We join in quiet prayers for the Warrens. This forum SHALL be quiet on these issues, notwithstanding the bucolic invocations of the AnaBaptist revivalists like the blowhard Stetzer, even Warren. We yield and offer a 60-day moratorium.
Share the good word, that is, that Stetzer is a Gaseous Windbag. The Gasbag needs deflation.
Also, share the moratorium on further comments re: Saddlebag's windbag until he and family pass through a period of mourning. We mourn with them.
http://www.edstetzer.com/2013/04/please-join-me-in-praying-for-rick-and-kay-warren-on-this-darkest-of-days.html
I am saddened by the news today of the death of Matthew Warren, son of my friends Rick and Kay Warren. Many of us, both inside the church and outside, have been praying for Matthew for several years, so this is a sad moment for the Warrens and many others.
Rick sent the following email to his staff at Saddleback, and it was published online by Charisma Magazine:
Over the past 33 years we've been together through every kind of crisis. Kay and I've been privileged to hold your hands as you faced a crisis or loss, stand with you at gravesides, and prayed for you when ill. Today, we need your prayer for us.
No words can express the anguished grief we feel right now. Our youngest son, Matthew, age 27, and a lifelong member of Saddleback, died today.
You who watched Matthew grow up knew he was an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man. He had a brilliant intellect and a gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room. He'd then make a beeline to that person to engage and encourage them.
But only those closest knew that he struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In spite of America's best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided. Today, after a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life.
Kay and I often marveled at his courage to keep moving in spite of relentless pain. I'll never forget how, many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said, "Dad, I know I'm going to heaven. Why can't I just die and end this pain?" but he kept going for another decade.
Charisma Magazine has more on the story here. Greg Laurie also has a post on his site that is worth reading.
I'll be sharing more on mental illness, the ministry, and how we deal with these things in the days to come.
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