Church leaders looking to future

Outside panel stepping in to help congregation move on from scandal

Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

COLORADO SPRINGS - Leaders of New Life Church met Monday night to pray for guidance and discuss the selection process for a new senior pastor.

Church elders and the church's board of trustees met separately.

Elders were later briefed on an extensive process to select a new senior pastor.

The church's board of overseers said Sunday that the church hopes to name a new senior pastor by the end of the year.

Aileen Rediger, 48, an elder for more than 10 years, said before Monday night's meeting that the agenda was "probably about the whole election process, how we go about this," she said. "Everyone will need to have a heads-up. Nobody has been anticipating this."

On Saturday, the church's overseers removed Ted Haggard, 50, as senior pastor of the 14,000-member church he founded after he admitted to them that he had committed sexual indiscretions with a gay male escort.

Mike Jones, 49, of Denver, alleged that he had a sexual relationship with Haggard for three years and had helped the pastor obtain methamphetamine.

Haggard resigned Thursday as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and put himself on leave as senior pastor of the church. He was fired Saturday from his post with the church.

On Sunday, letters from Ted Haggard and his wife, Gayle Haggard, were read to the New Life Church congregation during morning services.

In his letter, Ted Haggard apologized for his behavior and asked parishioners for their forgiveness. Gayle Haggard wrote that she would be supporting her husband as he seeks help.

A three-member panel has been selected to oversee Ted Haggard's rehabilitation.

Lin Mondy, a church elder for 13 years, said the Haggard family had gone on vacation, but she and other elders say they do not know where they went.

She added that church leaders want the overseers to continue investigating Haggard.

"We have nothing to hide," she said. "What we continue to do is with integrity. We always have an open-book policy."

Rediger said she has had recent contact with Gayle Haggard, who had been a leader in the women's ministry at the church.

"She's doing well," said Rediger, a pastor for the women's ministry with New Life Church.

"She's really going to be fine. It's been difficult, but she's been through difficult things before. She's learned how to weather life."

"It (the scandal) hit hard and fast," she said. "We're just coming around to really talking to each other about it. There's been shock and tears. Now, we'll start the process of healing and thinking it through."

Rediger said she hopes the church will benefit from the experience.

"We want to honor Ted and Gayle. They started a great church, and we don't want to see it gone," she said. "I would like to see us grow from this, both as individuals and as a congregation.

"We can reach out to more people because we're real and genuine."