A NEW LIFE: Q&A with New Life Leaders

Attendance has fallen, and tithing is down. But seven months after the Ted Haggard scandal, the mood of New Life is positive and hopeful as it turns its focus to the community, said Ross Parsley, interim senior pastor of New Life Church. Parsley sat down with The Gazette last week to talk about where the church has been and its future. Associate Pastor Rob Brendle joined the conversation.

Question: What was your thinking when you heard Ted Haggard had been linked to drugs and such?

Ross Parsley: “I thought it was way overreaching when I heard about the drugs and all that stuff. I just thought no way, it can’t be true. And certainly it happening in Denver, I thought that’s ridiculous, there’s no way. I just thought we would have heard. It’s so close, we would have heard all this before now. Three years? So yeah, I was . . . I was shocked and thought . . . I don’t really want to go here because it’s still so, I think, sensitive to our church.”

Q: Did Mike Jones do New Life a favor?

Parsley: “Boy, that’s a loaded question. The answer is ultimately . . . we are interested in our church being trustworthy. We’re interested in the people that serve as pastors and leaders being trustworthy, and to the extent that Mike Jones created the opportunity for us to ensure that that is the case, yes.”

Q: Does the church have a strategy on how to address the book? Parsley: “I don’t think it demands a strategy.”

Rob Brendle: “It’s not something that I see us needing to address comprehensively because most of our congregants understand as well as we do, as well as Ted does, that there are consequences for bad decisions we make.”

Q: There are still newcomers here every week. Are they here more out of curiosity, or are they signing on with the church?

Parsley: “I can’t speculate as to why they come, but I can tell you that the people who have come and joined our church since this happened in November — they are as committed as anyone. And what they say is that they’ve committed because they see the process of a church authentically dealing with a really difficult process and a church that’s healing one another, and they want to be part of that.”