Evangelicalism: Reformation or Self-Destruction

Many of you have been waiting for me to comment on the Ted Haggard story. I hesitate to just react without knowing the facts. At the same time it's an issue that can not be ignored.

Sadly yet another evangelical leader, this time an immensely influential one, has made with headlines blaring words like, “gay”, “prostitute” and “drugs”. The information continues to change. A short time ago it was an allegation and an outright denial. Family values organizations were using terms like “leftist smear job” and “character assassination”. Now there is an admission by Rev. Haggard that he contacted a gay prostitute for a massage and some methamphetamine. The family values groups are growing quieter.

Colorado Springs has had its share of gay church follies this week. Earlier, another evangelical pastor across town from Rev. Haggard's church stepped down after announcing to his congregation that he is actually, “gay”. Congregations facing these situations are being ripped apart, believers disillusioned, the followers of Christ mocked and ridiculed by the world and the foundation of Christian claims to moral authority shattered. So what went wrong here? How did one of the nation's most visible pastors and outspoken defenders of biblical marriage end up with a gay prostitute, at the very least, for a massage? How does a spiritual leader with all of the years of ministry and presumably, Bible study behind him, end up telling the world's media that he bought meth from a gay hooker because he was “curious”, as though he was an unsaved adolescent, and not a very bright one at that?

Evangelicalism is where medieval Roman Catholicism was just before that portentous day when Luther pounded his Theses to the door at Wittenburg. Like Rome, today's evangelical Christianity has become about political and temporal power. Similarly, systems and methods have replaced confidence in the Gospel. Church growth and marketing courses now trump Bible classes. Like the Roman church, the gathering in of money to build bigger and better church is a top priority. In place of medieval church relics and idols, we now have media celebrities and icons to follow after. Rather than do the painstaking and difficult work of daily ministering to a lowly flock, pastors today style themselves after celebrities, lusting after their power and their influence and craving what they believe is “success”. Now the slick, polished icons are falling. The foundation that so many thought was biblical and solid is now shifting. The church as a conservative political task force is faltering.There is confusion in the ranks.

What is needed is a clear Biblical voice in this hour. The evangelical church lacks a single leader. One above reproach who can unite and lead. There is a desperate need of a second reformation; not one that is based on some leader's 5 points of this or 40 days of that, but a reformation based on a return to the love of God's authoritative Word. A reformation that would see preachers on their knees before God repenting for personal ambition and desire for worldly success and then rising in their pulpits to declare the whole counsel of God without fear or favor. We need a new generation, sick of man made schemes, political ambitions and mass media dreams, a generation that has been taught to love the Lord God with all thier mind and strength. Then maybe God will honor His people with His presence and the dross and corruption will be cleaned out of the church, and she will be fit for true service.

I can't say this enough, don't invest in man. Invest in God. If we can't run our own lives and churches with integrity, we as Christians have nothing to tell the world. There are thousands of people who thought they were followng God, that are now left scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong. Judgment begins at the house of God.