Christianity Today’s cover article actually made me
sad. It is about New Life church in
Colorado Springs and where it is now (supposedly in a recovery) after the Ted
Haggard business and the shooting that followed not long after. It made me sad because I still don’t think
they get it.
The article is written by a man who worked there for a long
time, left after all the bad stuff, and has recently come back. But listen to his description of why he
started going there in the first place.
He describes the priorities as: “Be a blessing to the world around you”. Then he states,
"Haggard issued a straight-forward gospel, one calling
Christians to give their lives to steady prayer and acts of love." (CT Dec. 2013 issue. pg. 38)
I am not against prayer and acts of love nor being a
blessing to those around you, but this is not the straight forward gospel. The gospel call is straightforward, but it is
“Repent and believe”. Believe what? Believe Jesus is the Christ, Son of the
living God, who has come into the world to take away our sins. According to the article this was not part of
the “glory days” of New Life. Sin is not something you will find mentioned much in the article nor repentance. Then,
according to the article, they went astray getting into politics and then the
awful stuff. Now they are getting back
to basics. What are those basics? Back to prayer and being a blessing to the
less fortunate with acts of love. This
is not getting back to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is back to community service.
The article goes on to talk about how at New Life – Downtown
they are doing some sort of Anglican worship and how the elders have now voted
the Nicene Creed as their statement of faith.
But it is hard to escape the notion that they have no idea about the
theology behind Anglican worship. Or
behind a man being ordained a “priest”. The
article mentions the insights of John Stott, Karl Barth, N.T. Wright, but most
importantly Eugene Peterson, the author of the Message. Somehow, I think even Wright would be
horrified at that thought.
The article was the cover article and touted as good news amidst
the awful news that is usually reported.
I found the distinct lack of “good news” to be the main problem. I am glad that community service is being
done. But that is not what saves people’s
souls. That is not any different than what
the Rotary Club does. New Life appears
to have never focused in on the gospel, and they are still missing the
boat. Out of all the bad news usually
reported, I find this to be the saddest of all.
DISCLAIMER: I lived in the Springs and knew several people
who attended New Life before the Haggard controversy.