Justin McKay said the past year has been full of ups and downs, but “the constant theme is God has been with us.”
That’s what The Local Church in Arvada, Colorado, has been celebrating as it approaches its first anniversary — God’s work in a place McKay said is largely apathetic to anything related to religion.
He and his wife, Lacy, first noticed the spiritual need in the Denver area when they traveled there from Alabama for their honeymoon in 2015.
Where are the churches?
“On our first day, we were driving around and were in awe of the Rocky Mountains,” said McKay, who grew up at Bluff Park Baptist Church in Hoover (now the Church on the Bluff).
“Within minutes of that, we were driving around this small town called Golden, and we said to each other, ‘Where are all the churches?’ In Alabama there are churches everywhere.’”
That started the couple on a journey toward realizing God was calling them to plant a church there. They started a church planting residency in early 2020, were affirmed in the summer and started growing their launch team in 2021.
“We launched The Local Church officially in February 2022,” McKay said. “We started in one location, meeting on Sunday afternoons at 4 p.m.”
It became clear to him quickly that they were going to need to find a spot where they could meet on Sunday mornings.
“We began praying and looking for a building,” he said. “About a mile west of us, a church had closed and sold their building to a charter school.”
McKay said God opened the door for a partnership, and in September the congregation of The Local Church began meeting at the church-building-turned-school.
“We just really took off,” he said. “We doubled in attendance overnight.”
God at work
The past year has been amazing as they’ve watched what God has done, McKay said.
On some Sundays, the church has drawn a crowd of more than 100. They’ve had 20 people “say yes to Jesus,” he said. The church plans to celebrate its first anniversary with the baptism of a new believer.
“The people who come, it’s been from word of mouth, a door hanger, seeing our sign in the parking lot or seeing a Facebook ad — all kinds of ways,” McKay said. “We’re an intergenerational church with a vibrant community of young families.”
Gifts given through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering have made that happen.
One hundred percent of Annie Armstrong gifts goes directly to fund missionary work, including the work of North American Mission Board church planters.
The national offering goal this year is $70 million, and the Alabama goal is $6 million.
The AAEO season of giving begins with the Week of Prayer for North American Missions, which will be held March 5–12. The week will highlight stories of missionaries who, like the McKays, are bolstered by the AAEO in their work across North America.
The money given through NAMB “plays a role, and local churches play a role,” McKay said.
Since the beginning of their church planting journey, the McKays have seen God provide through the AAEO and through churches who have come alongside them.
“We’ve got some good partnerships in Alabama, and we could always use more,” he said.
Several churches in the state currently assist in their work, including their sending church, Capstone Church in Tuscaloosa, and Bethlehem West Baptist Church in Vinemont, which McKay said has been a “huge blessing.”
‘Every church has a role’
“It has strengthened their church (Bethlehem West) to be a part of the greater story that God is writing in the U.S.,” McKay said. “Every church has a role in domestic church planting — you don’t have to be a church with megachurch resources.”
He said all their partners are an amazing picture of what God is doing and what churches can do together.
He asked for prayer for the people of The Local Church to “begin to own the culture of inviting others into finding and following Jesus.”
“Pray our church … has a culture of inviting others into what God is doing here,” he said. “We want to see more people come to know Jesus and more baptisms, and we want to do our part in seeing that become a reality.”
McKay said it can take courage to keep sharing the gospel in an environment that’s apathetic to it.
“A lot of people say ‘no’ before you find someone who is receptive,” he said. “Please pray for us to keep going and for hearts to be open in Colorado.”
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