The Trials of Ted Haggard (part 2)
How should the church that Ted Haggard pastored for 20 years have handled the shocking revelations about their pastor? It is really difficult to imagine the personal pain that those men must have been feeling as they sorted through the myriad issues. But I think they got it wrong.
On the Oprah show it was explained that as part of Haggard's severance package he had to agree to move out of the state of Colorado and to never preach again. Although I think I can understand why they may have put those stipulations in the agreement, again, I think they got it wrong. To force him to leave his entire support network seems cruel. He may have decided he wanted to leave the area just to try and make a new start, but to require it of him? I know they were working through a process of helping him see counselors and helping his family get their counseling needs met, but how was he to be held up by his friends if he needed to be a state away?
More importantly, I think they really blew it when they required him to NEVER preach again. Homosexual behavior is not an unforgivable sin. Neither is lying. Neither is drug abuse. Come to think of it, I don't know of any sin that is not paid for in full by the atoning blood of Jesus.
As I listened to Ted and his wife share about the process they've been going through, I actually thought to myself that God could use Ted in some very powerful ways in the future. I thought, "In time, he could be a pastor in the church movement I'm a part of." We already have a convicted felon and several pastors with marital failures who have been restored through grace and are effectively serving as pastors. Why not a restored homosexual offender?
Is God's grace and forgiveness strong enough for all of us or is it only for those who make minor mistakes? In my mind, if there is not grace for Ted Haggard to possibly lead a church again, then what the church is selling is a cheap imitation of the lavish grace the Lord offers.
NOTE: It was mentioned on Oprah that New Life Church has since rescinded the terms of the severance package. Good for them.
Comments
I think that New Life and 99% of modern churches started on the wrong foot long ago when they started making churches like business entities. They've got a name, a slogan, a logo and a yellow pages ad. They've got (some form of) a board of directors, bylaws, presidents and all of the extraneous trappings of a business.
Now, I've got nothing against businesses per se, but as structures born of the kingdom of this world, they have some unavoidable attendant characteristics which should belong nowhere near an ecclesia. I really am convinced that we're talking about a little bit of yeast that can screw up the whole loaf.
The most damning effect of the "business leavening" is that in order to stay afloat the church must have a product. And Jesus becomes that product. Maybe it's a "Saving Jesus" product, or a "Healing Jesus" product or even just a "Moral Jesus" product, but it's goods and services nonetheless. And the congregations becomes the customer. (Or in the case of some larger corporations, the nation or even the world becomes the target audience.)
In order to sell you product well, you have to put on your best advertising face. You have to show how your product and your sales outlet are invariably the best. No one has pimples in commercials, not even acne cream commercials.
So, when you're steeped in the American Business Commercialization mindset, what do you do when your spokesperson is found using another product? Or the public finds out that someone had tainted the goods? You put as wide a chasm between yourself and the offender in order to keep brand confidence high. So, you boot the spokesperson and quickly get a fresh new face in there and make it as seamless as possible.
That's the American way.
Now, don't think that I'm saying that New Life or any church is consciously doing every bit of this. I don't believe that to be true. It's just that once you put the leavening in the loaf (because you think you're supposed to) that bread's going to rise whether you want it to or not.
I'm not sure that New Life could have done any differently than they did without a major product redesign, and since most American Christians have a helluva time with the understanding of grace, I'm not sure that it it was a possibility.
Anyway, there's my 2 cents on the matter, even though I've got about a quarter's worth to say about the whole thing.