who was as comfortable with books and learning as with the aches of the soul. This was the shepherd who knew the flock, knew how to tend it, and Sunday by Sunday took that flock into the treasures of God's Word. This has changed. In its place is the new 'celebrity' style. What we typically see now...is the leader who works by manipulating the feelings of the audience, enhancing his own image with personal anecdotes, modeling himself after the CEO, and adopting a domineering management style. He (usually) is completely results-oriented, pragmatic, happy to employ any technique from the secular world that will produce the desired results. And this leader has to be magnetic, entertaining, and light on the screen up front" [from The Courage to be Protestant: published by Eerdmans; 2008: pg. 40].
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The pragmatic pastor will surely give an account to the Lord for how he has or has not shepherded the flock(s) under his care. How many altar-calls have resulted in fall conversions and subsequent false assurance? Trust in the methods that His Word prescribes, for they are sufficient! Preaching the Gospel makes one "wise unto salvation." The one that thinks his method(s) are better than what the Lord has laid out in His Word is a fool indeed.
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