Another Path 1 staff member and I recently spent a week traveling through parts of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference which includes Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Among the hundreds of well established churches there I learned of a couple new and innovative church starts that really captured my attention.

“After Hours” is a church that meets on Sunday afternoon at 5:00 pm. Participants sit around tables sipping beverage while their children color. Music is upbeat and straight from the radio, conversations are real and engaging. The pastor used to be a bartender which has helped him connect with younger folks whom he says, “would often rather visit a bar than sit in church.” The thing that excited me most about “After Hours” is its service to the community. Every week participants take time to do an act of service during the service. “Serving in the service.” We do this during the prayer time because we believe that acts of service are “prayers with feet (and hands).” They have been making lunches for the lay workers at El Centro Humanitario in downtown Denver. El Centro is a center that helps day laborers find work as well as promotes the rights and well-being of day laborers in Colorado through education, job skills and leadership development, and advocacy. Many of them work the whole day and only drink water at their lunch break because they don’t have the money for food. “We are helping to solve that.” The sandwiches made on Sunday are eaten on Monday. In the first year of the new church’s existence they have served well over 3,000 lunches! “After Hour’s” tagline is, “More Love, More Laughs, Less Judgement.” You can visit them at www.afterhourschurch.com.  The pastor, Rev. Jerry Herships, would be glad to hear from you. The second new church that inspired me is Redemption Fellowship in Denver. The pastor, Rev. J. Paul Howard, began this ministry to reach out to inmates at the Denver County Jail who were being released with no advocacy, support or direction. Studies have shown that there is a 72 hour window in which a person must find stability (family, employment, or support) or they inevitably end up back in prison. Pastor Paul felt called to do something about that. In addition to providing a worship venue for the more than 300 people Redemption Fellowship ministers to assist men and women in applying for state and local benefits, makes calls and writes letters on their behalf, and helps them complete forms for food stamps, social security benefits and job applications. Pastoral counseling is available for those who seek it. The mission statement of Redemption Fellowship says it all, “a church for ALL of us”. You can contact this inspiring ministry at redemtionfellowship@comcast.net.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Equipping, Inviting, Gary Shockley, Annual Conference, Visioning, New Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.