The leader of a megachurch where a gunman opened fire a week earlier, killing two teenage sisters and wounding three other people, said Sunday that the congregation's trials of the past couple of years were nothing more than tests.
"Last weekend was a test ... but we are passing the test," said the Rev. Brady Boyd, New Life Church senior pastor, on a bright, sunny day when snow-capped Pikes Peak could be seen from the church grounds.
Another test came a year ago, Boyd said, when founder the Rev. Ted Haggard was dismissed after a former male escort claimed Haggard paid him over three years for sex. Haggard publicly admitted committing unspecified "sexual immorality."
"This is not what this church will be known for," Boyd said.
Photographs of Stephanie Works, 18, and her sister Rachael, 16, adorned the program for services Sunday.
The two were killed when a gunman with an assault rifle, a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun and a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun opened fire in the parking lot as a service was letting out. The girls' father and two other people were wounded.
Volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam shot and wounded gunman Matthew Murray, 24, before he turned the gun on himself. Twelve hours earlier and about 65 miles away, police said, Murray killed two staff members of the Youth With a Mission missionary training center in Arvada and wounded two others.
A funeral was held Saturday in Minnesota for one of the Arvada victims, 26-year-old Tiffany Johnson. A memorial service was held earlier in the week in Colorado.
A private service was held Friday in Denver for Murray.