When Church Culture Fuels Narcissism: Redefining Leadership and Spiritual Formation

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2018

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How the culture of modern church leadership, platform-building, and celebrity status can unknowingly attract narcissists—and what that reveals about our definitions of church, spiritual maturity, and humility. Mike Erre continues last week's conversation on narcissism, deepening the discussion by exploring how certain church structures, American evangelical ideals, and personality-driven ministry models may unintentionally foster and enable narcissistic tendencies in both leaders and followers.

Mike reflects vulnerably on his own journey with narcissism, engages listener feedback—including a psychologist’s affirmation and thoughtful community questions—and examines the broader theological implications of humility, self-denial, and leadership through scriptural lenses like Philippians 2, 1 Corinthians, and 3 John.

Key Takeaways:
• Understanding Spiritual Narcissism – Why ministry roles can attract narcissists and how church platforms can be used to reinforce the false self.
• Church as an Applause Machine – Exploring how celebrity culture, branding, and performance-driven ministry create unhealthy cycles of ego gratification.
• Redefining Leadership in the Church – Challenging narrow, type-A, CEO-style leadership models and embracing a fuller picture of biblical servanthood.
• Humility and Self-Denial Reframed – Unpacking the difference between denying the self and practicing self-denial as modeled by Jesus in Philippians 2.
• The Role of Community and Discipline – How obscurity, silence, and spiritual practices can disrupt narcissistic patterns and lead to transformation.

Resources Mentioned:
• Dallas Willard – “The Divine Conspiracy,” “Renovation of the Heart,” “Hearing God”
• John Coe – Talbot School of Theology's Institute for Spiritual Formation
• 3 John – A biblical example of spiritual narcissism
• Philippians 2, 1 Peter 5, James 4, Matthew 11 – Verses on humility and Christ-like leadership
• Sky Jethani – YouTube video on celebrity pastors and the Evangelical Industrial Complex

Join the conversation as we pull back the curtain on how power, platform, and personality intersect with faith—and what it takes to embody a healthier, Christ-centered vision of leadership.

Subscribe, share, and leave us a review to support the Voxology community. Follow us for more content that helps reimagine Christian faith in today’s world.

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV
Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast
Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify
Support us on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford
Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi everybody, Mike here, and welcome to the podcast coming at you from suburban Columbus, Ohio.
0:20.6	We're in accordance with my promise to not complain about the weather.
0:24.3	I'm not going to complain that today is 36 degrees and snowing on April freaking 15th.
0:32.9	I'm not going to complain about that.
0:34.2	It's actually the 16th.
0:35.9	I'm not going to complain about that.
0:36.9	I'm not going to complain about the fact that it was 80 degrees for a couple of days here last week, and that now
0:43.1	it's in the mid-30s and snowing. I'm not. I'm just not going to complain about it. So, how are you?
0:51.6	I hope you're well, wherever you are.
0:56.4	Thank you, as always, for tuning in.
1:02.1	And thank you for allowing us to be a part of your lives as always.
1:10.5	We're so very grateful for the people who like and subscribe, who rate us, who give us feedback feedback thank you for new patreon supporters and i mean we're
1:15.7	just we're just incredibly grateful for the opportunity to do this uh week in and week out uh last week
1:22.3	week we um we meaning me talked a bit about narcissism and and I did it from the perspective of a friend that I have
1:30.6	who struggles with it. And so I talked about him a lot and got some feedback. So if you're just tuning
1:38.6	into this episode, I would highly encourage you to listen to the one before this one,
1:43.4	where we kind of talk a bit about
1:46.1	what narcissism is, what causes it, what to look for. Most of us know it when we see it, but
1:53.2	it's good to have a little background on it. Today we want to continue that conversation,
1:58.1	but before we dive in, I got some comments,
2:05.6	loads of comments on this one, but there were a few I wanted to recognize. First of all, young man writes in, hello, I just listened to your podcast regarding
2:10.8	narcissism, and it quickly became apparent that you were describing my thoughts and habits.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Voxology, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Voxology and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.