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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A pastor who worked with young adults at
New Life Church has resigned after admitting sexual misconduct and
other mistakes just weeks after former church leader Ted Haggard
stepped down over sexual immorality, church officials said.
Christopher Beard, who headed the TwentyFourSeven ministry that
taught leadership skills to young adults, resigned Friday after
admitting sexual misconduct and other mistakes, said Rob Brendle,
an associate pastor at the 14,000-member church.
Brendle said
Beard told church officials about "a series of decisions displaying
poor judgment, including one incident of sexual misconduct several
years ago." The church said in a statement that the misconduct was
with another unmarried adult several years ago. Beard, who worked
with the church for nine years, has since married.
The
resignation was reported Monday by The Denver Post and The Gazette
in Colorado Springs. Brendle did not immediately return a call
Monday from The Associated Press, and a residential phone number
listed in Beard's name was disconnected.
According to the
Church Web site, Beard has a business degree from Oral Roberts
University and a Masters in Christian Counseling. Beard also worked
at one of the nation's leading mental institutions as a
psychotherapist before coming to New Life Church and
TwentyFourSeven. Beard was also the Missions Pastor of New Life
Church, and has led mission trips to 53 countries.
His photo
and bio were removed from the Web site by Monday.
Church
leadership asked its outside Board of Overseers to examine the
"spiritual character" of the 200 staff members after Haggard
resigned last month from the church and as president of the
National Association of Evangelicals.
Haggard acknowledged he
paid Mike Jones, of Denver, for a massage and for methamphetamine,
but he said he did not have sex with him and did not use the drug.
Jones has said Haggard paid him regularly for sex. Haggard and his
wife, Gayle Haggard, are undergoing three weeks of counseling at an
undisclosed center in Arizona.
Brendle said Beard discussed his
misconduct during a meeting with the Board of Overseers, which is
made up of four pastors from other congregations.
"We recognize
there will be increased scrutiny of our church in the wake of the
scandal," Brendle said. "We welcome that process in order to
reinforce the high standard of personal integrity and morality that
has characterized New Life's employees for 22 years."
The Rev.
Ross Parsley, New Life's acting senior pastor, told congregants on
Sunday that there would be changes in the coming weeks as a result
of the overseers' investigation to restore integrity.
"The
community deserves it and God demands it," Parsley said.
Beard
was reprimanded by the church in 2002, when police came to break up
a TwentyFourSeven training exercise he led in the church's parking
lot involving fake assault rifles.