Ministers Told to Avoid ‘the Messiah Complex’

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ministers must avoid bearing the “burden of divinity” sometimes laid on them by admiring church members, a Texas minister told an annual Southern Baptist pastors’ school here.

Maintaining that congregations often put pastors “on a pedestal as someone who represents the Lord,” the Rev. Ben Loring of Amarillo, Tex., said, “We have assumed the messiah complex.”

Instead, he added, ministers should reflect the “fragility of our humanity. . . . It is through our humanity that we make contact with people to represent the difference Christ can make.”