An “Ex-Evangelical Church on the Move for Jesus”
Denver Community Church
Denver, CO
By Stephen DiTrolio

Denver Community Church (DCC) is always evolving and changing, from reimagining women’s leadership roles to becoming an inclusive and affirming congregation. The church and its leaders are constantly grappling with where they fit in the landscape of non-denominational “ex-evangelical” churches. Executive Pastor Jon Gettings explains, “We are too liberal for conservatives, and we are too conservative for the liberals. We’re one [of] these islands where we definitely don’t fit in the evangelical world. We don’t really fit in the hyper-progressive, even post-evangelical world.” The church’s concerns for social justice are focused on helping those closest to them, but don’t ignore the needs of those across the world. Elder Craig, one of the congregation’s LGBTQ-identifying members, explains that the congregation deals head-on with conflict. Member Greg Mortimer views the church as a salmon swimming upstream and fighting the stream to procreate and die. It’s a vivid example of the congregation’s selfless, counter-cultural, and committed vision in the world. Where other churches may seek to run away, DCC invites it and tries to foster a safe place for opposing viewpoints. The church is always in motion, moving towards where they feel God is calling their community.

The sense I got from the pastor and others I spoke to was that they wanted to engage in this research with the Thriving Congregations Project because it would help them better understand who they were and their areas of growth. This was a church that was willing to open themselves for analysis instead of being defensive or fearful of what I might find. They were ready to be vulnerable and invite constructive criticism. This first interaction would color the rest of my subsequent interactions with the church.

The church was born out of conflict and growth. In the early 2000s, DCC began as a small church plant that first met in the Pastor’s home and then rented a space that they would later own. The church grew exponentially until the head pastor had to leave because of personal issues. This blossoming and growing church was now at a crossroads; it would eventually invite the current Pastor Michael Hidalgo to lead the congregation, which had dwindled to merely 50 congregants. After several years, however, they had outgrown the building and were offered a large building downtown which had been a synagogue, the Denver Ballet, and another church, among other things. The church grew to two locations (downtown and Washington Park) where they focus on local justice projects and seek to build community.

In 2009, Pastor Hidalgo approached the leaders and elders about the possibility of revising their position on women in leadership. In one of the interviews, I was told that this was a significant move away from the church’s principles, which up to this point had been complementarian. Many more conservative churches hold that while men and women are equal in value, the Bible teaches that they are assigned different, complementary roles in marriage, with men taking the leadership role. This position functionally excludes women from positions of church-wide leadership, speaking, or pastoring. The church discussed and eventually overturned this position, and to this day, some of the lead pastors are women.

The next landmark in the church’s theological evolution was around 2015, when the conversation arose on whether the church should affirm the LGBTQ community and become an inclusive church. After a series of debates, sermons series looking into the biblical text, and discussions with church members, the leaders decided to make the church affirming and inclusive.

When I interviewed the Executive Pastor, one interesting point came up: the church did not split or close as a result of the inclusive decision, though they ended up losing many members during the time of transition. I was intrigued by this because in previous conversations I was told that the church had come out of the conservative evangelical milieu. How did a church like this not split on such a divisive issue? The pastor and other leaders believe that when the leadership decided to affirm, no leader left the church or resigned their positions because members validated them and did not ask them to change their convictions. They were all challenged to be more united. For three years of dialogue and conversation, the church members and leaders were asked to share and express their thoughts. One leader told me that they purposefully have “conservative” and “progressive” people throughout the church leadership, elder team, and volunteers. The church desires to unite together, despite the disparate political opinions expressed by its members.

One member recounted that during the 2016 elections, she participated in a meeting where they were asked to sit with someone who was of the opposite political party. They were then asked to share why they held those beliefs with their partner. She said that “. . . The two of us had a significant conversation. Both of us were in tears by the end of it.” Rather than shy away from conflict or alleviate it, this congregation actively sets up places where opposing convictions and opinions can be discussed.

DCC is active in pursuing its goal to be a place which houses a diversity of opinions and thoughts on God, the Bible, and church. Where one might think this is a hindrance or a recipe for a lot of conflicts, one elder confessed to me that they want “diversity of thought; to be united and not uniform in thought.” This situation struck me as something both radical and fascinating. Here was a community that strived to take up their differences with each other and, despite these differences, to work together in community. This leader said to me that they wanted to be a place where people who have questions that they have been afraid to ask can ask them and talk about them freely. This is a community that dialogues not only with the world around them but within themselves. It is a church that is continuously between faith and doubt, a community of dialogue.

The executive pastor affirmed that even though they are “liberal” by some standards, they are still a “Jesus-centered” church that shares the message of Jesus and the good news of the gospel. In this, the church desires to be a community of people who shy away from labels such as “liberal,” “radical,” or “progressive.” Instead, they want to be associated with the life and teachings of Jesus. They are homeless in the broader scheme of American church life, finding that few churches simultaneously have a high view of the Bible and invite historical interpretations of Jesus. This perceived “homelessness” causes DCC to function as a nomadic church. It is a community of faith that moves, changes, and adapts to the ever-changing terrain of both their micro-context and the larger societal context.

In another interview, a long-time member recounted her experience when the church decided to be an inclusive church. She described herself and her husband as lifelong Christians who had helped start a church and had led a college ministry. They moved to Denver, and after being disenfranchised by their church, they ended up going to Denver Community Church. She laughed as she noted that her first impression of the church was that it was a young church and that they were the oldest people. She also told me that they would routinely sit near young couples that were pregnant and pray for them. When the church decided that they would become an inclusive church, she confessed that her husband was pretty upset about it. She shared that they were more open-minded conservatives and had come from evangelical church backgrounds that would not favor such a position. Yet, they did not leave the church because they felt that this was the place for them to be. Not long after their decision to stay at the church, their daughter told them that they would undergo hormone therapy and surgical procedures to begin gender transitioning. The interviewee’s voice began to crack as she told me that this was a massive challenge for her and her husband. They loved their daughter and wanted to be supportive of her, yet this was something that they did not know how to deal with. After months of counseling with the pastors and other leaders, she told me that, even though they were hesitant at first, she “… could not be happier that I belong to a church where both myself and my child can be loved and told that God loves them.” Later on in the interview, in tears, she said, “Yeah. If I hadn’t had the church that we are in right now, I would have walked away from the church. I have no doubt about it. I would not walk away from God. Yeah, [I] never would have [done] that, but I would have walked away from the church.” This interview made it clear that DCC is a community of love, and that despite differences, this is not a place where one group is loved more than another, but where all are loved and where all belong.

Because of its commitment to the teachings of Jesus and their vision of lifting “the least of these,” Denver Community Church decided early during the COVID-19 pandemic that they would not meet in-person out of care for the wider community. They did not want to endanger the homeless in their community or those without health care just for the sake of meeting in-person. Instead, they organized food pantries and mental health resources to help those most in need. This care points to how they view their commitment to Jesus; it is through safety, respect, and providing for basic needs that this church believes that they are following Jesus as a community of faith.

The church’s vision for authenticity is not one that is hidden under the veneer of politeness or superficial agreeableness; instead, in love, it is a community that wrestles with one another’s ideas and tries to talk about them. Over and over, across various interviews with members and leadership, this was a common trend that came up. This is a community of different people united in their love for others. This church sees dialogue, questions, and doubts expressed in a community setting as vital and central to the life of faith. The idea of the “journey” came up in various conversations. This was not only a situation where people were on some spiritual journey, but rather they were on this journey together as a community. One person told me,

“In the last few years, [we have] been trying to get rid of as much ‘blood music’ as possible because we no longer . . . subscribe to substitutionary atonement theory in the same way. And so, it’s trying to get rid of it . . . [and instead] have songs that we’re singing on Sunday that reflect our theology. And that freaked out . . . our worship leaders, especially because . . . that doesn’t leave much left.”

This is a faith community that is not leaving any stones unturned as they continue to walk forward into what they think God is calling them. It is a church that seeks to be where people ”walk in and feel the same way that I did: this is a place that I belong.”

These visions of community, love, and dialogue are not merely dreams; these values are actually operative in the church.  One pastor explained that in the Jungian archetype, the church had been described as “the explorer” and the “every-person.” This is a community of faith that is on the move, constantly re-thinking its principles without compromising its love for all people. These ideas are always challenging them and pushing them forward. This is a vision that I believe will help them to continue to move forward into new uncertain terrains and to continue to thrive. As one of the members said to describe her experience of being a part of the church, “I just kinda like being on that journey together and seeing God.”