The Associated Press has a new feature about Leith Anderson, the Minnesota megachurch pastor who’s the new president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). He’s the guy who took over after the collapse of Ted Haggard.
Can’t find the link yet, but the first four grafs are revealing about where Anderson intends to take (or not take) the NAE:
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) _ When a presidential campaign contacted the Rev. Leith Anderson to ask for a meeting recently, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals said he had a bigger priority that day.
“I had a wedding or a funeral, I can’t remember which,” Anderson said, sitting in his book-lined office at the suburban Minneapolis megachurch he’s led for 31 years. “Anyway, I don’t pre-empt a wedding or a funeral for a presidential candidate. Because I’m a pastor.”
Indeed, Anderson still leads seven services a weekend at Wooddale Church. But the story of the spurned candidate, whom he declined to name, offers some insight into his vision for the NAE – an organization that represents 45,000 churches and 30 million members.
“My life is not in Washington,” Anderson said. “I am not a politician. What evangelists are about is primarily faith, and not politics.”