My adventure began at 7:30am Saturday as the United flight touched down in Denver. I was on a quest. I wanted to visit with a group of diverse church planters and parent church pastors one at a time. My goal was to gather some first hand knowledge of what’s happening on the front lines of starting new churches and do my best to pass that information along to you.

My first stop was a visit with Eric Ojala, a US Missionary who (along with his wife Leila) is part of a planting team with a vision to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples (and so on and so on). Elements is what many label an “organic” church. Generally, “organic” means that real estate, big meetings and physical assets are not considered to be essential for missional success. And Summit County, Colorado where Elements is growing is a community where “organic” may be a methodology whose time has come.

Eric and Leila have partnered up with Jeff and Cheryl McElhattan to dedicate their lives to making disciples in Summit County. Their organic approach requires them to measure progress with unique but powerful metrics. For example, the members of the growing Elements community are now connected to 30 pre-Christian friends in what they call Life Transformation Groups. The groups are mostly one on one discipleship relationships conducted regularly in the midst of living life. As LTG participants step into a relationship with Jesus, they connect into the Elements community via a house church. Eventually the house churches may begin to meet once a month for a larger corporate gathering. Mainly, they just want to keep the organization simple and reproducible.

After a powerful time of learning from Eric, I headed down the mountain for a visit with Jeff. He was assisting with a coach training event taking place in Genesee, Colorado. Jeff has cultivated quite a crop of facial hair since moving up to Summit County. I couldn’t help but notice a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. Jeff’s young daughter was with him and perhaps the most profound moment of the day was when I asked Ivey about what it was like to be the daughter of a church planter. She responded something like, “It’s fun! I get to help my friends know Jesus.” Her innocent and unrehearsed response to my question spoke volumes to me about the power of the organic model. For Ivey, Jeff, Cheryl, Eric, Leila and their team, church isn’t something they go to. It’s what they are 24/7.

Hugging Jeff and Ivey, I jumped in my rental car and cruised over to Centennial, Colorado. Centennial might as well be in another country. It is SO different from Summit County….

In Centennial I dropped in on the 5:30pm meeting of Grace Community Church. Pastored by Jim Ladd, Grace is a church committed to being a church that plants churches. They have directly or indirectly been responsible for at least 4 new church plants in the Denver area in the last several years. They are preparing to send out a planter to start a new church in another state. Jim is one of the bravest pastors I have ever known. 2 years ago, Grace gave birth to their most ambitious plant ever. Plum Creek Community Church led by Doug and Beth Miller. Jim gave Doug and Beth unfettered access to invite Grace attendees to be part the new plant in Castle Rock just 10 minutes down I-25. Jim remembered the day he let Doug speak at Grace the week before the Castle Rock launch. As he listened to Doug’s gifted preaching, Jim wondered if anyone would be at Grace the next Sunday.  As it turned out only about 5% of Grace attendees went with Doug to help start Plum Creek. I’ll tell you more about Plum Creek later in this post.

The Saturday night meeting at Grace was one of their three weekend services. When they started the journey of becoming a multiplying church, Grace was a church of about 400 attendees. Today they have over 500 who gather regularly for worship. The services are contemporary, culturally relevant, anointed and solidly based in truth.

Following the service, Jim, his wife Sue and I headed downtown to meet with Fran Vernaza and his wife.  They are in the process of planting another new church out of Grace. They have moved into a economically challenged neighborhood of Denver and are building a “compassion bridge” to manifest the love of Christ tangibly. They have already begun to make disciples and sometime in the next year they plan to begin holding public services. Fran told me he really liked the blog post from a few weeks ago titled “Who Will Go To Scranton. “ He told me their neighborhood is not a “church planter magnet.” It’s a tough place where people have really challenging needs. They know they’re in for the long haul. They gave up their comfortable life in the suburbs to incarnationally connect into the community to which God had called them. And they are having the time of their lives.

After a short night, I hit the 8am early service at Plum Creek Community Church. Plum Creek is seeing over 600 gather to worship each weekend. Doug preached a solidly biblical message. I came away in awe of what God has done through Grace Community and with great hope for the future ministry of Plum Creek to the people of Castlerock. My hope is based on first hand observation. While I was talking with Doug Miller just before the 8am service, a friend of that Doug had met because of his community involvement walked up to Doug and said he had decided to try Plum Creek out. Doug was thrilled and let me know that considering the individuals background, I had just witnessed a miracle.  When I walked into the meeting room, I saw a room filled with miracles. Intentionality in community connections is a big part of the reason that Grace and Plum Creek have gone from 400 in one service to over 1100 in two churches and more on the way. I have to wonder…what if Jim and the leadership of Grace had decided multiplication was too risky or frightening? I’m thankful they had the courage to obey God and give themselves away.

I slipped out of the Plum Creek service and headed up I-25 to Lakewood where I arrived just in time to walk into the 9:30 am service of Red Rocks Church. Scott and Lori Bruegman arrived in Denver 7 years ago with a call to start a new church. They spent 3 years building a relational network in the West Denver area. Scott used every imaginable opportunity to connect with people and help them begin to follow Jesus. In January 2005 they held their first public service with 110 people, most of whom had not previously been connected to a church. Today Red Rocks is home to over 1000 regular attendees.

Red Rocks now meets in the community room of Belmar, a shopping area in the heart of Lakewood. They have an ice skating rink in the common area adjacent to their meeting space. Numerous really good restaurants and shops surround their room. It’s incredible to see what God has done.

A special feature of my visit was when an employee of Belmar accidently set off the fire alarm by burning some toast. All 500+ of the people gathered discovered that fire alarms can only be turned off by the fire department. So 15 minutes of the service was interrupted by the piercing alarm. Once we knew that we were not in danger, everyone laughed and took advantage of the opportunity to get to know each other. Sean Johnson picked up right where he had left off and Chad Bruegman preached an outstanding sermon on giving thanks.

I headed up the road to North High School which is very close to Invesco Field at Mile High where the Broncos were preparing to play the Raiders (and I’m sorry to say the Raiders prevailed). North is the meeting place for Denver Church, the daughter church of Red Rocks. It was incredible how different the culture was from Lakewood to the North High School neighborhood. Denver Church is decidedly more urban that Red Rocks. As we entered the auditorium we were greeting with the thumping sound of rap music. The crowd was multi-ethnic and multi-economic. Pastor Brian Sederwall told us that some of the folks had just been released from prison and others lived in nearby exclusive loft apartments. The service was raw and anointed.

After lunch, I headed out to meet with Jon and Angie Hamp. They are in the process of starting Discover Church in Parker. The Hamps are pursuing a strategy of building strong relational connections in the community through offering marriage and financial development seminars. They hope to begin holding public services sometime in 2009.

Right now I’m typing this while seated in seat 8A on a United flight back to Springfield. I’m full and thrilled with what I’ve experienced in the last 48 hours (OK, I guess it’s actually only been 36.) Jesus is truly building his Church in diverse and powerful ways. I can’t wait to see what’s next!