Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Pedestal Prophets

The root problem with one-man leadership is that those who get to the top often feel insecure, so they surround themselves with sycophants and “Yes Men”. Anyone who might challenge their authority is kept at a distance.

The other side of this problem is the platform or pedestal prophet. The senior pastor who does not have his own pet prophet brings one in from outside and puts him on a pedestal. From that platform, the prophet is allowed to give encouragement to the people and challenge those that need sorting out, but the senior pastor always stands behind the prophet, safe from his words.

The pedestal prophet has authority because the senior pastor testifies to his credibility. In return for this authentication, the platform prophet must submit to the authority of the pastor/manager and honour him. The prophet is kept on the pedestal where his ministry can be controlled. The platform prophet must go along with this charade, or be kept in silence.

2 comments:

Gene said...

This is so true. I am neither. And sometimes I must bring bad news.

It's been painful. Your advice would be helpful. I can't post on it. There is a short note about it on openheaven.com under the prophetic words forum.

Gene

Stephen said...

Sadly you see that in many prophetic churches, even on prophetic teams. I served on a prophetic team for 2 years and during the training we were told how to stand, the type of wording we should use and what we could and couldn't prophecy. I noticed after awhile during prophetic ministry, that we all spoke the same lingo, had the same gestures and had an overall cookie-cutter approach to it all. Unfortunately this is what happens when man tries to control the Spirit, it becomes manufactured.