(RNS) — Pastor Brady Boyd, who helped one of the country’s biggest evangelical congregations recover from the Ted Haggard scandal and an attack by a gunman in the early 2000s, has resigned from the Colorado megachurch.
Church elders at New Life Church in Colorado Springs said Boyd, its senior pastor, misled the congregation about his knowledge of sexual abuse by his friend and mentor Robert Morris.
“When Brady recently told our congregation inaccurately that he was unaware of certain details regarding Morris’ past abuse, trust was broken, and the elders asked Brady to resign,” church elder Scott Palmer said in a statement read during a service on Sunday (June 22). Boyd resigned last week.
Boyd became pastor of New Life in 2007, months after Haggard, who was then an adviser to President George W. Bush and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, resigned from the church in a sex scandal. Before that year was out, a gunman opened fire at the church, killing two people and wounding several others. The gunman had also previously attacked a missionary training center.
In their statement, the New Life elders told the congregation that Boyd had helped the church recover from tragedy.
“Brady’s steady hand of leadership helped the church through extremely dark times into a long season of peace,” Palmer said, reading from a statement.
The elders also announced that Daniel Grothe had been named the church’s new pastor and that a succession plan had already been in place.
Before becoming a pastor at New Life, which draws 15,000 people to services, Boyd had been on the staff from 2001 to 2007 at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, where Morris was the longtime pastor. When Boyd came to New Life, he made Morris part of a board that oversaw the Colorado church.
Pastor Robert Morris applauds during a roundtable discussion at the Gateway Church Dallas campus, June 11, 2020, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Morris, a former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, resigned last year after details of his past misconduct became public. During the 1980s, when he was in his 20s and a traveling minister, Morris began abusing a 12-year-old girl in Oklahoma. That abuse went on for years, according to published reports.
While Morris had long confessed to past misconduct, the age of his victim, Cindy Clemishire, had not been publicly known until last year. Morris, who said Clemishire and her family had forgiven him, was indicted earlier this year and charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, according to The Associated Press.
Clemishire, who has publicly accused Morris of abuse, has sued him, alleging defamation, conspiracy and emotional distress.
In a court filing, attorneys for Morris said elders at Gateway knew all the details of Morris’ misconduct for years — including during the time when Boyd was a leader at the church. Another filing alleged elders at New Life had been informed about Morris’ conduct at the time when Boyd was hired.
In a sermon on June 8, Boyd told the New Life congregation that he knew Morris had a past moral failing but did not know the details of Morris’ conduct, including the age of the victim, until the last year. Boyd told the congregation Morris had betrayed him, and Boyd apologized for having made Morris an overseer at the church. Boyd said media accounts claiming he had long known the age of the victim were inaccurate and an “attack of the enemy.”
During the sermon, Boyd recounted his own long history at the church and swore he would always tell the congregation the truth.
“This relationship that I have with you, the fact that you got up this morning, got dressed and came into this building and trust me to open up the Bible and teach you the Bible, is built on trust,” he said. “It’s built on integrity and trust.”
In their statement, the elders at New Life said they believe Boyd had been less than honest with the congregation and said the pastor had broken trust with them.
Boyd did not return messages from RNS seeking comment on Wednesday. But on Friday, the same day his resignation was announced, he posted a highlighted and underlined set of Bible verses from Psalm 138 on his Instagram page, reading in part, “The Lord will work out his plans for my life,” with the word “Yes!” marked in pen next to the verse.