Megachurch fires worship artist over extramarital affair with woman from another city
A Colorado megachurch has fired former Vertical Worship band member and songwriter Andi Rozier for an alleged extramarital relationship.
Rozier, who had served on the worship team at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was promptly terminated upon the discovery of his relationship with a woman from another city, Executive Pastor Brian Newberg wrote in an email statement to The Christian Post.
The church was only able to share the actions it has taken as a church since it is an employment matter.
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"We have already engaged in a communication process with our church," Newberg said. "Our staff was communicated to last week and our congregation was communicated to in-person at our weekend services."
"We are walking alongside [Rozier's] wife and children to help them heal," he added. "Andi is no longer a part of our pastoral team."
Rozier served as a worship pastor for nearly two decades at Harvest Bible Chapel in the Chicago area and was a member of its worship band, Vertical Worship, according to The Roys Report.
In the early stages of Rozier's service at Harvest, the church removed him from ministry for moral reasons before being reinstated after counseling, discipleship and confession, former Harvest Bible Chapel Pastor James MacDonald told The Roys Report. Rozier was featured on several Vertical Worship albums.
"It was discovered he had been in a sexual relationship with a young woman," Josh Caterer, a former Harvest worship leader, told The Roys Report, adding that he was subject to church discipline in 2002.
New Life Church has also faced controversy over the years. In 2006, its former Pastor Ted Haggard was forced to resign after confessing to "sexual immorality" with a male escort in a scandal involving illicit drug use.
Haggard, who formerly served as the National Association of Evangelicals president, launched a new church, the Colorado-based St. James Church, in 2010. Last year, Haggard was accused of inappropriately touching at least two young men and illicit drug use.
Last April, amid a "slow decline" in St. James Church, Haggard announced plans to turn his church into a series of house churches, changing the name to Storyhouse Church.
Other megachurches have been hit with sexual scandals in recent years.
Some serious leadership problems have surfaced at the U.S.-based Hillsong East Coast, especially regarding financial and sexual scandals surrounding Hillsong NYC Lead Pastor Carl Lentz, including an affair. Lentz was fired from Hillsong in 2020.
A few other Hillsong resignations have followed Lentz, including Darnell Barrett, creative director of Hillsong Church Montclair in New Jersey, as well as Reed and Jess Bogard from Hillsong Dallas, which has since closed.
Hillsong's former Global Senior Pastor Brian Houston resigned last March after it was revealed that two allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him in the previous 10 years.
In a statement, Hillsong claimed that Houston violated the church's pastoral code of conduct by entering the hotel room of an unidentified woman for 40 minutes while under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs during the church's annual conference in 2019.
