Samuel Penner no longer with For Today

NoOneIsHere wrote:Sounds to me like the band had every right to kick him out. Missed shows, rehearsals, and flights are unacceptable in a band. If they were constantly getting a replacement player, then they did the right thing. For both parties.

Band's response:


As you may have heard by now, we asked our guitarist Sam to leave the band following our last tour. We did NOT kick him out of the band for going home to take care of a family emergency. We would never do that. The bottom line is that Sam simply has too much going on in his life to be on the road playing shows. We've seen it put stress on him over the last several months, even to the point of missing flights and rehearsals before tour to be at home longer. He went home from multiple tours (besides this last one) forcing us to have last minute fill ins for weeks of shows at a time. If you saw us play live in the last couple months, there's a good chance that Sam wasn't even on stage with us. We told him months ago that if he wanted to continue playing in the band, that he would have to make some changes. He agreed, but we never saw any change. We're definitely not perfect and don't expect perfection from anyone. But we knew asking Sam to stop touring and stay home with his wife was the right thing to do for both parties. I think it's unnecessary that internal band issues be made public and it's unfortunate that this situation has been painful for everyone involved. We have taken steps to try making this transition as smooth as possible for Sam and his wife. We all love Sam dearly and are going to miss having him on the road and on stage with us.

Friday13th wrote:

NoOneIsHere wrote:Sounds to me like the band had every right to kick him out. Missed shows, rehearsals, and flights are unacceptable in a band. If they were constantly getting a replacement player, then they did the right thing. For both parties.

Band's response:


As you may have heard by now, we asked our guitarist Sam to leave the band following our last tour. We did NOT kick him out of the band for going home to take care of a family emergency. We would never do that. The bottom line is that Sam simply has too much going on in his life to be on the road playing shows. We've seen it put stress on him over the last several months, even to the point of missing flights and rehearsals before tour to be at home longer. He went home from multiple tours (besides this last one) forcing us to have last minute fill ins for weeks of shows at a time. If you saw us play live in the last couple months, there's a good chance that Sam wasn't even on stage with us. We told him months ago that if he wanted to continue playing in the band, that he would have to make some changes. He agreed, but we never saw any change. We're definitely not perfect and don't expect perfection from anyone. But we knew asking Sam to stop touring and stay home with his wife was the right thing to do for both parties. I think it's unnecessary that internal band issues be made public and it's unfortunate that this situation has been painful for everyone involved. We have taken steps to try making this transition as smooth as possible for Sam and his wife. We all love Sam dearly and are going to miss having him on the road and on stage with us.

^ sounds more reasonable. It's a job, and if you're not performing adequately yeah, you get kicked out. Of course they dodged the whole theological differences discourse...makes you wonder why.

On the more humorous side of things, this is what actually went down: 

 

Friday13th wrote:

NoOneIsHere wrote:Sounds to me like the band had every right to kick him out. Missed shows, rehearsals, and flights are unacceptable in a band. If they were constantly getting a replacement player, then they did the right thing. For both parties.

Band's response:


As you may have heard by now, we asked our guitarist Sam to leave the band following our last tour. We did NOT kick him out of the band for going home to take care of a family emergency. We would never do that. The bottom line is that Sam simply has too much going on in his life to be on the road playing shows. We've seen it put stress on him over the last several months, even to the point of missing flights and rehearsals before tour to be at home longer. He went home from multiple tours (besides this last one) forcing us to have last minute fill ins for weeks of shows at a time. If you saw us play live in the last couple months, there's a good chance that Sam wasn't even on stage with us. We told him months ago that if he wanted to continue playing in the band, that he would have to make some changes. He agreed, but we never saw any change. We're definitely not perfect and don't expect perfection from anyone. But we knew asking Sam to stop touring and stay home with his wife was the right thing to do for both parties. I think it's unnecessary that internal band issues be made public and it's unfortunate that this situation has been painful for everyone involved. We have taken steps to try making this transition as smooth as possible for Sam and his wife. We all love Sam dearly and are going to miss having him on the road and on stage with us.

^ sounds more reasonable. It's a job, and if you're not performing adequately yeah, you get kicked out. Of course they dodged the whole theological differences discourse...makes you wonder why.

On the more humorous side of things, this is what actually went down: 

 

Wildcat wrote:This is going to be delicate to bring up because it's inherently theological and will be difficult to discuss, but I feel like it's necessary to at least mention for a full understanding of the situation. Just a couple of weeks ago, Mike Reynolds, the guitarist who left For Today shortly after his controversial comments on homosexuality, publicly shared his concern that Mattie is caught up in a cult. 

It's in that context that Samuel Penner's comments about theological differences and the rest of the band going so far as to tell him he was unequally yoked take on more significance. There's still a fair bit of he said/they said in his situation, and that may have truly had nothing to do with his dismissal, but the timing of the two separate, (as far as I can tell) unrelated statements from former band members related to theology does start to make the band's spiritual direction look suspect to a lot of people.

Friday13th wrote:^ The law meaning like celebrating all the Jewish feasts and rules found in the Torah (other than like blood sacrifices). Most Christians who do this call themselves Messianic or Torah abiding. I don't agree with it, but it's certainly not as out there as the stuff this pastor of Mattie teaches.

Hardcore Christian wrote:I know we've only heard on side of the story but with For Today kicking out members because of "theological differences" like the member who was against gay people, just kicking him out because he didn't agree with your opinion isn't very Christian now is it?

The more people that get kicked out over different teaching the more I lose respect for the Leitru brother and Mattie

Wildcat wrote:This is going to be delicate to bring up because it's inherently theological and will be difficult to discuss, but I feel like it's necessary to at least mention for a full understanding of the situation. Just a couple of weeks ago, Mike Reynolds, the guitarist who left For Today shortly after his controversial comments on homosexuality, publicly shared his concern that Mattie is caught up in a cult. 

It's in that context that Samuel Penner's comments about theological differences and the rest of the band going so far as to tell him he was unequally yoked take on more significance. There's still a fair bit of he said/they said in his situation, and that may have truly had nothing to do with his dismissal, but the timing of the two separate, (as far as I can tell) unrelated statements from former band members related to theology does start to make the band's spiritual direction look suspect to a lot of people.