This past summer, my fiancé and I worked in Colorado Springs with a Navigators organization called Eagle Lake Camps. During our three month stay, we decided to plant ourselves in a church congregation. Colorado Springs is a hub for ministries and churches, so there were many options. We visited a Baptist church and then found New Life Downtown. After one service, we knew this is where the Lord wanted us to come and be refreshed each weekend.

What stood out to me at first about this church was the way in which they blended together contemporary worship and liturgy. There was a sacredness about their worship and time spent in communion every single week. I have seen churches try to unite these two different worship perspectives unsuccessfully for years and this was the first time I saw it done well. The service begins with a long period of worship. I looked around and saw many people from different generations and ethnic backgrounds worshiping together every week; it was a small glimpse of heaven. Each Sunday, either the head pastor or a leader in the church would ask us how our week of camp went and gladly welcomed us into the church for this short season. There was a time set aside for cooperate confession and communion. The time spent in the Word was Biblical and challenging.

As we did some research on this church, we found a lot of unique elements. New Life Downtown met in the auditorium of a high school in order to be accessible to the community. During this past summer, they met in a large conference room of a hotel. Hours were spent tearing down and setting up in a location that was right in the middle of downtown Colorado Springs. New Life Downtown is an extension of New Life North. I am generally not one to gravitate towards multi-site churches, but these congregations do not function as stereotypical multi-site churches do. Each church has its own pastor, youth programs, worship teams, production teams and so more but use the multi-site model as a way to disciple these leaders and then send them out to plant churches. New Life Downtown has more liturgical elements than New Life North. The services function differently to meet the styles and needs of people in the community of Colorado Springs.

Besides New Life North and New Life Downtown, the church has planted Iglesia Nueva Vida and New Life Chinese Church. They saw an influx of Hispanic and Chinese individuals moving into the Springs and developed churches run by specific pastors to meet the ethnic diversity in the community. As a community of New Life Churches, they often come together, despite different ethnic backgrounds and service styles, in order to bless the community. During the summer of 2021, the churches collectively worked to provide shoes for children going into the next school year. They effectively donated a pair of shoes to each child in each separate community. Colorado Springs is a large area with a lot of families. It was inspiring to see these churches come together with the specific purpose of spreading the Gospel through meeting physical needs.

Since we have left the Springs, New Life Midtown, New Life East and New Life Manitou Springs have been launched. We are looking forward to rejoining the New Life Downtown congregation as we move in October of this year. These churches are making significant kingdom impacts on their communities by recognizing and responding to cultural needs and differences.