Ted Haggard
I was reading an article written by Greg Stier who is a respected youth pastor in Arvada, CO. He also heads up the “Dare 2 Share” organization that trains thousands of youth across the US to share their faith boldly. Anyway, I wanted to see how other pastors responded to these allegations. His article astounded me. We live in an imperfect world with imperfect people in it. Including pastors, presidents, heads of companies and well respected “icons” in the media. For us to judge Ted Haggard for being human would be unfortunate. Yes, we can grieve for his family and church and yes, we can be sad and understandably upset that this happened but more importantly we need to pray. We are living in a nation that has taken prayer out of schools and promotes gay marriage and lives for the failure of others. But our role as a Christian community is not to conform and be like those who judge Ted Haggard and say disreputable things about him and his ministry. No. Our role is to pray and come along side him. One of the things that Greg Stier says is, “There’s no winner in any scenario. As a matter of fact there are losers all around. Ted Haggard loses credibility and maybe his position of immense spiritual influence. Ted’s family loses. The Christian community loses. But more than anything else the Name and fame of Jesus loses ground. In an already spiritually cynical culture more logs of doubt about Christianity are thrown on the fire of skepticism.”
This is so true. Our main concern should not be, “did he or didn’t he”. Our main attitude should be, “Lord, use this situation. May your name be lifted up in this. Do with this what you will”. Greg also refers to Galations 6:1, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”
He reminds us that we may not struggle with homosexuality or the use of drugs but we are no better than Ted Haggard. We are all sinners and we all “fall short of the glory of God”. We all have things in our life that keep us from fully embracing the love of God. We all have faults and we have all have to come to a point of surrender before the Lord and lay down our lives before Him.
One of the things that Mike Jones (the gay accuser) said in his interview when accused of ruining Ted’s life was that Ted Haggard ruined his life and the lives of everyone he preached to, including his congregation, family and millions of people that have heard him speak. He says that the people Ted preached to should question everything Ted has said because he is obviously not the person he claimed to be. Well, my answer to that is: God can and does use broken people for his glory. If He only used perfect people to do his work, He would have no one to do it. I believe that God has used Ted Haggard to speak and reach many people. I believe people have come to Christ through Ted and that if anyone is questioning their salvation because of Ted’s recent actions, that shows how little their faith was truly grounded in Christ to begin with. If everytime I was let down by someone who God has spoken through in my life, I would trust almost no one. Because we are all broken people and we all make mistakes. This is an unfortunate situation that effects many more people than if Ted Haggard was not as well known but that is not our focus.
Brothers and sisters, let us come together and pray for Ted Haggard and his family. Let us pray for his church and what will come of this desperate situation. Let’s pray for Mike Jones. And most of all, let us pray for the whole truth to come out so that God alone can start to repair and mend broken hearts, broken lives and begin to restore each person who is deeply effected by this. Let us keep in perspective that we are all in need of the Lord’s forgiveness; we are all in need of God’s grace and we are all in need of second chances. I believe our mighty God is the God of second chances. Thank you Lord that you are a God of truth and a God that meets us where we are at. Meet Ted Haggard where he is at. Cause him to fall before you with a repentant heart and recommit his life to following you fully and without shame. For there is no shame in Christ Jesus. Thank you for that. Amen.