DALLAS—The new senior pastor of the Colorado megachurch that Ted Haggard left in disgrace said Wednesday that the congregation is regaining members lost after Haggard’s sex scandal.
“Our attendance has been up 1,700 to 1,800 people. We’re back where we were two years ago,” Brady Boyd said. “If you just take care of people, people are going to come to this church.”
Boyd, 40, was selected Monday by members of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He spoke by phone Wednesday to The Associated Press while relaxing with friends in the Dallas area.
Haggard, 50, left New Life and resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year after a former male prostitute alleged he had a cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard. The man also said he saw Haggard use methamphetamine.
Haggard confessed to undisclosed “sexual immorality” and said he bought meth but never used it.
Boyd had been an associate senior pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, an upscale Fort Worth suburb.
Besides a drop in its attendance, New Life has seen its revenues drop by 10 percent since Haggard left.
Boyd said he knew he wasn’t facing a routine pastoral transition and had plenty of questions for church members.
“I wanted to know if this church was ready to move forward,” he said. “They just want to be normal. They just want to care for one another and be a church. They think their reputation as a church can be recovered.”
