COLORADO SPRINGS (CO)
Ministry Watch [Matthews NC]
June 23, 2025
By Kim Roberts
Elders believe he misled congregation about his knowledge of Robert Morris’s alleged abuse.
Brady Boyd, senior pastor of megachurch New Life Church in Colorado Springs, resigned his position last week after it became clear he misled the congregation regarding his knowledge of former Gateway Pastor Robert Morris’s alleged abuse of Cindy Clemishire.
Boyd, who served at Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as an associate pastor and elder from 2001 to 2007, said as recently as June 8 that, until last year, he was unaware that Clemishire was 12 when the abuse began.
“I worked alongside him. I had no reason to believe he had any kind of character issues,” Boyd told the congregation, according to ChurchLeaders. “He did confide in me he’d had a moral failure when he was 20 years old. That’s really all the details he shared.”
New Life elder Scott Palmer told the congregation on Sunday, June 22, they believe Boyd’s insistence that he didn’t know Clemishire’s age was untrue. He said it is the primary reason the elders asked Boyd to step down.
“Brady had nothing to do with Pastor Morris’ past abuse,” Palmer said, according to The Gazette. “Still, we believe that trust is the currency of leadership. When Brady recently told our congregation, inaccurately, that he was unaware of certain details regarding Morris’ past abuse, trust was broken, and the elders asked Brady to resign.”
Last June, Morris was publicly accused of abusing Clemishire and resigned from Gateway Church. He is facing an indictment on five related charges in Oklahoma. Clemishire is also suing Morris for defamation. Morris, on the other hand, is seeking over $1 million in benefits from Gateway.
Boyd had been pastor of New Life since 2007. The elders acknowledged the leadership and service Boyd has given the church, including eliminating millions of dollars in debt and starting initiatives to serve the Colorado Springs community.
Associate Senior Pastor Daniel Grothe will be Boyd’s successor, a transition church officials say has been in the works for more than a year.
Grothe spoke to the congregation on Sunday, assuring them the church will survive this crisis. “We are going to be OK,” he said. “This is not our first storm.”
In December 2007, a gunman opened fire in the New Life parking lot, killing two teenagers. He was stopped by a former police officer when he was entering the building.
The church also faced a challenge when its founding pastor Ted Haggard was embroiled in a sexual scandal in 2006.