May 29, 2020
By Steve Osborn
We were not a bad church. In fact, we were a pretty good church. We had been serving the Lord for 125 years in Boulder, Colorado, since a small gathering of individuals had the vision to plant a new church on this frontier and set their minds to doing it. Over the years, the church had twice relocated to new frontiers within the city of Boulder, as need and opportunity arose. We had also helped in getting two sister churches planted in other frontiers—one in Denver and one in Colorado Springs. We had, by SDB standards, an average membership and attendance. Our meeting house and parsonage, initiated as part of the most recent relocation, were paid for and in decent condition. We were blessed to be able to afford a full-time pastor. We enjoyed spending time and doing ministry together as a church family. Like I said, from all appearances, we were a pretty good church.
But therein lay the problem. Did you know that nowhere in Scripture did Jesus call us to be a pretty good church? As we began to take a closer look, with some help from the SDB PULSE process (shameless plug alert), we started noticing some troubling signs. Our active membership was shrinking. The average age of our church family was increasing. We had “graduated” a lot of our senior saints over the previous decade. Our working families were retiring. Our families with children had moved far enough away that regular attendance was difficult. Our giving was not keeping up with our budget. A high percentage of our budget and manpower was required just to maintain our facility. We had become a regional church, with the majority of our program focused on what we could do together on Sabbaths. Most alarming, we had a difficult time identifying new believers who had been introduced to Christ through our ministry. Given the fact that few of our members still lived in Boulder, it was difficult to envision how we could make much of an impact for Christ on our current community. It would have been difficult to say we were “actively advancing God’s Kingdom.”
We were faced with a difficult choice: A) Congratulate each other for being a pretty good church and ride off into the sunset, praying that Jesus would return before we had to close our doors; OR B) Rally our troops in a joint effort to pursue what we believed was God’s vision for a more preferable future (thanks, Pastor Rod Henry). Like good SDBs, we prayed and we talked, and we talked and we prayed, and then we prayed and talked some more. Finally, we chose option B. It was a drastic measure. It would require stepping out in faith and a lot of hard work. We had no guarantee it would succeed in turning our church around. But we knew it put us in the center of God’s will, which is always the best place to be.
The basic gist of the vision was to sell our Boulder property and head out onto the frontier again—this time actually leaving Boulder behind and relocating to a new, growing community (made up of three connected small towns—Frederick, Firestone, and Dacono—known collectively as Carbon Valley) where a number of our member families lived and that was a better “fit” for our style of ministry. We had already recognized the purpose of our church as “Reaching Up” (in our relationship with God), “Reaching In” (in our relationship with each other) and “Reaching Out” (in our relationship with the world). And since we felt we were already emphasizing the first two, we set to work on pursuing the third with a goal of becoming a more community-based church—looking for ways to actively advance God’s Kingdom by loving, serving, and reaching our new community. We even adopted a new name—Frontier Church-Carbon Valley, a Ministry of Seventh Day Baptists—to communicate our desire to help others in our new community push into new frontiers in their own relationship with God, the Church, and the world.
Of course, we knew that simply moving to a new location would not change anything. We, the church, had to change as well. And that is where we are currently working in equipping our church for our mission together—to grow a church of committed, multiplying followers of Jesus Christ who are Reaching UP, Reaching IN and Reaching OUT. Our basic philosophy is founded on the individual responsibility of each believer to be, at the same time, pursuing growth in their own discipleship, while at the same time trying to allow God to make an impact on the discipleship of others through us—from pre-Christian searching, to conversion, to maturity. The role of the church lies in equipping, encouraging and providing opportunities.
Part of the way we have done this is by looking for ways to love and serve our community. We have participated in community events in order to get to know and be known by our community. These have included having booths at the local farmers’ market, 4th of July festival, Food and Flicks, etc. At these booths, we are offering free Bibles and Christian books, tracts, games and prizes for the kids, and most importantly an opportunity to engage in conversation with those who are looking for that. We have also partnered with the church whose building we are renting for our Sabbath gatherings in services to the needy, such as surplus food distribution, summer lunch at the park program, and Christmas food boxes. In the near future, we hope to adopt a school that we can love and serve. None of these have resulted directly in people giving their lives to Christ. But they have helped us get to know and be known by our new community.
Our equipping has taken a variety of forms—we like to think of it as putting tools in our toolboxes that can be pulled out at appropriate times. We have reviewed a few different approaches to presenting the gospel and sharing our testimony and faith. We have made available books and materials for use and distribution. One of the most recent efforts, which was pre-empted by the recent quarantine, was a small booklet titled, “Try Praying” which encourages people who are searching to try reaching out to God for one week through guided devotions to see what they might experience. We have also provided classes in discipling others and faith-sharing, including our current study of Kevin Harney’s Organic Outreach for Ordinary Christians.
In terms of the individual responsibility, we have developed Impact cards, based on ideas we gleaned from our study of the book Life on Mission by Aaron Coe and Dustin Willis. We are asking everyone in our church to prayerfully consider which individuals God may be looking to impact through them. They first Identify these individuals in their circle of influence and begin praying regularly for God to continue to work in their lives and to open opportunities for spiritual conversations, hopefully leading up to gospel presentations. Next, they look to Invest in the lives of these individuals, Invite them to become committed, multiplying followers of Jesus and Include them in their journey.
We are still a pretty good church. But with God’s help, we hope to be a great church—for His glory. We have a long way to go in becoming the church we believe God wants us to be. Our dream is to also help plant other churches with the same heart in other communities in our region. We would love it if you would continue to pray along with us on this journey. Our firm belief is that by following God’s vision, we have set ourselves on a course to actively advance God’s Kingdom. We pray that you and your church are also praying for and pursuing the vision God has for you so that we can, together, pursue the mission He has given us as Seventh Day Baptists.
