The media is reporting that Ted Haggard is starting new church at his Colorado Springs home. Should Ted Haggard pursue church leadership again? Does genuine forgiveness require Christians to support Mr. Haggard’s desire to pursue church leadership again once he has produced the appropriate and necessary fruit of repentance? Or do God’s criteria of holiness for church leadership preclude him from ecclesiastical office for a longer period of time if not the rest of his life (cf. I Timothy 3:2 – “The overseer must be above reproach”? What about I Timothy 3:6? It reads: “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.” Is that warning not also applicable to those whose moral failures or doctrine demonstrate themselves to be as though of one who is a new convert? Is the modern Western Church fraudulently hiding cowardice or low moral standards behind the fig leaf of “forgiveness” because we don’t really love people and don’t want to engage in the hard work of confrontation and genuine accountability? Or is the Western Church too harsh and unforgiving?
(If you are unfamiliar with the case of Ted Haggard, click here for info if you are interested.)
—-
November 4, 2009
Haggard starting new church at his Springs home
By Mark Barna
Ted Haggard, who started New Life Church in his Colorado Springs basement and built it into a megachurch with thousands of worshippers, said Wednesday that he is starting a church at his home. “We wanted to do something in our house to connect with friends,” said Haggard, whose ties to New Life ended in scandal three years ago with the revelation that he’d been involved with a male prostitute in Denver. Haggard will hold his first gathering, open to the public, at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at his house at 1865 Old Ranch Road. He referred to it as a “prayer meeting” but said it would also be correct to call it a church. Although Haggard recently indicated he had no plans to start a church, he said he changed his mind two weeks ago after talking to a friend in Florida who was involved in prayer meetings.



