Relatables narratives of Christianity

Pastors cautiously curate their Instagram feeds with selfies, inspirational messages of self-care , promotional posts urging their followers to buy their books or the latest footage of the Sunday service. About the latter, behind-the-scenes of the worships provide leaders with an aura of importance. Ferris and Harris explain that the asymmetry of knowledge between pastors and audience is a common indicator of religious celebrity. Pastor rarely interacts off-stage with the congregation but knows that his physical absence is more than  compensated by his media presence. A media-trained spiritual leader carefully balances between privacy and publicity while shaping his persona as a celebrity.

However, scandals can still occur, as seen in the case of Carl Lentz, the former lead pastor at Hillsong Church in New York City, who was dismissed in 2020 a moral failure. He was caught having an extramarital affair and held accountable for not upholding the values he so convincingly preached.

Rich in faith and dollars

The line between pastors and their fellow celebrities starts to be blurred when the spiritual leaders engage in a transactional relationship with their followers.

Megachurches often expose their communities to paid services, and lead pastors can make significant profits from book sales and merchandising. Both online followers and Sunday attendees serve as potential customers.

 Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr. achieved a new level of stardom when he starred in his own TV show Rich in Faith along with his wife DawnCheré Wilkerson, also a lead pastor. The Christian couple  have their own Youtube Channel called  Official Rich & DC. Thanks to their content creation activity, their net work oscillates between 1$ to 4$ million dollars as of 2023.

Beliebers turned Believers : when celebrity become religious brand ambassadors

Selena Gomez, Kendall Jenner or Chris Pratt have been vocal about their faith online. However, Justin Bieber and Hillsong have taken their spiritual partnership to a new level.   Back in 2014, the singer was a PR disaster, regularly making headlines wherever he was illegally importing a pet monkey or spending a night in jail for underage drag racing.

At his lowest, he got baptized in an NBA player’s bathtub by none other than Pastor Lentz. Since then, his relationship with Hillsong is an essential part of his social media brand. On Instagram, Bieber is a vocal Christian and more importantly a vocal Hillsong supporter, appearing at Hillsong events alongside Lentz and speaking in tongues on his posts.

In 2017, he even posted an Instagram Live of him praising God to a heartfelt piano melody. Bieber was performing a song written by the Christian rock band Hillsong United followed by 2.5 million souls on Instagram. Hillsong is known for its focus on Christian pop songs that are not solemn hymns, still in a move to attract seekers. This led them to produce millions of dollars’ worth of albums and singles, all available on regular music streaming services. 

Bieber is a perfect representative for Hillsong as he provides media attention for the megachurch, while benefiting from their redemption narrative.

Also, Bieber is Christian, but not too Christian. His Christianity is seen through the lyrics of some of his songs but is tamed so that non-believers are under the impression they are listening to a conventional love song. His fans love it and so does the church, benefiting from the pop stars’ following, the Beliebers.

A fairly conservative theology

Various articles criticize how Hillsong’s curated forward-thinking and youthful brand clashes with its underlying conservative evangelical theology. One issue is that the church leaders do not endorse homosexual lifestyles, as noted in a 2015 blog post by Hillsong’s founder, Brian Houston.

Moreover, only 3% of evangelical churches in America have a female lead pastor, according to the latest National Congregations Study from Duke University. Even when women are co-pastors, their male partners are still seen as the primary preachers.

As a result, they successfully invest in social media for self-expression purposes. Like their male counterparts, they are white, charismatic and good-looking individual. Holly Furtick married to Steven Furtick, lead pastor of Elevation Church has half a million followers on Instagram, runs an online book club and hosts a Youtube Channel with 78 000 subscribers. She also has a website showcasing her favorite recipe and a shop where customers can buy worship merchandise. While evangelical digital culture offers female leaders a space of influence, this authority is not transgressive enough to challenge the patriarchal structure within churches. Female microcelebrities serve as visual examples of a good Christian woman devoted to marriage and motherhood, but they don’t fundamentally challenge traditional gender roles.

It is evident that megachurches are conflicted  between modernity and traditionalism. Their seeker sensitive model is consumer oriented, catering to fill the desire with the bored unchurched. Megachurches design an entertaining and immersive religious experience in which pastors and celebs play a pivotal role. Religious content creators are appealing to the believers and non-believers because they are inspiring and trendy. But for Christian celebrities, social media are not the place of Biblical transgression but rather a showcase of the ideal concept of the Christian Life. And they sometimes struggle to live up to that.

Linda Ndiaye

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