In my Nov. 15 Pulpit column, which you can read at www.gazette.com, several people who have worked with Haggard talk about why we should give the founder of New Life Church a second chance.

Randy Welsch was the lead elder at New Life Church in Colorado Springs

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 at the time Ted Haggard resigned in Nov. 2006 in the wake of a sex scandal. Welsch is no longer part of New Life.

Below is my edited excerpt of my interview with Welsch.

MARK BARNA: “How has Haggard changed since the scandal three years ago?”

RANDY WELSCH: “My experience with him is that he is much more compassionate and cares about people more than he ever has. It’s done a good work in him. He is more transparent. He is much more compassionate. He listens to input in a way I never saw of him before.”

“Ted confessed his sin. He’s repented of his sin. What else should he do?”

“Why do we as Christians not give people a second chance? The story of the Bible is a story of redemption. The Lord wants us to be truly loving, and loving people who are struggling.”

The Rev. Bob Wentz worked with Haggard at the National Association of Evangelicals from 2003 to 2005. Wentz has been a pastor for more than 30 years.

BARNA: “Will Haggard start a formal church?”

BOB WENTZ: “When you have spent your life teaching the word of God, and then suddenly you are not doing it, you miss it. I would think anyone who has been a pastor for 20 years and was successful, longs to continue to do that.”

BARNA: “Ted and Gayle are doing pretty well giving talks at churches across the country. Why not just keep doing that?”

WENTZ: “That’s got a shelf life on it. You can only repent for so long.”

BARNA: “You say you are still in contact with Haggard, having lunch with him now and then, but not part of his inner circle. From your vantage point, how would you say Haggard has changed?”

WENTZ: “He was always in motion. A type Double A personality, the energizing bunny type of guy. Now he’s more reflective and thoughtful. Suffering either softens people or hardens them.”

“I sense a very different Ted than three years ago. God has put him on the anvil and he has taken some mighty blows and knocked away some big issues.”

BARNA: “Why do so many people have trouble accepting that Haggard may have conquered his demons ?”

WENTZ: “Some people, it seems, like to drag other people down, because it makes them feel better about themselves. People who rejoice in Ted’s failure, enjoy rubbing his nose in it, do it out of a sense of arrogance. …

“But part of this is the Pentecostal subcuture. There, you don’t deal with psychological issues. Everything is treated as an issue of sin. Not until (the scandal) became exposed and he was discredited, did Ted go and get the psychological help he needed. When you are sexually molested, there is compulsion, revulsion going on at the same time … But in Pentecostal circles, psychology has been the boogie man.”

BARNA: In the Bible, there are many stories of people embroiled in sin, but somehow end up working for the glory of God.

WENTZ: “Not only are they transformed, we also find evidence of people transformed in terms of lifestyle. You read the Bible, you read about the people who are flawed. The Bible is not a story of what should have happened, but what did happen. You find accounts where lives are a mess, and sometimes they get it back and sometimes they don’t. The Bible is extremely honest. We don’t always see that. We idealize and sanitize it instead.”

Rumors about Ted Haggard starting a Colorado Springs church never seem to go away, and a story on Haggard in the latest edition of The Independent will no doubt fan the rumor flames.

But Haggard told me Wednesday, Sept. 30, that he is not starting a church and has not re-entered the ministry.

In a news release from The Independent, Haggard is quoted as saying he is now motivated “to re-enter full-time ministry” and is considering opening a church in Colorado Springs.

Here’s what Haggard says about that. “We have no plans to start a new church,” he told me, “ but (Gail and I) do consider it from time to time. We are regularly asked by people to start one, and that is flattering.”

Haggard also told me he has no plans to be a pulpit minister. He is currently making his living doing weekend speaking engagements at churches across the country, as I reported in The Gazette months ago. Last week, he said, he spoke at a church in Phoenix, and the week before that at a church in Orlando, Fla. “We’ve gotten more than enough invitations to fill the weekends,” Haggard said. “For the last six weeks it’s been non stop.”

But Haggard emphasized that he is not speaking as a pulpit minister. “We are guest speakers,” he said. “I am there as a Christian businessman. Not a pastor.”

And finally, Haggard took issue with  The Independent saying in a news release, “Haggard also admits that despite prior denials, he was a repeat user of methamphetamines.”

 ”I initially denied using it  in the beginning (but days later) admitted it,” Haggard told

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 me. “That’s been well known.”

Haggard says he’s enjoying Colorado Springs since returning from exile 15 months ago. He plans to stay here a long time.

“We are so grateful for the way Colorado Springs has responded to us and our family,” he said. “The city has provided a healing environment to all of us.”

There’s scuttlebutt around town that Ted Haggard, senior pastor of New Life Church, will be starting his own church this summer in Colorado Springs. We got an e-mail saying he’s been out looking for church equipment, so could that be the first sign?

I have a call to Haggard and hope to confirm or dismiss the rumor soon. In February, he told me he didn’t feel he was ready to start a church yet, and he was going to be making a lot of guest appearances at churches throughout the U.S. — but a lot can change in a few months.

In any case,  it seems inevitable that Haggard will eventually start his own church.

If he does, would you:

a. STAY AWAY

b. ATTEND FOR CURIOSITY’S SAKE

c. BECOME A CHURCH MEMBER AS SOON AS YOU CAN

d. NONE OF THE ABOVE