New Life Church adding new services amid growing attendance
Nearly three years after its founder resigned amid a sex scandal and thousands of its members left, New Life Church has rebuilt its membership to the point where it has to add a new service.
Beginning Sept. 13, the Colorado Springs megachurch will add an evening service to accommodate the increase in weekly attendance — up from 6,500 two years ago to 8,600 today, according to senior pastor Brady Boyd. It’s still below the 12,000 people who attended when founder Ted Haggard was at the height of his popularity, but it represents a turnaround that started when Boyd took the top job in August 2007.
Recently the church was added to the “100 Fastest Growing Churches in America” list compiled by the Christian magazine Outreach, and Boyd said families from as far away as Pueblo and Denver are attending. On Sunday, 50 families filled out cards during services saying they were visiting New Life for the first time.
Boyd attributes the growth to the church’s local community efforts and an increase in the local military population.
Because of budget constraints, New Life stopped advertising last fall. But in recent months, hundreds of members have been involved in church projects that benefit the community, such as cleaning up parks, repairing seniors’ homes and helping the poor. That has given the church positive exposure and pulled in new members, Boyd said.
Haggard started the church in 1985 and built it into a nationally recognized megachurch. But news of his relationship with a male prostitute forced him to resign in 2006.
Three religion scholars interviewed Monday said it is rare for a ministry to survive a scandal on that scale, which was followed 13 months later by a shooting on the campus that took the lives of two teenage parishioners. They credited Boyd’s leadership as a big part of New Life’s revitalization.
“Boyd seems very skilled at being a calming presence and influence,” said Paul Harvey, a history professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and author of several books on religion. “You need someone like that to clean up the mess.”
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