Favoritism

Why is it that so many preachers today continually mention the names of past "famous" preachers but rarely mention Elders or members of the congregation? The accolades usually start like this, "The great Gospel preacher, Brother F.E. Hardemann once said...."

But what does the Bible say about holding certain people in higher regard than others?

James 2:1-4 "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?"

Where is the passage that says we are to honor preachers? And yet we see the following in I Tim 5:17:

"Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching."

What about the elders who don't work hard at teaching and preaching? Well that's a topic for another post.