From Growing Plants to Growing Faith – Carbon Valley, CO

“We are buying a former nursery for our new church.”

“A nursery? That’s awesome. Who doesn’t love kids?”

“Actually, it was a plant nursery.”

“Uhhh…What?”

This is usually how the conversation went. It was understandable considering that using a former plant nursery for ministry isn’t the most common of ideas.  Let me share with you our thought process.

To understand how we got here, it helps to know our background and where we came from.  Carbon Valley Lutheran is a new mission which started formal worship a year and half ago.   We weren’t a daughter church, sister site, or multi-campus concept.  The draw was that over the past 10 years, Firestone, Frederick and Dacono Colorado (just north of Denver,) has been one of the fastest growing exurbs in the United States. There are few churches present in this location; and no Lutheran churches.  We started worship with 115 in attendance, converting an elementary school gymnasium into worship. Since our launch, God has continued to bless our efforts with both familiar and new faces every Sunday.  Due to the positive response, we started the search for a location to call our own earlier than usual.  My comment often is “If God wants us to run, then who are we to hold him back.”

After a thorough understanding of our community, search of the area and exhaustive fact finding, we settled on a site which was a former plant nursery.  It has the room we need (3 ½ acres,) the location we wanted (high visibility at the center of future Firestone and zoned commercial,) much of the soft costs of a building project already included (parking lot, landscaping, water tap, electrical, lighting, etc…,) and at the right price.  On March 10^th, we closed on our very first piece of property as a church.

So yes, thinking of converting a former plant nursery into a place of worship might seem a bit odd at the outset and yet, for a mission church who has been worshipping in a school gymnasium and wants to serve our community well into the future, we were willing to look at what a space “Could be” rather than “What it was.”  Soon this space which formerly grew plants, will grow faith.

Want to watch us as we grow?  Check out our Facebook page (search Carbon Valley Lutheran) to see pics of our latest clean-up day. In addition, you can view some of the nursery and surrounding area by watching this video:  https://vimeo.com/192300930

By: Missionary Tim Spiegelberg, Carbon Valley Lutheran, Carbon Valley, CO

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