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Parsley during the recording of My Savior Lives

Honestly, it felt like we'd experienced 9/11 again on a much smaller scale. Remember how the whole country stopped caring if you were Democrat or Republican? We were all Americans. In many ways, it was like that. Strength returned to the foundations of our faith in Christ, knowing that we're all in this together. There was also a sense of ownership for our church. Ted Haggard's not New Life Church—we are, and we leaned on each other because of it.

Were there temptations to label Pastor Haggard a hypocrite and feel adrift or abandoned?

Jared Anderson None of us knew [he was going through this], and that's part of what Ross was saying about the feeling of sadness. Here we were having this close friend warring with and going through things that none of us knew about. He couldn't master it and it got him. And he never reached out. We were never able to be there for him and that's a sad thing. Some felt that somebody had to know about this, but others were wondering if he could somehow be restored.

Packiam I think everyone felt some measure of shock and anger. Not questioning whether he was a hypocrite, but more like "What were you thinking?" and "Not this!"

Parsley I think that's one of the reasons it was so shocking to the church nationwide. He was affecting churches around the country, and New Life wasn't the place people expected this to happen. But all the stages of grief were there (denial, anger, etc.). I preached on them for the first few weeks because we all felt some of that—guilt, betrayal, all kinds of stuff. We had to coach people through it. You go back and listen to some of those Sunday morning services and I don't think they were brilliantly put together sermons. But they were reflective of a family working together to deal with the grief. They were from the heart, dealing with substantive heart issues that were difficult.

Packiam The other big lesson all of us walked through was the temptation to look for every media story and say, "Hey, did you guys know about this?" It's a little sensationalist, and we realized our role is not to try and uncover. The people who need to know are dealing with it. I'm not one of the people who need to know all the details. That keeps it honorable, while the right people make sure that justice is served. Sometimes when something like this happens, everybody wants to be the expert on all the details, but you shouldn't be. It poisons your own heart.

My Savior Lives was the first collaborative album featuring all of New Life's worship teams, uniting the church months before all this happened. Do you feel like the experience of recording that live album helped prepare you for the storm?

Parsley It's exactly the way we feel about that project and those songs. If you open up the newest copies of My Savior Lives, you'll find a little message on the inside tray card explaining this. These songs were meaningful to us before all this, but they took on new meaning after. "Here in your presence all things are new … I've found myself a hiding place … One thing I know that I have found through all the troubles that surround, You are the rock that never fails." Those lyrics mean something different to us now.

There was a sense this project was the connective tissue for us, because we needed those songs. They fed our souls by reminding us of scriptural truths. Worship is about reminding yourself through some sort of liturgy who God is and what he's done for you. That's why we come to the Lord's Table, why we share these songs, why we say creeds. It's all about reminding us who God really is in the midst of crisis or tragedy.

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