Less than two weeks after elders at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, announced they had asked Senior Pastor Brady Boyd to resign, it is now known the team has asked two other top leaders to depart as well. Lance Coles, executive pastor of adult discipleship, and Brian Newberg, chief financial officer and head of human resources, will leave New Life “after a transition period,” according to elders.
Coles and Newberg, who were on the 2007 search committee that hired Boyd, have been removed from New Life’s website. So has Pam Boyd, Brady Boyd’s wife, who had served as women’s ministry pastor.
In a question-and-answer handout distributed to congregants on Sunday (June 29), elders shared news about the resignations of Coles and Newberg. The seven-member leadership team also said it considers Boyd to be unrepentant and disqualified from ministry at New Life.
Meanwhile, supporters of Boyd demonstrated outside New Life’s main campus on June 29. Some congregants who spoke to the media said they’re frustrated with how church leaders have handled the situation.
New Life Church’s Connection to the Robert Morris Scandal
New Life, a nondenominational megachurch, has been rocked by its links to a sexual abuse scandal involving Robert Morris, founder and former pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. Before coming to New Life in 2007, Brady Boyd served as an associate senior pastor and elder at Gateway while Morris was on staff.
Boyd later appointed Morris as an overseer of New Life. The two pastors also occasionally preached at each other’s churches.
In June 2024, Cindy Clemishire accused Morris of sexually abusing her in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 and he was 22. Previously, Morris had described the incident as “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady.”
Morris, now 63, faces five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 100 years in prison. His next court date is scheduled for September.
Although Boyd said Morris had previously confessed a “moral failure” from decades ago, Boyd has strongly denied knowing Clemishire’s age at the time of the alleged abuse. “I was deceived, I was lied to,” Boyd told New Life congregants on June 8.