New Life Church continues to shed executive staff as Boyd 'unrepentant' for lying, elders say

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Turnover among top leadership at New Life Church in Colorado Springs continues, on the heels of former Senior Pastor Brady Boyd recently being asked to resign by the board of elders.

According to our news partners at The Gazette, two executives, who worked at New Life 18 years ago and served on a nine-member search committee that hired Boyd in 2007, also have been asked by the independent, nondenominational and charismatic megachurch’s top governance to resign, according to a written FAQs sheet that New Life handed out to church-goers after June 29 services.

Both men have submitted their intent to do so and will “depart after a transition period,” the new information reads.

Lance Coles, executive pastor of adult discipleship and a brother-in-law of Ted Haggard, who founded New Life Church in 1984 and was forced out in 2006 following sex and drug accusations that he denied; and Brian Newberg, chief financial officer who also oversaw human resources, are no longer listed on the church’s website.

Neither is Women’s Ministry Pastor Pam Boyd, wife of former Senior Pastor Brady Boyd.

The church’s seven-member board of elders, which had been appointed by Boyd, asked him to leave his head post after nearly 18 years, following Boyd's vehement denial at the June 8 service that he had any prior knowledge of Texas pastor Robert Morris’ sexual molestation in the 1980s of a girl who was 12 when the abuse began.

But information from 2011 demonstrated that Boyd “was party to at least 20 emails” relating to the sexual abuse of the victim, Cindy Clemishire, the elders said in their FAQs report.

Clemishire publicly revealed the abuse one year ago, and Morris subsequently admitted to having “inappropriate sexual behavior.” He’s now facing five criminal charges related to sexual contact with a child in a Texas court. He also denies that he knew Clemishire's age.

Boyd stepped down June 11, which church elders told congregants at the June 15 service.

While Boyd “had nothing at all to do with Robert Morris’ past abuse, still we believe that trust is the currency of leadership,” read a statement the church issued in announcing Boyd’s resignation. “When Brady recently told our congregation, inaccurately, that he was unaware of certain details regarding Morris’ past abuse, trust was broken, and, we the board of elders, asked Brady to resign.”

The elders “carefully reviewed emails and other new evidence that surfaced and spent many hours meeting with Brady, listening to his perspective and doing our best to reconcile the facts,” said in its June 29 fact sheet. “As much as we hoped it would all make sense, in the end, it simply didn’t.”

No other pastors who currently work at New Life knew about the situation involving Morris, outside of Coles and Newberg, according to the church.

Members of the search committee were aware since 2007 of the allegations about Morris’ seemingly criminal conduct, according to emails and other materials that have been presented in a retirement benefits lawsuit Morris has brought against Gateway Church, which he founded in in 2000 in Southlake, Texas.

Clemishire's sister had told the New Life search committee about Morris' molestation and she objected to Boyd's hiring and his subsequent appointment of Morris as an overseer at New Life.

Despite having “a responsibility to bring their concerns — and the reasons behind them — directly to the board of elders, neither Coles nor Newberg did so then or afterward, according to the elders’ newly released information to congregants.

Both have “expressed how deeply they regret not doing more to prevent Robert Morris from becoming involved with our church,” the elders said in the FAQs. “We believe they would never intentionally do anything harmful to New Life Church. They are devastated, and so are we.”

Boyd is another matter, however.

“At this time, Brady has not apologized nor is he repentant for what we think constituted lying to New Life Church, or for failing to disclose to the elders whatever knowledge he had about Robert Morris before asking Morris to serve as overseer and preach at our church,” the fact sheet states.

Boyd worked for Morris from 2001 to 2007, including as an associate pastor, and when he became pastor at New Life, Boyd and Morris would appear as guest preachers at each other’s churches.

In fact, the elders consider Boyd as “disqualified” from serving as senior pastor due to “a series of mistakes” he made.

Grothe already was on track to succeed Boyd, who had initiated a succession process in 2022, the elders said. New Life launched in January a three-year plan to allow Boyd to retire and usher in Grothe as senior pastor.

Some people walked out of the service at the North campus, New Life’s headquarters, on June 15, after members heard the elders’ statement about Boyd's resignation.

Some supporters of Boyd protested his forced dismissal on June 29 outside the main campus, wearing T-shirts that said “We Stand With Pastor Brady,” on the front and “Come Holy Spirit” on the back.

A Facebook group, “Support Brady Boyd & New Life Congregation” has nearly 400 followers and posts from current and former members saying they believe he didn’t know how old the victim was and they think he’s being persecuted and attacked.

Perhaps Boyd will start a new church, some speculate, like Haggard did after his public fall from grace in 2006.

New Life elders will study how the current governance structure failed, the FAQs statement says: “We plan to look into multiple ways to improve our system and processes to help prevent this from happening again.”

They also say they regret how the church treated Clemishire and her family.

“We know our actions over the years were disappointing to the Clemishire family,” the elders said in the FAQs. “In time, we hope to be able to apologize to them personally, and we encourage you to pray for them.”

The Gazette's Debbie Kelley contributed to this web story.

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