(This is an overview that we send to churches that are inviting us to speak.)

Ted Haggard Healing Overview

November 1, 2006 – January 21, 2010

Thank you so much for considering inviting me to visit and share the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus in the lives of me, my wife, my family, and my friends. As you may know, we’ve been through the test of our lives, and many people have been put in awkward situations because of the negative situation I created for them which resulted in a crisis in November, 2006. Today Gayle and I have been married for over 30 years with an increasingly close relationship with each other and our children. We are living in our family home in Colorado Springs and deeply appreciate the efforts made by all to do the right thing in the midst of a very difficult situation. Since you are willing to read this overview, my assumption is that you have already decided to extend grace toward me and my family, for which I am grateful. I also ask that you extend the same grace toward those who have had to make difficult decisions on behalf of the church and my family in order to do what they thought was best in the midst of confusing circumstances. Certainly, we can all learn from my experience, so informed and purposeful review and analysis can be beneficial. But it won’t be constructive or helpful to randomly second-guess those who had to make decisions on the spot in order to protect the church and try to manage me and my family. With my hope that this overview will provide information in an atmosphere of grace being extended to all, I offer this woefully short and abbreviated overview of the last three years to assure you that I have walked a path that will give you reasonable confidence in me. My goal is that you will be pleased that you hosted me in your venue and that Christ’s kingdom will be glorified in the Earth by our meeting together.

I am now convinced that one way we know how well we have integrated the message of the New Testament into our lives is by how we respond to someone else’s sin. Our ability to extend the hope of the Gospel to another is the evidence that we understand the purpose of Jesus’ coming to Earth.

Now, an overview:

Three ecclesiastical groups were involved in responding to the crisis I created that culminated in November 2006.

The first group consisted of the Overseers, who established a contract with me in January of 2007 which included a requirement that Gayle and I, along with our dependent children, permanently move from the state of Colorado. As a result, we moved to Phoenix, Arizona where we joined Phoenix First Assembly with Pastor Tommy Barnett serving as our pastor. Pastor Tommy welcomed us warmly to First Assembly and met with us on several occasions, providing counsel and supportive encouragement. In addition, he asked one of his associates, Pastor Leo Godzich, to meet with and counsel Gayle and me as needed.  Pastor Leo is the founder and president of NAME (The National Association of Marriage Enhancement) and the host of the International Marriage Conference, as well as a leader in the covenant marriage movement. Pastor Leo and I met on several occasions at his weekly Bible study and he and his wife, Molly, also met with Gayle and me from time to time for more in depth counsel. Pastor Leo has the best knowledge of my process while in Arizona.

In addition to our moving from the state of Colorado, the contract with the Overseers required that I ask for permanent removal of my ordination and ministerial license from any pertinent organizations, not engage in any ministry, choose a new career, seek psychological counseling, not speak with any New Life Church employee without special permission, not enter the New Life Church property or participate in any New Life meeting or small group, and not engage in any sexually immoral behavior. I complied with all of these terms.

In January of 2008, I asked for and received release from all of the provisions and requirements of the Overseers legal contract. This was also a release of their oversight, which Gayle and I hoped would provide the atmosphere for communication and the beginning of an actual restoration process. That did not happen. I had hoped for continued relationship and input. In that process, I did not, nor have I ever, asked to be severed relationally from any of the Overseers, Restorers, or from New Life Church, nor have I ever asked to be relieved from any restoration process. However, the release of the Overseers contract was presented by New Life Church, which had not communicated with me in over a year, as our premature resignation from a restoration process and a request to be distanced from the church.

In March of 2008, I took a job in Dallas, TX that gave me and the family hope for steady employment in a loving and kind environment. Gary Holcombe, a former missionary turned Christian businessman, was the owner of the company I worked for and also provided biblical counsel to me on a regular basis. I worked for Gary until we decided to move back to Colorado Springs in June of 2008.

Prior to my move to Dallas while we were still in Phoenix, Pastor Tommy Barnett was invited to speak at Celebration Covenant Church pastored by Keith Craft in Frisco, TX, and took me along as a travel companion. Because of the relationship between Celebration Covenant and Pastor Tommy, when I moved to Dallas I began attending Celebration Covenant. Jesus used the team at Celebration Covenant to provide a place of healing and refuge for me. This church also provided vital practical assistance for our family. They gave us a vehicle so Gayle would have transportation, and key financial assistance at pivotal times for our family. Currently, Gayle and I fly to Dallas from time to time to attend special events at Celebration Covenant and trust this team to provide counsel, advice and direction. Celebration Covenant’s COO, Scott Uncleback, has become a trusted friend.

Release from the Overseers contract gave us the option to move back into our family home in Colorado Springs, which we did six months after receiving the freedom to return. As a result, we moved home in June of 2008 and, after training and licensing, started selling life insurance on August 1 of 2008. The release of the Overseers contract also gave me the permission to speak in local churches outside of a 100 mile radius of New Life Church. So 11 months after receiving freedom to speak, on November 2, 2008, I spoke as a Christian businessman at the Sunday morning and evening services at Open Bible Fellowship in Morrison, IL.  These meetings in Morrison were the first I had spoken in public in two years, and the pastor, Chris Byrd, requested that we do this on the two year anniversary of my crisis in order to demonstrate the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures in me and my family. Pastor Chris is now one of the five to whom I hold myself accountable.   

The second group involved with responding to my crisis was the New Life Church board of trustees. The trustees also established a contract with me in January of 2007. The contract consisted of conditions of severance which added the following to the requirements set forth in the Overseers’ contract : that I not engage in any ministry within a one hundred mile radius of New Life Church for a period of three years, grant any interviews with the press, or make public any form of my story including my 22 years of work and ministry at New Life Church, or the events that led to my resignation as the Senior Pastor of the church.

In 2007 during our time in Arizona, Gayle and I allowed a friend, Alexandra Pelosi, to film us and our family with the agreement that none of the footage would ever be used without our consent. We had been given permission by Larry Stockstill, the lead overseers, to communicate with press people as long as they were friends, which gave us the liberty to meet with Alexandra and her husband, Michael.

By October of 2008, I had become frustrated with my inability to publicly communicate sorrow, remorse, repentance, or personal responsibility. Because I had not been given any opportunity to respond to accusations since my resignation, regardless of factual basis any suspicion was accepted as fact and rumors were left unquestioned. Because of the internet dynamic, anyone’s thoughts were considered by some to be fact. I was receiving messages that the public felt as though I hadn’t cooperated, was not repentant, and had willfully disappeared, confirming in some minds my guilt in every area because they had no forum to ask questions. Those in church authority who could have asked questions had not exercised due process with me to help establish fact from fiction. In addition, because the public was led to believe that there had been a biblical restoration process that I had quit, and that my family wanted to be distanced from our friends in Colorado Springs, I knew we had to start representing ourselves. No one else was going to do it for us. We were being misrepresented, and the options we were being given were being misrepresented. While we were feeling isolated and misunderstood, Alexandra called asking us to look at the documentary she had created, partially from the footage in Arizona.  On November 10, 2008 Gayle and I, along with our children, had a family meeting in which we all decided to allow Alexandra to use the footage taken in Arizona and to answer questions that had been generated by the public. This required extensive contemplation and prayer because we all knew that it would be embarrassing and extremely painful, and would probably be construed by those suspicious of God’s healing process in me as a violation, but concluded that it was the right thing to do and would ultimately contribute to healing for all concerned because it would finally provide some communication. Soon afterward, I informed New Life Church that I was going to begin responding to press inquiries beginning in January of 2008 and asked them to coordinate responses with me and to increase communication with me.

On December 2, 2008, Brady Boyd, the new pastor of New Life Church who had not been involved with the establishment of the trustees contract, visited our home and established preliminary communication. In late December, Pastor Brady released us from all of the provisions and requirements of the New Life trustee’s contract.

My relationships with some of the Overseers, Restorers, and trustees have not been as positive as any of us would have liked. This was primarily because I relentlessly complained about the use of legal contracts as a substitute for a more relationally-based approach and their demands that my family move away from our home and community where we had supportive relationships, and some in leadership had incentive to present me publicly as menacing as possible. Gayle and I fundamentally disagreed with some in our oversight groups regarding separation, lack of communication, and lack of intent toward healing and restoration. To us, their approach toward my discipline and restoration was unnecessarily adversarial and was more like a divorce than a restoration. Randy Welsch, the man who served as lead elder for the church for several years prior to and following the crisis is available to answer any questions regarding this process and time frame.

The third group, the “Restoration Team,” met with me and Gayle only once in their capacity as a restoration team the first week of January, 2007. That was our only meeting in which open communication took place. After the contracts were presented to us on January 11, 2007, they never met with us, established any conference calls with us, or e-mailed us in their capacity as a team of restorers. They never communicated with us regarding any process of restoration, any time-line for restoration, any goals of restoration, or any procedures for restoration, other than the contract requiring that we find another occupation outside of ministry and away from our life-long relationships at New Life Church.

Because they signed the Overseers contract which was understood to be and was contractually binding in perpetuity, we were persuaded that what we were told by two senior staff members of New Life was true: that it was decided the first week or so after the crisis that there would be no restoration process and that I was to be treated as unrepentant regardless of what I said or did. An atmosphere of mistrust was promoted. After we moved to Phoenix, since there was no communication with anyone else on the restoration team except Pastor Tommy Barnett, and since we were attending his church and saw him as our pastoral authority, we looked to Pastor Tommy and his associate, Pastor Leo, as spiritual authorities in our lives. Then, when the Overseers and Restorers released us from the contracts in January of 2008, we became exclusively dependent upon the leadership of First Assembly for accountability and direction in our lives. We were disappointed and shocked when we learned in the press that the release of the contract was being publicly presented as our premature departure from a restoration process. However, we were so pleased to be free to have pastoral, relational, biblical relationships again, we were grateful to proceed under the counsel of those who had established constructive, kind, and thoughtful communication with us. We had no idea when the contract was released in January of 2007 that members of the restoration team and a few religious leaders would use this misrepresentation against us for years to come.  

By January, 2009, both contracts including the terms and requirements of all three groups had been released. That month, Gayle and I and our two oldest children appeared on Oprah Winfrey, Larry King Live, ABC and CBS news so that I could personally, publicly confess and repent for the wrongs I had committed and to testify about the faithfulness of the Word of God and the sanctifying work of the Lord Jesus. The broadcasts surrounded the HBO documentary, “The Trials of Ted Haggard” included the Pelosi footage taken while we were in Arizona in 2007. I call this the “middle story” which took place during the time I was still in shock and despondence with deep regret for the situation I had created for my family, New Life Church, the body of Christ at large, and the general public. It also reflects the confusion and despair that I went through during that time period trying to orient out of vocational ministry and into the business world. 

This demonstration of repentance, though incredibly humbling and embarrassing, generated 2,895,531 visits to tedhaggard.com in the week following the broadcasts. Thousands of those visitors sent e-mails, many of which were asking for advice, ministry, and prayers.  Eighty-eight percent of the e-mails were positive notes of love and support, 8% were friendly offerings of suggestions (books, jobs, sermons, etc.), and 4% were critical. These repentance broadcasts were incredibly helpful and cleansing for me personally and, as evidenced by the public response and thousands of e-mails, healing for many others. Biblical obedience demanded that they be done, and I knew they had to be done for personal honor’s sake. In order to obey the biblical imperatives for repentance, I had to publicly make these appearances. Once the broadcasts were finished, Gayle and I immediately sensed God’s pleasure and are currently experiencing its evidence.

Since that time, Gayle and I have been speaking in various churches, including:

 Elevation Church, Pastor Steven Furtick, Charlotte, NC

Living Hope Church, Pastor John Bishop, Vancouver, WA

New Life Christian Church, Pastor Kirk Gilchrist, Watertown, NY

My Church, Pastor Jeff Murphy, Columbus, GA

Heart of Worship, Pastor Charles Johnson, Colorado Springs, CO

Victory Worship Center, Pastor Sherry Colby, Lake Worth, FL

Grace Community Church, Pastor Drew Isaacs, Konowa, OK

People’s Church, Pastor Ed Gungor, Tulsa, OK

C3 Church, Pastor Byron Bledsoe, Orlando, FL

Calvary Church, Pastor Don George, Irving, TX

New Life City, Pastor Alan Hawkins, Albuquerque, NM

House of Praise, Pastor Lon Dean, Castleton, NY

Discovery Church, Pastor Chris Kohlbry, Carlsbad, CA

Harvest Christian Center, Pastor Ron Eivaz, Turlock, CA

Journey Church, Pastor Darryl Bellar, Fernandina Beach, FL

Grace Church, Pastor Michael Robison, Kingsport, TN

Radiant Fellowship, Pastor Bob Adams, Waupaca, WI

South Hills Church, Pastor Chris Sonksen, Corona, CA

Because we are traveling and speaking on weekends, in October of 2009 we began discussing our desire to meet with friends and pray together in order to garner prayer support for our work and family, and to get up-to-date with old friends to be able to pray in a more informed way for them. So on November 12, 2009, 150 friends gathered in our home for fellowship and prayer. Because more came than expected, we met the following week in our barn. (I led the meeting standing on bales of straw. It was fantastic!) I announced that night that we would pause at least for the holidays and would communicate time and place of future prayer meetings through Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail.

In October, 2009, the Colorado Springs Independent has a front page story entitled, “The Resurrection of Pastor Ted.”  After the first prayer meeting in our home, the Colorado Springs Gazette published two prominent articles. One headline on the front page, “’KUMBAYA ‘ EVENT BUOYS HAGGARD” was followed with another headline a few days later saying, “Haggard’s return to teaching has plenty of support.”

Update: Gayle’s book, Why I Stayed, will be released January 26, 2010. The Denver Post received an early copy of the book and on January 20^th ran an front page banner headline across the top saying “’Love is powerful enough,’ Gayle Haggard writes.”  We are scheduled to appear on Oprah and Larry King to talk about the book, and Gayle is also scheduled to appear on The View and several other nationally televised programs.

                       <DOWNLOAD THIS DOCUMENT>                                         Ted Haggard 

                                                                                                                Colorado Springs, CO

                                                                                                                Tedhaggard.com