How can we avoid an evangelical celebrity culture?

I’m good friends with Tim Hughes. Not that one, not the Christian songwriter who wrote Here I Am to Worship; no, another bloke. But they do share a name.

My mate Tim lives in Milton Keynes and plays the guitar in worship bands. This once led to an unfortunate case of mistaken identity when a youth worship night that was billed as “A Worship Night with Tim Hughes” ended with some of the youth leaving early, because it was not the Tim Hughes onstage – it was my mate!

While this story is several years old, I think it illustrates a concerning tendency we can see in our churches: the unspoken cultivation of Evangelical Celebrity Culture.