Rev. Michael Gembola (MAR, LPC) is the executive director of Blue Ridge Christian Counseling in Roanoke, Virginia, and consulting editor for the Journal of Biblical Counseling. He is the author of the forthcoming book Anxious about Decisions: Finding Freedom in the Peace of God (New Growth Press). JBC 35:3 (2021): 61–92 61 Tree Recent Books on Narcissism and Spiritual Abuse in Church Leadership by MICHAEL GEMBOLA _________________________ The recently released podcast series The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill has been met with tremendous interest. At the time of writing, it was one of the most popular podcasts in the United States. It tells the story of how a young and talented pastor led a church that grew from a hand- ful of people into a 15,000-member megachurch, which then collapsed almost overnight after countless allegations of bullying and domineering leadership. The stories include allegations of the pastor shouting people down in meetings, shaming and firing staff, manipulating others spiri- tually, talking about sexual matters in obscene ways, saying unironically “I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but I’m kind of a big deal,” and much more. 1 The podcast is a postmortem study of narcissistic leader- 1. Quoted in Mike Cosper, “Episode 6: Te Brand,” August 2, 2021, in Te Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, produced by Christianity Today, podcast, 1:01:45, https://www.christianity today.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/.