i think my best memories of him were on the trip to colorado. i was in omaha, and every year the youth group organized a senior trip for all the graduating students. pastor mike came along as usual, making it unforgettable.

i remember him driving the church van over orange safety cones.

i remember him almost getting stuck in a 2ft. by 1.5 ft. tunnel during a caving expedition in the colorado rockies.

i remember all of us having an hour-long dicussion with him about the movie memento.

i remember him telling the whole van about when his wife had a c-section with one of their kids, how he got to be in the operating room, and the surgeon asked him if he wanted to hold sharla's uterus (i think it was the uterus, anyway). which he did. he said it was the coolest thing ever.

that was one of the best weeks of my life.

but there was so much more to pastor mike.

i remember him telling stories about when he and sharla first got married and were poor as anything. they lived in minnesota i think, and ate popcorn and macaroni for months because they couldn't afford anything else.

i remember him listening to me cry after deeg broke my heart.

i remember him challenging me to do more with music, to pursue that which i was gifted in. he said he believed i would start something new in the music industry.

i remember cooking honey-seared steaks with him and john pillen at his house one summer, then watching cartoons and reading bible stories with his kids in a tent in the front yard.

i remember asking him to officiate my wedding someday. he said he would love to, as long as we did some premarital counseling beforehand.

i remember that i decided in high school that someday i would want to marry someone like pastor mike. he was so good to sharla, he was hilarious, he was perceptive, he was kind. he loved God. even now, that is something that no one who knew him could deny. his prayers were passionate, and his preaching was powerful.

i would say that he was probably the most influential person in helping to ground me in the faith before i came to school in chicago.

and now his face is plastered all over iowa and omaha news channels. "Youth Pastor Facing Sex Charges." ouch.

the same mike hintz? yep, there's his picture. it's the same.

the news says that he started an affair with a 17-year old girl in the youth group in the spring, and that she spoke of it later in counseling.

it also says that the church fired him at the end of october, upon hearing the allegations. the girl involved apparently told a mandatory reporter what had happened, who told the department of human services, who told the police. i guess earlier this week he turned himself in.

the church issued a statement saying that Pastor Mike had admitted to some inappropriate activity, and that they fired him as the youth pastor.

his lawyer says, however, that he is denying the charges.

what the heck?

i mean i'm sure the news isn't totally accurate, but even as rumors these are shocking. if you really knew Pastor Mike, you would agree that something like this is totally out of his character. if there were ever a couple to make it-- to stick it out, to be the shining example of a family and a couple, it would be them.

it's amazing how an act of indiscretion can change the course of your entire life. especially when you're in the ministry. especially when you're in the public eye. especially when it's a minor. not only does it damage your marriage and your family, but it also sacrifices your career, your passion; and puts a big mark on your criminal record.

so, what do i say after all this? we live in a society in which the media is so loaded with temptations and in which the family unit is so atrophic that we are producing myriads of dysfunctional, attention-craving kids who need and desire real role models, but know way too much about sex. they falsely end up seeking romantic and sexual experiences to satisfy that void for intimacy, and i would think that commonly for girls, the object of affection becomes a man in authority over them; a man who knows his indentity as a man. a real man, sometimes regardless of his marital status, draws a hurting girl. i don't know for sure that this is true of the young lady in this case, but you can imagine what can happen when you put a dozen or more of these girls without proper counseling and accountability into a youth group with a youth pastor who is everything good that their fathers are not. unfortunately, there is a lot of potential for error there, and the caution that pastors must exercise so that they do not fall prey to temptations in this area is so very great and important, yet very difficult to do all of the time. it can be so very messy.

so don't be so quick to judge about this. i know you would love to make a sarcastic remark about the irony of pastor mike speaking of president bush's values just a couple months ago and then having this come out. but don't. if you knew mike hintz and sharla as i have known them, you would love them. your heart would ache over the poor decisions that have been made and how they will affect the future of a family that has greatly and positively impacted hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. pray for them, love them, support them.

and if you see sharla or pastor mike, be sure to tell them that i love them dearly.