Ted Haggard

==="Life-Giving Church"===
Haggard developed a concept he called "The Life-Giving Church", which amounted to his ministry practice. He believed that churches and their members either lived "in the Tree of Life" or "in the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil", referring to the two trees in the Garden of Eden (see Gen. 2:9). He wrote a book, ''The Life-Giving Church,'' to expound on this difference, and said that motivations are the key difference between two types of Christians. "One way we can tell which tree we are living in," wrote Haggard, "is our response to sin... one of the greatest marks of bearing His [Christ's] character is our response to someone else's sin. If we handle others' mistakes with a life-giving attitude, then we (and they) have the opportunity to enjoy great power and freedom. But if we handle others' mistakes negatively, then we're eating from the wrong tree and will begin to die." Christians who live in the "tree of life," writes Haggard, "grow in their understanding of right and wrong, and they find great insight, wisdom, victory, and joy in the stream of Jesus' righteousness." Those who dwell in the opposite tree find and display "frustration, judgmental attitudes, and death."<ref name= "Haggard, Ted 2001">Haggard, Ted, ''The Life-Giving Church,'' pp. 51–61 Regal Books, 2001.</ref>

In ''The Life-Giving Church'', Haggard sets forth bylaws he initiated that were meant to help other churches with forming their own bylaws. A significant part of the bylaws was a universal pay scale Haggard instituted for all pastoral staff. Including himself, all pastors at New Life Church were paid on the same scale so that the longer one was employed, the better the pay became.<ref>Haggard, Ted, ''The Life-Giving Church'', pp. 220–265, Regal Books, 2001.</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Forman, Bill, "The Resurrection of Pastor Ted", ''Colorado Springs Independent'', October 1, 2009.</ref>

A significant part of Haggard's ministry at New Life Church was based around an entrepreneurial leadership model, which is also covered in ''The Life-Giving Church.'' Haggard felt that young and upcoming leaders of the church would bog down in "cumbersome systems" in their churches and decide to take their talents elsewhere, resulting in the church losing its "brightest and best future leaders".<ref>Haggard, Ted, ''The Life-Giving Church'', p. 48, Regal Books, 2001.</ref> Rather than a top-down command and control hierarchy where Haggard made all the decisions and people fell in line, he instituted a free market concept that encouraged young leaders to debate the best ideas (even to the point of disagreeing with him) and pursue God-inspired dreams and visions in their own departments and beyond.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> In Haggard's book, ''Primary Purpose'', he explains that the normal leadership style that governments and many corporations use is top down, while the servant leadership model he teaches is the opposite. In a visual representation, Haggard uses an upside down triangle to illustrate this concept. The leader is at the bottom and the people to be served are on top. This "Philippians 2 Attitude" comes from the scripture that states, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your interests, but also to the interests of others."<ref>Haggard, Ted, ''Primary Purpose,'' pp. 128–131. Creation House, 1995.</ref>