Leaders of New Life Church in Colorado Springs announced the resignation of Senior Pastor Brady Boyd Friday evening, 12 days after Boyd promised his flock he knew nothing about the sexual sins of his mentor, Robert Morris, founder of the 100,000-member Dallas-area multi-campus megachurch, Gateway Church.
In a June 8 sermon at New Life, Boyd said he was “shocked” to learn Morris had sexually abused a child for five years starting when she was 12. Congregants applauded after Boyd said: “I will always tell you the truth even if it hurts me. I will never ever mislead you or misguide you.”
Brady Boyd
However, New Life elders concluded Boyd knowingly lied to his flock while claiming to know nothing about Morris’ abuse of Cindy Clemishire, who has sued leaders of both Gateway and New Life for covering up and failing to act on her serial victimization by Morris.
Boyd has led New Life 18 years. He was hired in 2007 after the moral collapse of Pastor Ted Haggard, who resigned amid his own sex and drug scandals. Haggard served as president of the National Association of Evangelicals from 2003 to 2006.
The Roys Report has been following the Morris scandal and was the first to report on New Life’s announcement: “’Recently, Brady has insisted that he was unaware until 2024 that Miss Clemishire was 12 years old at that time that Morris had abused her in the ’80s,’ the elders told New Life members Friday night. We believe this to be inaccurate. Brady also made statements in his public address to the congregation on June 8 that the board of elders knows to be inaccurate… Trust is the currency of leadership. When Brady recently told our congregation inaccurately that he was unaware of certain details regarding Morris’s past abuse, trust was broken.”
As BNG reported, the Morris scandal has erupted over the last few months:
- In March, Morris was indicted on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child and faces a trial later this year.
- In May, the church rejected Morris’ claims to millions of dollars in retirement benefits, including $800,000 in annual payments Morris says elders previously promised him.
- In June, Cindy Clemishire, who was the victim of Morris’ abuse from 1982 to 1987, sued Morris, his wife, Gateway and more than a dozen current and former church elders and media directors for ignoring and covering up the scandal.
Documents created for Clemishire’s lawsuit named New Life’s Boyd as one of many leaders at New Life and Gateway who knew what Morris had done but helped him cover it up. The scandal was first revealed by The Wartburg Watch in June 2024.
Gateway warns that offerings have declined 35% to 40% as former members flee the troubled megachurch, which once attracted as many as 100,000 people to its weekend services on multiple campuses and employed more than 500 people.
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