He’s back (Ted Haggard starts a new church)

Ted Haggard, who started New Life Church in his Colorado Springs basement, plans to host a prayer meeting in his living room next week.

In 2006, Haggard resigned from New Life amid a predatory sex and drug scandal.

His expressed goals for this venture are humble to a fault:

“This is a Thursday night prayer meeting in our home,” Haggard said. “What we want to do is be able to tell our schedule and our story and know that we’re covered in prayer. And we want to hear their stories and give them the assurance that they’re covered in prayer as well.”

Reactions to his modestly stated goals for this project were generally skeptical, as they have been since he made his peremptory return to the ministry. Adrienne S. Gaines of Chrisma magazine wrote Thursday:

Ministers who have worked with Haggard say it is premature for him to launch into ministry.

Mark Barna of the Colorado Springs Gazette wrote:

Several people who have worked with Haggard said it’s premature for him to be leading a church. C. Peter Wagner, who co-founded New Life’s World Prayer Center with Haggard, said the former pastor should first seek approval from the overseers before leading people in prayer and worship. Haggard quit the five-year restoration program in February 2008.

The man who once led the National Association of Evangelicals and a church with a membership of 14,000 appears to have mapped his path carefully.