Oh to be fired from as a football coach, or a Pastor of a MEGA MEGA church it seems...Everyone felt so bad this year for Mike Shula being fired so unfairly from Alabama...most over looked the fact that he did get 4 million dollars as a ‘severence’...I wouldnt mind that…

God forbid I ever commit such dark sins as Ted Haggard, but could I please get fired from one of these New Life Type of Mega churches for say, showing up late on a regular basis...I mean if sexual perversion gets him my youth pastor salary times 4, maybe just a little unprofessionalism could get me around $250,000???

while I strongly disagree with what Ted did and has done, what is wrong with the church providing him with a severance package equal to a one year salary?  Many porfessions offer the same one year of salary type of package if not more.  To be honest Brad, why should you get receive more than what you currently make if you left?  Ted did not receive more than his salary.
I mean, the man sinned, but let’s be fair here.
Larry

Grace. Pure. Simple. Grace.

That just seems like a crapload of money to me.  Severance is all well and good, but man! what a salary!  If he was workin’ 40 hours a week (which, for the sake of family, I pray is near the max of every pastor everywhere), why was he making that much?  I’m can’t judge, since I’m not a part of that body, but that sure seems like a hefty chunk o’ change.

Although Ted has sinned his family still has to live.  I think the church kept this in mind.
Jade

Brad,
You are right, a year isnot typical, but it New Life is not a typical church.  Size and budget do play into this situation.  And yes, different sins do bring different responses.  If this had been with a child, Ted Haggard would be in prison, there would be no severence pay, but I would bet that New Life would support his wife and family.  It would not be a severence pay but would still come out of the church.  I would agree that a years severence is a lot.  If the goal is just to help Ted financially it would be wrong, if the goal is to restore him, not as a pastor, but as a brother in Christ I am OK with it. Not totally in support, but recognise that it is not like paying him a million dollars a year.

Having spent most of my life in secular work, and only 3 years in ministry, I continue to be amazed at the generous severance packages that churches often give to their ex pastors who have been uncerimoniously removed.  I think that it’s great that New Life Church offers any severance package at all.  I know of a recent situation where a senior pastor was let go of due to ongoing conflicts with the church board.  In a similar fashion, this senior pastor was given a 1 year severance package of 70k.  I realize that Haggards severance package was somewhat exorbitant, and that Haggard was removed due to being in sin.  However, since we are to “love our enemies” and do acts of kindness that “heap burning coals upon our enemies heads,” then how are we to treat, the spiritual leader that screws up?  New Life Church has been more than gracious to Ted Haggard and at this point they’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty.  Consequently, New Life’s board can stand before God in good conscience knowing that they’ve treated Haggard with extreme grace and kindness.  Somehow, that seems more important to me than treating Haggard as he “deserves.”

As time unfolds the truth, you will find that this past year he got caught, but that there was more to the sin than a once meeting.  So to dismiss this as “He sinned so do we” is kind of offensive.  Ted lied to his congregation for years.  He lied to his family for years.  Not in general but specifically about his homosexual desires.  His sin was not limited to the act of meeting a male prostitute in a hotel.  His sin involved years of deception, covering up, misleading and then confession when it was inevitable he was going to be exposed.

It is not graceless to say this is too much money nor is it graceless to feel disgusted by the deception and sexual deviance of a leader.  While the wages of our sin was paid in full, the consequence of our sin here on earth still manifest itself daily.  I am a pastor and I do have an understanding of vocational ministry.  I have started a couple churches and I do have an idea of what it means to sacrifice.  However Ted lied, was sexually unfaithful to his wife and family, he broke the standards of his call as laid out in scripture, he misled, lied and led astray people caught in a deviant lifestyle for his own sexual gratification, he then lied to all of us publicly and only when he got caught he admits to the stuff they knew already.  He then accelerates his counseling and says, sorry I did that stuff. 

If we say NO, this should not be we are graceless?  If we say, help him out, not just to the tune of 130k we are graceless? 

Finally, Keith you are right I have sin no one knows about.  But it does not involve me lying to my church, cheating on my wife with a male prostitute, purchasing drugs and keeping a dark secret for years.  It does not involve a pattern of behavior that we only know about because he got caught.  Your reasoning loses me.

The handling of the plight of the 44 staff that were let go due to Ted’s actions is extremely important.  These were faithful servants who through no fault of their own now find themselves in search of work.  The church should extend the same grace to these faithful who did no wrong as they did to Ted.  As one who has observed a few similar situations, it has been my experience that the high profile servants frequently get much mor egrace and consideration, even in wrongdoing, than those who suffer not because of what they have done, but become the collateral damage of the scandal.