'Steady and stable'

Religion | Ted Haggard and the church he no longer pastors work to recover after scandal | Mark Bergin

As disgraced minister Ted Haggard limped quietly away from the Colorado Springs platform he spent more than two decades constructing, leaders of the 14,000-member New Life Church rushed to fill the cavernous void left on stage. In the weeks following the scandalous news of Haggard's three-year affair with a homosexual prostitute, longtime worship pastor Ross Parsley delivered Sunday morning sermons steeped in gentleness and encouragement.

"I have a sense of hope and faith and confidence that this is God's church, and He is in charge," Parsley preached in a Nov. 19 address. A week later, the message turned from damage control to sober reflection: "We need to engage in a corporate repentance of some sort. . . . It's not just the person that led us who has wandered into sinfulness; it's us as well. If he's part of our body and we're part of the body that he belongs to, then we need to join him in that repentance."