2nd Colo. pastor quits over ‘sexual misconduct’
Minister at New Life Church resigns weeks after church leader steps down

Updated: 11:16 a.m. ET Dec 19, 2006
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A pastor who worked with young adults at New Life Church has admitted sexual misconduct and resigned just weeks after former church leader Ted Haggard stepped down over sexual immorality.

Christopher Beard, who headed the “twentyfourseven” ministry that taught leadership skills to young adults, resigned Friday, said Rob Brendle, an associate pastor at the 14,000-member church.

Brendle said Beard told church officials about “a series of decisions displaying poor judgment, including one incident of sexual misconduct several years ago.”

The church said in a statement that the misconduct was with another unmarried adult several years ago. Beard, who worked at the church for nine years, has since married.
Brendle would not elaborate about the nature of the misconduct but said it did not involve Haggard, who acknowledged he paid a man for a massage and for methamphetamine but said he did not have sex with the man and did not use the drug.

'Spiritual character'
Beard’s resignation was first reported Monday by The Denver Post and The Gazette in Colorado Springs. The church said it wouldn’t comment further. A residential phone number listed in Beard’s name was disconnected.

The church’s outside Board of Overseers was asked to examine the “spiritual character” of its 200 staff members after Haggard resigned last month from the church and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

“We recognize there will be increased scrutiny of our church in the wake of the scandal,” Brendle said.

He said Beard discussed his “misconduct” during a meeting with the Board of Overseers, made up of four pastors from other congregations.

Beard was reprimanded by the church in 2002, when police broke up a twentyfourseven training exercise he led in a church parking lot involving fake assault rifles.

Haggard and his wife, Gayle Haggard, are undergoing three weeks of counseling at an undisclosed center in Arizona.

Accuser Who Brought Down Pastor's Ministry Visits Church and is Surprised by His Welcome
"The church's response to him was overwhelmingly warm. One of the wonderful and enduring truths of Christianity is to love people the world sets up to be your enemies."

AP/TN (Jan 29th, 2007)

On Sunday, Mike Jones, the former male prostitute whose accusations against New Life Church founder Ted Haggard led to Haggard's dismissal as pastor, visited the church along with members of a theatre troupe who are researching a project on evangelical Christians. (

According to an AP report, Jones told Denver's 9News that he was welcomed by the congregation. "They were all congenial," he is quoted as saying. "None of them expressed anger, and many expressed gratitude for what they said was 'exposing the deception.'"

Associate Pastor Rob Brendle reportedly approached Jones in the church's foyer and said, "I don't want to impose my religious beliefs on you, but I believe God used you to correct us, and I appreciate that."

"The church's response to him was overwhelmingly warm," said Brendle. "One of the wonderful and enduring truths of Christianity is to love people the world sets up to be your enemies."

Source: AP/Rocky Mountain News

Rev. Haggard is Miraculously Cured from Homosexuality in Three Months (That's a Record)

One of the reverends who was involved for three months in the "intensive counseling" of disgraced Rev. Ted Haggard says that Rev. Haggard is convinced he is now "completely heterosexual."



Rev. Tim Ralph told The Denver Post that Haggard realized he "is completely heterosexual" during therapy.


Yeah, I'm Elvis, you're the Cookie Monster and cows grow on trees.


Rev. Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year after he admitted to hiring male prostitute Mike Jones (who had 'outed' Haggard) and purchasing methamphetamine from Jones. But Haggard claimed he never used the drug even though part of his treatment was for drug abuse.
How interesting!!


Rev. Ralph said about Haggard's new-found heterosexuality: "That is something he discovered [during therapy]. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing." However, Jones claimed he was hired by Haggard dozens of times over a number of years.



In his first communication with church members in three months, Haggard sent an email last Sunday in which he said his wife was working on obtaining a master's degrees in psychology.


How ironic, no? I mean she knows he's a liar and a cheater. Maybe she is trying to figure out why she stays with him.
UMMM, hello, do you really need a masters in psychology to get it? Mrs. Haggard, please, your husband can't become heterosexual just like a heterosexual can't just become a homosexual. Monkey scratches his head.


"Nobody is saying he can't go back into ministry," Rev. Ralph said. "Somewhere down the road, that could very well happen, and that would be wonderful."