Loving God. Serving others. Changing lives.
God’s Vision for Heart of the Rockies Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Our Core Values
Community. Transformation. Service.
Heart of the Rockies recognizes that our core values are interwoven in life-giving ways. Each value undergirds and informs the others. God works through experiences of community – worship, study, fellowship and service – to bring change in us and our church family. These experiences of transformation move us to love God more completely and to love others more thoroughly. As we turn then to others in service, we often find ourselves receiving more than we give, as those we serve become God’s agents of further change in us and widen our experience of God’s community.
Our Story
Heart of the Rockies began with a vision to reach out to persons who may have been disappointed by the Church. Along the way, we discovered opportunities to reach those who, not having been raised in the church, wonder what Christians are talking about when we talk about our faith.
We set out to grow a church family nourished in the vitality of the Bible’s claims and the experiences of the church throughout history. We sought to join the best that a church can offer – the meaning, joy and love of Jesus – with a practical understanding of the faith that speaks to life as we experience it. We focused on the essentials of the Christian faith while encouraging the freedom and diversity of the historic church.
We began our life together on March 28, 1993, a mission of the Central Rocky Mountain Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). These forty-nine Disciples congregations throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and northern New Mexico provided our eleven-acre site, on which we built our current building in 1999. Over the years, partnership with our denomination and regional church has affirmed our sense of the church’s oneness, strengthened our ministries with youth and adults, and resourced overseas ministries that stretch now around the world.
We saw – and see – ourselves as fellow pilgrims called to accompany each other on our spiritual journeys. We continue to find ways to minister to the needs of our community and the wider world. With God’s help and in Christ’s name, we are growing a community that loves, accepts, forgives and serves.
Theology (or What We Believe About God)
At Heart of the Rockies Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), we choose the Bible’s account of God and human experience to shape our lives, our community and our vision of the way it can be in the world. We like to say that we take the Bible seriously but not always literally. We believe that from Genesis through Revelation, the Bible tells the story of God’s redeeming love at work through history and beyond, and what it means to love God and to serve others. We seek God’s Truth in the Crucified and Risen Jesus – the life he lived, the stories he told, the relationships he developed, and the ways he continues to draw near to us and to the world through the Holy Spirit.
When we talk about God’s transforming presence in the world, we are more likely to share stories than settle for abstract theory and lifeless dogma. Stories from the Bible that comfort, confound and challenge us. Stories out of our own lives. We trust that the Holy Spirit is at work in these stories to help us discern God’s presence and to lead us into experiences of God’s life-changing love for us and for the world.
Beliefs and Practices
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) began in the early 1800s as a movement to unify Christians and restore the church along the lines of New Testament authority and practice. Disciples, as we call ourselves, don't claim to be the only Christians, but see ourselves as part of the larger Body of Christ.
Beliefs and practices characteristic of our congregation and many other Disciples churches include:
· Open communion. The Lord's Supper, or Communion, is celebrated in weekly worship. On Christ's behalf, we welcome to the Table all who trust in Jesus and those who want to.
· Baptism by immersion. Although Disciples practice baptism by immersion, other baptism traditions are honored.
· The unity of the Church. All Christians – regardless of theology, politic, race, gender, age, economic status, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, familial status or faith history – are called to live as one in Christ and to seek opportunities for common witness and service.
· Freedom of belief. Disciples are called together around one essential of faith: trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Persons are encouraged to live their lives guided by the Holy Spirit, the Bible, their connection to a local community of faith, and historic understandings of the church.
· The ministry of all. Both ministers and lay people lead in worship, service and spiritual growth.
· The oneness of creation. Disciples consider ourselves stewards of God's creation, rather than its owners. We seek to work for the healing and wholeness of God's creation in partnership with all persons of good will.
· A passion to serve. In concrete and practical ways, Disciples congregations make a difference in our neighborhoods, in our communities and around the world. We work side by side with the marginalized and advocate for fairness in laws and public policy.