Covenant News
Thornton (CO) to Conduct Grand Opening Service
THORNTON, CO (January 27, 2004) - The Crossing Covenant Church will conduct a grand opening worship service on February 8 in Thornton, a suburb of Denver, following core development work that began last spring, according to church planting pastor Jeff Grote.
With help from pastors David Perez of Northpoint Covenant Church in
Broomfield and Chuck Wysong of Christ Community Covenant Church in
Arvada, the church began preview services with 22 adults and 14 kids
last June.
The Crossing Covenant Church conducted four preview services during the summer with an average attendance of 75 people before launching weekly services on September 7. More than 90 attended a Christmas Eve service.
Grote and his wife, Melanie, have two elementary school children and report that connections with parents in the neighborhood have encouraged some to visit the new church and become part of the core team. Given that an estimated 80 percent of people in the area are not involved in a church family, Grote believes there is great potential for ministry to people who have not previously been part of a congregation.
"The most interesting aspect of our church plant so far has been the amount of people attending who were previously unchurched," says Grote, who was a co-pastor for a General Baptist Conference congregation in Tucson, Arizona, before moving to Colorado in December 2002. "At this point we have about 50 adults and 25 to 30 kids who are preparing with us to launch this church. About 75 percent of them are people who six months ago thought Sunday mornings were about reading the paper and heading to the mountains. We have a very high percentage of adult attenders serving - something like 90 percent - on a rotating basis, either on a set-up team or in our children's ministry, website and database stuff and much more."
Along with preparing for its grand opening, the church has started three small groups with a fourth in the planning stages, Grote notes. To learn more about the church and its ministries, call church staff at 303-884-6139 or email Grote at jagrote@comcast.net.
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