Overseers to Haggard: Get a Job!
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, September 04, 2007
- Viewed 284
- (13) comments so far
Disgraced pastor Ted Haggard won’t be fundraising for a Monument nonprofit run by a sex offender, won’t be ministering to anyone and needs to get a job, his overseers said in a statement released this afternoon.
“Mr. Haggard’s solicitation for personal support was inappropriate,” his church supervisors said in the statement.
The statement came one day after the four-member team of ministers responsible for overseeing the spiritual restoration of Haggard met with him in Phoenix.
Last week, Haggard had e-mailed a KRDO-TV reporter in Colorado Springs, asking that supporters send contributions to Families with a Mission, a Monument non-profit run by Paul Huberty, a twice convicted sex offender.
In his fundraising solicitation, Haggard said he was looking for people who would be willing to support him and his wife, Gayle, monthly for two years while they sought to obtain their counseling degrees from University of Phoenix.
Haggard had also told KRDO that he and his family were planning to move into the Phoenix Dream Center, a halfway house, where he and his wife, Gayle, would minister to the “broken people” there.
The overseers said Wednesday that Haggard will not be moving into the Dream Center.
“It was never the intention of the Dream Center that Mr. Haggard would provide any counsel or other ministry,” wrote the overseers.
“Mr. Haggard will not be moving in or working with the Dream Center. He will not be doing any ministry. He will be seeking secular employment to support himself.”
Haggard, 50, quit in November as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired as pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs after he admitted to purchasing drugs and unspecified “sexual immorality” involving a male prostitute.
So… what do you think it going on in Ted’s head? Is he having trouble coping with reality? Is he just so ambitious that he wants to get back into ministry? Or is he doing only what he knows how to do? I’d love your input.
You may remember Ted Haggard's email asking for financial assistance for him and his family from last week. Well, it turns out that, in fact, Ted and his family are NOT moving into a halfway house, they WON'T be ministering in any way, and, according to his overseers, Ted needs to get a job. This from the Rocky Mountain News...
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reGeN on Tue, September 04, 2007
haggard has his issues but what i find interesting about the overseers letter is that i heard with my own ears tommy barnett say during a service that haggard WAS moving into the phoenix dream center…i’m not sure what change in a span of 3 weeks other than haggard’s solicitory letter…oh well…
Derek Vreeland on Tue, September 04, 2007
What is going on in Ted’s head? Great question…
It seems that he is just doing what he knows to do. I don’t think he is ambitious or trying to reclaim some kind of glory in ministry. It is simply inertia. He is allowing the weight of those years of fundraising carry him along.
If Haggard was asking me for advice, I would say: Sit down. Shut up. Get healed. Get a job. Love your family. Love Jesus and spend the next 5 years being normal.
Derek
Wendi on Tue, September 04, 2007
Maybe the plan was to have Ted and his family move into the Dream Center halfway house as clients in need of the recovery services the center offers.
Wendi
Dennis on Tue, September 04, 2007
All of the above. Anyone functioning with the level of deception and compartmentalization that he’s has is going to take some time for his life/heart to be integrated again.
I’m hopeful that at some point he will come to see that the greatest work that God will ever do through his life is the word he will allow God to do in his life. When that deep change happens whatever impact or testimony his life is to have in kingdom purposes will come about in a non-manipulative fashion.
Finally, it sounds like the those who are overseeing him are having to recalibrate how much their commitment to his restoration will demand of them. Being in the setting of one of the leaders on a continual basis needs to be balanced by all of their input and wisdom. I suspect that at the very least Ted will be vetting things in private with these leaders before he does them publicly…if he wants their continued oversight.
Daniel on Tue, September 04, 2007
“What is going on in Ted’s head?” Bad question!!
Why the heck would we hypothesize about another man’s thoughts? So we can judge them? It’s none of our business, unless we’re making it our business to pray for those who have say-so in Mr. Haggard’s life.
Todd, is there any constructive purpose to this voyeurism of the imagination?
Todd Rhoades on Tue, September 04, 2007
“voyeurism of the imagination?”
Wow… you’re putting some pretty fancy wording to my thoughts there, Daniel.
The purpose (and I’ll speak for myself here) is that it is interesting to me. That’s really all this blog is… a grouping of things that are interesting to me.
As far as “is it helpful?”… yes, I think it can be… because we all must not only look inside our own mind to keep sane; but also to be effective in ministry. We all have our ‘Haggard’ moments… whether we are just on ‘auto pilot’ doing things that we’re used to doing (as someone mentioned, I think that’s probably what Ted’s doing here); or just so caught up in our own ideas and agenda that we get tripped up when someone points that out to us.
So, yes… I think there is some meaning to this madness.
That’s ‘why the heck’ I posted it.
http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/smile.gif
Todd
Derek Vreeland on Tue, September 04, 2007
Certainly we (I) don’t judge Haggard, but there is something to processing another man’s sin in a community. Not to be hurtful or judgmental, but so that we can learn from the mistakes of others.
It is easier to do that with fallen Christians outside your immediate community, because you don’t run the risk of offending them or their family.
This is why I thought it was a good question.
Derek
Carlos on Tue, September 04, 2007
I don’t find Haggard’s reaction that strange. I mean, What would you do in his case? You have been a Pastor for many years, most of your “working” years anyway. You are fired from your job of being a Pastor and then you find yourself at the age of 50 with no income and nobody wants to hire you. The only thing you know to do well is counseling, directing, pastoring (and Haggard was good at doing those things). How are you going to get a “secular employment” at the age of 50? Doing what? and Who is going to want to employ you? But of course Haggard should have thought of that before he did what he did last year. So I don’t know, is it too hard to understand his present behaviour?
Carlos
Dave Bailey on Wed, September 05, 2007
My heart breaks for Haggard, but my brain aches at the clinical tone of the “overseers”. Doesn’t anybody in his world realize that you can’t totally take someone’s dreams and passions away and expect them to maintain the courage that it requires to recover. If the point of all of this is to recover Haggard’s heart and family, we have to seriously question how that happens with him as a dishwasher, or a car wash attendant or in some other “secular job”. He has spiritual gifts - let him use them. He disqualified himself from being a leader, but he didn’t disqualify himself from being a Christian. I think it would be awesome for him to be in the Dream Center - not as a leader, but as a servant. Let him be around broken people who are being honest about their brokenness. Let him live right in the middle of the results of sin. Let him weep and grieve with the hurting while they weep and grieve with him. Haggard will only get well when he learns the real time dynamics of “walking in light” - moving the things that shame us out of isolation into community - and in that process finding deep relationships and supernatural cleansing. Keep Haggard and his wife and his family close to “real” ministry… it will keep his heart from being overwhelmed with grief, shame and loss. And, if you really want to hit a home run, put him right back into the church in Colorado and let him be healed in an enviroment of honesty, accountability, responsibility and true community. That would make a far greater statement to the watching world than the “button-downed” pseudo-righteous, psycho babble that we’re getting fed at the moment!
Leonard on Wed, September 05, 2007
Dave,
Ted is not the victim of the overseers. These are the people that he agreed to abide by their direction. These are not a bunch of people running an experiment on Ted either. These are men who are well versed in restoration. Ted, sadly, is living in the consequence of his own choices. Ted’s family, sadly, is impacted by these choices too. Go through the process not around it. If you love your family then do not short circuit your families trust by cutting corners in the process. Limbo is hard but not as hard as losing your family because you cut corners and did not finish what was designed to restore and heal you.
Wendi on Wed, September 05, 2007
Dave – your comment implies that Haggard cannot be in ministry unless he is getting paid for ministry. Right now he needs to submit to his overseers and perhaps (with the permission of the oversight team) serve in some role completely behind the scenes.
I recall a leader at my church whose wife ran off. He completely (and voluntarily) stepped away from all ministry leadership. He found a spot on the hospitality team parking cars on Sunday mornings. He was a great encouragement to the team, simply by not insisting on something “important.”
No one is expecting him to give up his dreams and passions, but as Leonard has stated, there is a consequence for his actions. Moses spent 40 years in the dessert because he let his God-given heart for his people get the best of him, and he killed an Egyptian.
Your comment also demeans the 99% of all Christians in “secular work” who have very significant ministry without getting paid for their service. I know dishwashers and car-wash attendants who love the Lord and are fully using their spiritual gifts of leadership or teaching (or service or encouragement), without having to get a church job. This is a season to do the same.
Wendi
Dave Bailey on Thu, September 06, 2007
Wow, that was an adventure in missing my point! I’m really not sure how you could read into what I said that I believe 1) that Haggard should be in leadership right now, and 2) that I believe that a person is not in ministry unless they’re getting paid.
Haggard has disqualified himself from leadership at this stage of his life - hopefully he will recover and be fully restored. But whether that happens or not, he should still be encouraged to serve as a Christian. I’m totally with you when you say that you know dishwashers and car-wash attendants who fully use their spiritual gifts - that was my point… don’t limit Haggard to a “secular job”, but allow and encourage him, while he works that job (whatever it is), to continue to express his spiritual gifts in ways that give him the courage to continue to deal with his issues.
And, since I work in the recovery field, I would NEVER want anyone to short circuit the process - the question is, “What is the process?”, and is the process you’ve chosen one that will actually restore your heart, your family, and the people that you’ve injured on the way. And, for us as Christ followers, we have to question ourselves at another level - is the process that we are engaging in with the goal of restoring a fallen leader distinctly Christian and filled with the grace of God.
I absolutely applaud the leader who humbly became part of the car park team! And, using that as a model, I would love to see Haggard become part of the Dream Center team and work out the dynamics of honesty, accountability and responsibility in the middle of the compelling dynamics of community.
Haggard is the poster child for “fake it till you make it” Christianity. I would love to see him become the poster child for radical grace…
Gary on Fri, September 07, 2007
I think the overseers working with Ted Haggard have a really tough job and many of the things they are facing they have to use wisdom from God more than following any precedent.
I have learned many things from Ted and I’ve even considered him an apostle but this whole thing has left me scratching my head more than really having any answers at all.
I’m going to continue to pray for the overseers and for Ted but I have a feeling that Ted will be tempted to return to public ministry before the healing/restoration process is complete.
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