Ted Haggard is the founding pastor of St. James Church in Colorado Springs, CO, the second church he and his wife, Gayle, have started since their marriage in 1978.
Their first church, New Life Church, enjoyed 22 consecutive years of double digit growth, primarily through conversions, and grew from 20 people meeting in the basement of their home to 14,000 people meeting on a $60 million campus. Ted served as president of the 30 million member National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) from 2003-2006. During these years, he often represented evangelicalism in the media and with world leaders. He also built The World Prayer Center and worldprayerteam.org. which was the largest network of praying believers in the world coordinated at the World Prayer Center. He also founded the Association of Life-Giving Churches, which merged with the Association of Related Churches in 2006. In 2006, Ted resigned from all leadership positions for a period of healing and restoration.
Four years later, in the summer of 2010, Ted and Gayle started St. James Church in their barn before purchasing an office building and auditorium for weekly services. Gayle released a New York Times best-selling book titled Why I Stayed in 2010, and her second book, Courageous Grace, in 2013. Ted was invited to switch his ordination to the Free Methodist Church in 2015, which he accepted. Prior to that he had been ordained Southern Baptist since 1978.
Ted and Gayle live in Colorado Springs, with their special needs son, Jonathan. Their daughter, Christy, and her husband, Javier, live in Pennsylvania with their son, Sebastian. Their son, Marcus, and his wife, Sarah, and three children live in Denver. Alex, their third son, works and goes to school in Seattle and Elliott, their fourth son, lives in Virginia.
Ted did his undergraduate work at Oral Roberts University, studied masters level counseling at the University of Phoenix, and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Colorado Christian University.
21 replies on “Ted Haggard”
Congratulations on your blog! ~ I look forward to reading it! 🙂
Blessings,
Gracie
I look forward to reading your wife’s book in the near future. What a gift you have been given. I prayed for the same gift in my marriage but it was not meant to be. Thank you for getting back up again and showing the rest of us what it looks like. I really would love to visit your church someday.
It is definitely a book you should read.
Thanks Ramona! I will look for it!
Dear Reverand and Mrs. Haggard,
I wish you and your family the very best, always
I feel more close to you than the Ted Haggard who was before. Respect! for not giving up. All the best from Romania
Dear Pastor,
As I read this blog – I understood how you envied the 50% that do not return to ministry or church, my husband and I – on a different failure and much smaller scale resigned our pastoral leadership. It is a sad day when we preach restoration in the invitation of salvation and yet, do not practice it within our own family.
My husband and I have been blessed to follow your restoration from Ocala, Florida and have just given the article from Christianity Today by Michael Cheshire to one of our staff pastors as we begin a home mentoring group for young husbands in the attempt to grow them in Christ, not religion and self righteousness.
As I read of the pain inflicted upon you as you read the internet, I could not help but think that it was the same kind that crucified Christ, watched him die – and all their affliction upon Him brought salvation to us. They may sneer, jeer, and crucify you with their words – all the while God is using your story in ways that you may never know to bring truth to those that have an ear to hear – building the desire in us to be true followers of Christ, not in words alone, but in our actions.
Thanks to you, your wife and children for allowing your story to be open, may God’s peace guard your hearts and minds and may all that HE has purposed for your family come to pass!
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It saddens me to read about the pain that has been injected into your life due to media intrusions and twists. I “know” you as an honorable man seeking to glorify God, as I once sat under your teaching at New Life. I do not watch or read the news, so I am very ill informed about other’s opinions of you. However, I read your pain in your blog. I can’t imagine that anyone would want their sins, mistakes or thoughts aired, let alone judged, pondered, and used against them. We are all sinners who have fallen short of the mark. Your story reminds me to have more grace and reserve judgement for God.
You are an inspiration! You are loved and respected! You are prayed for! I know the media has a bigger blow-horn, but the sheep you shepherded know you, love you and accept you! I am sad that the enemy was allowed to pull you through such a difficult trial. I can’t begin to imagine the pain, tears, hardship and stress. In my humble opinion, the magnitude of trial indicates what a tremendous threat you are to God’s enemy, whose goal is to steal, kill and destroy… and specifically ruin your credibility in order to shut you up before more people seek Christ. I applaud you and Gail for not staying knocked down. Please know that I (and countless others) greatly appreciate the truth that you teach. May God bless you richly and abundantly pour out His peace upon you!
I feel that you are getting deeper into the very substance and true call over your life – no going back… this, to me, is what Jesus patiently portrayed when he walked and talked about what the kingdom of God was (is) all about -Blessings Ted & Family
I lost count of the number of times I sobbed reading the book “Why I stayed”. It was only grace and love alone that kept Mrs.Gayle from leaving Pr. Ted. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…………..
Great to see you here Ted, it’s good stuff. I will keep reading.
To be honest I never read your story, never paid heed to the media about you and well I never thought about you at all…until last week.My own church went through a huge dramatic division and it broke my heart so much, I will not give details nor show sides as it is still ongoing but i have tried to find some success stories on the net and well I found you.
I am amazed and broken heart-ed and happy and elated and blessed to have read your story, your wife’s book and a few documentaries and news coverage. You are an amazing Pastor, am amazing husband and father and God has spoken to me and healed some of my brokenness for my own church. You gave me hope for my Pastor and our members and I am so thankful God brought your life to my attention at this time.
I am sure you are so ready to be done with this old drama and put it behind you, I would be as well, for it is finished and you have been fully restored and deserve your life back 100%. however the way your family has handled this all has and will continue to change peoples lives and you all just make us think better and deal better when things upset the norm. Thank you for allowing God to work in you, and may he always bless you and keep you from this day forward. By the way, you made it past 58 now right? Here is to praying for a long and blessed life for you and yours!
Brande
Pastor Ted – nice to see that Gayle you started St. James. If I come to Colorado Springs, I will definitely come visit you and your Church. I am happy, joyful and proud to say that you are a fellow brother in Christ, I do not and will never alienate you like the main-stream Church has done. I hope and pray that your new congreagation expresses the love of Christ in deeds, the exact same way that our Lord and Saviour asked us to. I am sorry that you were on the receiving end of the wrath of the modern day Church.
I’d like you to consider the fact that perhaps God allowed what happened to you in order to take down the barriers between you (as the former preacher) and the LGBT community enabling you to ‘reach out’ to them rather than throw them to a corner and hammer them with Biblical truth. In other words that you’d be able to “show them Christ’s Love”
I just watched what I guess was a rerun of “Wife Swap”. I faintly remember hearing of your family before, but was blessed by the story of forgiveness.
Dear Pastor Ted,
This was a great blog.
I am so thankful for God bringing us to Colorado Springs at the A pointed time. Phil and I learned so much at NLC. We gained much experience in serving the people of God and New Life Church. It was very hard to leave. We still have so connect there in Colorado Spings including family..
Pastor Ted you asked me one time why I cried when I would get close to you. Well I believe at that time it was the wounded ness of your heart and my heart crying out to God for help. Many people don’t know it but I am a weeping Intercessor. I have tried to change it, but I have learned this is who I am in Christ.
We continue to pray for your family as I believe God has instructed!
We were so looking forward to the round table, but, due to the place of Restoration I am in it my not be possible. But, I believe I will receive from it.
Grace, Mercy and Peace to you and your family and St James Church.
Florida A. Holbert
I just watched The Trials of Ted Haggard on HBO for the first time. I remember the scandal well but just like most things, the hype dies down and you forget. It was a great documentary. Thank you for sharing your life as you were in the darkest moments following the scandal. We serve a Mighty God but He is Mighty in Grace and Mighty in Forgiveness and Mighty in Restoration. Your story reminded me about King David’s story of Basheeba. The rise and fall of a great King who was a human and his choices led to unwanted consequences. YET, God still used David! God still loved David. And to this day we still read the Psalms because it gives us wisdom and insight into a Man after God’s heart.You are a human man in need of a Savior like the rest of us. Thank you for not being perfect. 2 Corinthians 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Your life on the documentary at your lowest and weakest point in life spoke to me far greater than any preaching you have or ever will do.
I bought a copy of “Why I stayed” because I was going through a similar situation. I too cried much when I read the book. I am now doing a internship at a drug and alcohol counseling center and find the story all to common. I really feel that instead of pointing so many fingers and saying “why I never” the church should become more involved in prevention and education.
This is a powerful testimony of the meaning and truth of the Gospel message, which can not be watered down so much more now because of you and Gayle’s victory over sin through the work of Christ working daily in your lives!
I recently watched the documentary “The Trials of Ted Haggard”, and i can relate what Ted, Gale and their children went thru. I have learned that you cannot count on friends or even family when you go thru a difficult time, I saw 1st hand just how insecure people without god in their lives can be, you can only count on God and Jesus Christ. Spending so much time by yourself along with feeling somewhat lost and lonely, really gives me a chance to see things, no trees or grass blocking the view and see God much clearer.
There was no real reason my friends and everyone else drop me as a good friend, i just became what some call a “nerd” . i also did not realize that my friendships were on such a conditional basis.
As the story with Ted Haggard, the members of his old church need to be reminded ” anyone with out sin cast the 1st stone”
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