kenny

One of the most balanced responses I've read on the news of Ted
Haggard's recent public downfall was on Mirko's english blog:
http://mirkosander.de/?p=77

Because of the high-profile of this, it can be taken down so many
roads: moral standing, political craziness, feeling sorry for him &
his family, anger towards the hipocracy of religion, & even
base-lining to the point where it can seem to be no hope for the
morality of people.

The thing I like about Mirko's response is that it is very kingdom
based. All of these aforementioned roads are touched on when god's
kingdom & him as king / the "pearl of great price" are the goal.

Specifics ala Mirko:
"What bothers me even more are all the ?pure? Christians who neatly
take out their bows and start shooting arrows at him ?

When I held this seminar on leadership, I realized again how many
leaders failed because they didn?t stay clean. Many are crying for
leadership and later are living like a footballplayer on a minefield.
They don?t realize that Mr.S wants to destroy them and that satanic
groups are even praying and fasting for the marriages of leaders to
fail and for leaders to fall into sin.

If you?re a leader, stay clean - don?t drive on two roads - it?ll
break your neck one day.

I wish we as a church would learn to stand behind our leaders. I
myself know the stress and pressure that is caused by such a job and
it doesn?t help when meanwhile people are shooting in your back."

It's not primarily about morality, the emotional damage a family takes
living in lies, or politics (isn't god actually king??).

This is where the "both/and" mentality, rather than "either/or" that
Steve Robbins talks about is key. The goal of the church is not
personal morality or even unabashed license (sometimes labeled
grace)... but rather being a vessel of the King in his kingdom (& i'm
not talking american politics people).

God bless Ted Haggard... I pray that he will seek the pearl & continue
the next phase of the road ahead.

Paul Strait is a guy I have been meaning to blog about for a while. Some of you know him, but none of us get to see him half as much as we'd like.

Paul is a guy who was apart of the NYC Vineyard many years ago. Long story short he got in touch with the Jesus Freaks (at that time a group of mostly 17 year old teenage punks) in Hamburg & got the relationship rolling with the Turrigianos.

This is a highly unlikely combination because Paul is not a particularly trending guy, he was not that young himself nor was he looking for this kind of role. Actually he was a corporate lawyer in NYC at the time. Shortly after, though unsatisfied with practicing law, he put himself through Columbia medical school & became an ER doctor.... in addition to buying houses (on a credit card, as the myth goes) & fixing them up with his dad in Maine.

This is the amazing part: since then he has been a "missionary" so to speak to the Jesus Freak groups that have sprung up around Europe. He has spent the last 10+ years living somewhere between Maine, Manhattan & Germany... at first working for like 3 weeks straight in the ER in Maine, then going to Germany for 3 weeks... like 6 or 7 times a year. Now he works in Heildelberg like a 24 hour shift & then someone picks him up & they go to visit & encourage Jesus Freak groups during the day. I mean like... doing this 6 or 7 days a week! I also know he's personally put atleast 1 kid through college financially (probably more).

If he reads this, he may be embarassed... but he is an amazing friend & person.

More to come on Paul & why I'm sharing this tomorrow....

I saw Beck at Lollapalooza many moons ago. Before that day I thought, even though he was a loser (baby), he was pretty cool. It was a hot day & he was on towards the end of the afternoon, so people were tired, hot & rocknroll agitated (July in NYC is like the rain forest).

So someone throws a bottle up at him on the stage... instead of taking it like a man he freaks out (like the loser he self-professed being) & whined "if you guys keep throwing stuff at me, I'm not gonna play anymore". So of course, this provoked the crowd like school kids with a sub in June to throw everything possible up onto that stage. He then takes his microphone & moves behind the drummer & continues his set. A loser indeed. My taste for him was lost in that moment.

..... until we caught him on Letterman this past week. A phenominal performance. & I just found the video below from SNL this past Saturday. The dude has regained stud status in my heart & mind.