Gayle Haggard is a speaker, teacher and the wife of Ted Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. From 1985 through 2006, Ted and Gayle grew New Life Church from a handful of people meeting in the basement of their home into a congregation of 14,000 members. Gayle directed women’s ministries, teaching women of all ages and overseeing 150 women’s small groups. In the fall of 2006, she launched a ministry called Women Belong, a ministry which taught women that they should never feel alone, because we all belong to God and to each other. Soon after, everything Gayle believed and taught was put to the test.
On November 2, 2006, Gayle Haggard’s life changed forever when her husband, Ted Haggard, founder of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, was publicly exposed in a scandal. In the days and months ahead, everything in Gayle’s life was at stake—her beliefs, her marriage, and her relationship with the church community she had been a part of for more than 20 years. In Why I Stayed, Gayle walks us through the choices she made in her darkest hour and shares her renewed passion for the central message of the Bible—the liberating message of forgiveness and love. Why I Stayed reminds us of what less-than-perfect people desperately need—a community of family and faith that offers healing love and a path to restoration.
An inspiring story of grace under pressure. At its core, this book is about a family that grows stronger and closer together in the midst of severe adversity.
The book resonates with transparency, humility and generosity of spirit. Those who approach these pages with pre-conceived opinions may be surprised to find their paradigms shattered and their prejudices revealed. Here is how a family responds to tragedy with God’s help; here is how a family not only “survives” trauma but actually grows healthier because of it.
On another level the book is a compelling invitation to the community of faith — suggesting that the process of restoration merits higher and better consideration than it has received. While every case and every situation may be unique, there are underlying principles of community, fellowship and mutual participation which ought to shape the contours of the healing process.
Dr. David & Lisa Frisbie
The Center for Marriage & Family Studies
Del Mar, California
A must read and you will understand the life of the Haggards. You will be with them on their hard journey and they tell you how it really was.