The news hit pastor Justin McKay like a ton of bricks — his church’s landlord was tripling their rent.
“It felt like the ground shifted beneath us,” he said.
He knew that meant The Local Church in Arvada, Colorado, would have to move. But soon they’d see that the door was swinging open to a new story — one he says only God could write.
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McKay and his wife, Lacy, saw the beginnings of it when they went to Colorado on their honeymoon almost a decade ago.
“On our first day, we were driving around, and we’re in awe of the Rocky Mountains,” said McKay, who grew up at Bluff Park Baptist Church, Hoover (now the Church on the Bluff).
But a question rose to the surface — where were all the churches?
A familiar area
Unable to shake that question, they moved to Colorado from Alabama five years later, sent out by Capstone Church in Tuscaloosa to start a church planting residency. Five years later, sent out as an endorsed Send Network plant, they launched The Local Church, which grew to around 100 attending on Sundays.
They were in a great location. Then that letter came from their landlord, and they knew they couldn’t stay.
A few days later, McKay was out with someone from the church scouting for possible new locations, and he ended up somewhere unexpected.
“I started to get nostalgic, because that was the same area where Lacy and I honeymooned almost 10 years prior,” he said.
So he went home and started doing some research on that area, a master-planned community called Candelas, and found out its history dated back to 1861 — when a couple had moved there on their honeymoon.
“It was founded by a couple, George and Sarah Church, and crazy enough they moved out to Colorado on their honeymoon and started to ranch,” McKay said. “I was struck by their story, and their last name being Church, that’s wild.”
God’s signposts
He felt like that was one of several signposts God was giving them to show them they should keep their attention out there.
Another was the name Candelas, which means candles. For McKay, that felt like a “connection of our theme from the previous year of being a church on fire, which God had given me over a year ago.”
The churches had been the first to bring winter wheat to the area, and just like that harvest, McKay felt like the fields were white for a spiritual harvest in Candelas. There were hundreds of homes “that need laborers to step into it, to share the gospel, to live as a bright light in a dark place.”
He continued to do research and found the Churches’ great-grandson living in the area — and that he shared his same last name. They met, and Charlie Church McKay encouraged him to keep going in the pioneering spirit God had given him.
He remembered that when they went to look at land and found only two lots available. The church had its offer on one lot rejected, and the other was too small for a church.
“But I had this idea — I wonder if there’s something around it that we could combine with that piece of property,” McKay said. “And while I was looking, right next to that property I found a plot of land of almost five acres, and it was under the name of Land of Revival, an LLC named that.”
A new name
He met with the owner and shared the church’s vision, and they told him they felt like God was in it.
“That was the beginning of a beautiful partnership,” McKay said.
Not too long after, a third piece of adjoining land became available that was also owned by Christians. The church was able to purchase that too.
The church met for the first time Jan. 18 in its new temporary meeting place, a local school. But it did so with a new name — Valor Church. He said they made the change because often in the Bible, God gave people new names when He called them to a new vision. McKay said they’re stepping into this next season with strength, courage and character.
“God is writing a story, and He wants us to trust Him,” he said. “We’re excited but also know this isn’t going to be easy, practically or spiritually.”
He said in the Denver area, they often encounter people who want nothing to do with Christ.
“We need people’s prayers, and we need new partner churches to come out and pray for us,” McKay said, noting that many of their strong partner churches are from Alabama. “There’s not a church in an area of 30,000 people, and it’s the future of our city — there’s going to be rapid growth there. It’s exciting to be on the forefront and lay the foundation of something we hope to see there in 80 years.”
He said he remembers praying on The Local Church’s launch Sunday in 2022 alongside partners who were visiting from Capstone Church and Mountain Brook Baptist Church, and he can see where God has been faithful to respond.
“God answers prayers, and we’re excited to be a part of it,” McKay said. “This is certainly of God.”
For more information, visit valor.church.
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