COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—A search committee at New Life Church is recommending a Texas megachurch leader replace disgraced senior pastor Ted Haggard.

The committee has nominated the Rev. Brady Boyd for the job, after conducting what it said were “dozens of hours of interviews” over eight months.

Haggard was fired last year after a former male prostitute alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with him. The man also said he saw Haggard use methamphetamine. Haggard confessed to unspecified “sexual immorality” and said he bought meth but never used it. Haggard also resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals in the wake of the scandal.

Since Haggard’s fall, attendance has dropped more than 20 percent and giving has declined by 10 percent.