Remember when pastors were just normal people? You may have seen a few on television with huge congregations and willing to send you a vial of holy water in exchange for any dollar amount. So, for the most part normal.
Over the years, churches have become entertainment havens and pastors are the focal point – celebrities if you will. They are still on television but have slowly interjected themselves into pop culture, including reality shows and social media. They have achieved a weird notoriety that we haven't seen before.
While living in Houston, I had the opportunity to visit Lakewood Church led by Joel Osteen. At the time, Pastor John Gray was an associate pastor and led Wednesday Night Service. With his signature comedic style, his preaching was infectious and he never sugarcoated God’s word. Everyone looked forward to hearing him.
Since then, he has written two books, scored a show on OWN, and has become senior pastor at Relentless Church in South Carolina.
Here’s the problem with Pastor John Gray: He talks too much.
He's a pastor, therefore he loves to talk. However, that gift of gab spills over to Instagram - a little too much. Every rumor or inconsistency that happens in his life, he wastes no time defending himself in a dissertation-style post or Instagram Live.
Last year, the couple celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary with a big bash and Pastor Gray bought his wife a $200K Lamborghini. Of course, people talked and speculated where the money came from. Pastor felt the need to explain to us in a 23-minute video how smart he’s been with savings and investments. He went on to chastise us for thinking otherwise.
And just recently, Pastor Gray decides to defend his wife’s honor as well as himself amiss cheating rumors. He did admit on the talk show “The Real” that he did partake in an emotional affair. Someone please tell Pastor that we didn’t disrespect his wife – he did.
The Grays need to stay off social media – at least until they can act accordingly. We just don’t care to be rebuked by them anymore. We don’t care about their explanations or financial reports. You cannot stop people from talking about you or having an opinion to what you do, especially when you are on the level that he is.
Sir. Ma’am. Stop it. Why are you even bothered by what people are saying on the Internet? Between warning us not to “come for your wife” and praising rapper T.I. as your inspiration, we are just not here for it. It’s too much.
Pastor, how about you adore your wife BEFORE you publicly embarrass her. Stop feeding in to the wiles of social media and rise above the foolishness as you should. Because right now, you’re just like the rest of us and you’re supposed to be showing us something different.
What Pastor John Gray has shown us is how he's allowing social media to inundate his life. It’s easy to get caught up in what people are saying about you, but we just would like to believe that somehow a pastor can be the bigger person.