More than two decades ago, Ted Haggard began what would become New Life Church in his Colorado Springs home. With the help of his wife, Gayle, the church grew from 20 members to 14,000 and onto a $50 million campus.

Now, after his fall from grace and highly publicized recovery, Haggard has returned to prayer meetings in his house.

“It’s an exploratory meeting,” Haggard tells The Denver Post. “We need a core team to relate to as a spiritual family. We expect just a handful of people, but anybody’s welcome. We’ll see where it goes.”

Haggard, who became an insurance salesman, left Colorado after being exposed in a drugs-and-prostitution scandal, but eventually returned to his Colorado Springs home at 1865 Old Ranch Road.

Haggard’s old evangelical friends are not happy to hear about his return, including C. Peter Wagner, who co-founded the World Prayer Center with Haggard and says Haggard should seek approval before leading others in worship (via the Colorado Springs Gazette). Gary Black, who leads a missionary group and worked with Haggard in the 1990s, was taken aback: “I would be shocked to think he’s ready to lead a church.”

Posted 11/5/2009 at 2:00 pm by Michael de Yoanna
Panorama, People, Religion :: Permalink :: Comments

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.