GRACE CITY DENVER IS A GOSPEL-CENTERED CHURCH
FAMILY
Grace City is a multi-generational mix of singles, couples, families, and empty nesters. We’re a community of neighbors from all walks of life and from all across the Denver metro area. We’re students, entrepreneurs, teachers, trade workers, business professionals, artists, athletes, work-from-home moms and dads, retirees, and just about everyone else you can imagine. Reflecting both our urban neighborhood and the Gospel’s welcome, we’re an ethnically, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse congregation. We’re one big family, united by the grace and love of Jesus.
MISSION
Grace City exists to make and mature disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ.
VISION
Our vision is to be a centrally-located, inclusive church that intentionally pursues younger generations and takes the Gospel to the everyday street level where our neighbors live, work, gather, and create.
VALUES
Our core values reflect the GRACE of Grace City:
Gospel-Centeredness: We value the Good News of Jesus Christ and depend on it to give shape, power, and purpose to all that we are and do.
Rule of Scripture: We value the Bible, understood in its original sense and faithfully applied to contemporary culture, as our final authority in all areas of our faith and practice.
Authentic Community: We value the intentional sharing of our lives with one another in the formation of a distinctively Christian community of faith.
Continuing Transformation: We value the lifelong, life-changing process of growth through the power of God’s Spirit.
Engagement: We value the active, purposeful participation of every believer in worshiping, serving, and sharing Christ.
OUR STORY
The Early Years
In late 2004, a small group of young adult friends moved from South Carolina to start NorthField Church in Denver, CO. The vision was simple: plant a Gospel-centered, disciple-making church on the site of the nation’s largest redevelopment project (of the former Stapleton Airport).
NorthField Church started with 55 people, moving from meeting in a local park to meeting at Westerly Creek Elementary School. Creative service projects, authentic community, expository preaching, and the Gospel for real life were core attributes of the new church.
Years of Steady Faithfulness
The next almost decade of ministry was characterized by a lot of ordinary, Christlike faithfulness. Children grew up knowing Christ, God’s purposes were proclaimed, lifelong friendships were forged, and lives were transformed. NorthField Church also built international church planting partnerships and fully funded dozens of clean water wells across Africa and Central America.
This season was healthy and joyful, but there were challenges. NorthField earnestly sought a permanent home, looking at dozens of properties in east Denver. But properties were either too expensive, dilapidated, or not available for redevelopment.
A Strategic Shift
In April 2015, we started a sermon series through the book of Acts, which would prove to be pivotal in the life of NorthField Church. We streamlined our core values and rebranded as Grace City Church. We wanted our church name to communicate our core identity: we exist by the grace of God for the good of our city.
As the sermon series in Acts progressed, our lead pastor, Matt Hand, and his family began sensing a call to pursue church planting in a more diverse, strategic, and urban location – as the Apostle Paul had done. Around this time, we moved to our second meeting location to reach more racially and socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods of northwest Aurora.
In September 2016, we opened a Community Center in an office/warehouse at 10255 E. 25th Avenue near the Stanley Marketplace. This was the first space we could really call our own. It served as supplemental meeting, office, and storage space – and as a gateway between the disparate neighborhoods of Central Park (formerly Stapleton) and East Colfax.
Our lead pastor began doing onsite training in NYC with Redeemer City to City. He participated in workshops and coaching on topics including Gospel Identity, Faith & Work, Multi-Ethnic Church Planting, Urban Ministry, and Gospel Contextualization.
In December 2017, members of Grace City privately purchased the former U.S. Post Office garage, at the corner of Park Avenue and Broadway in the Ballpark District of downtown Denver. Designs quickly took shape to convert the 100-year-old brick and steel building into a multi-purpose events venue, coffee shop, and rentable space for Grace City. Our vision was never to have an exclusive “church building” that sits vacant much of the week, but to be part of an activated space that brings joy and flourishing to our city 365 days a year. This win-win arrangement enables more of our budget to go directly toward Gospel ministry, while our landlord is able to host for-profit events that contribute significantly to the local tax base.
In September 2018, our leadership team began a collective, formal, multi-year cohort program with Redeemer City to City. They frequently traveled together to NYC to study under Tim Keller and his team of urban church planting trainers. This developed and clarified our vision and strategy for planting downtown in early 2019.
The Season of Turbulence
A series of architectural errors and construction delays pushed back our relocation by over a year. But, in late January 2020, we held our first service downtown. The next five or six weeks were filled with excitement as we began to flesh out a vision and strategy that were years in the making.
Then in March 2020, with the rest of the world, we were suddenly shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We immediately pivoted, converting our downtown facility into an emergency homeless shelter…for the next six months. During this time, our congregation continued to meet in small groups, outdoors, and virtually.
We were sensitive to the health risks of the virus, but also sensitive to the spiritual and relational risks of not gathering for worship and discipleship. It was an exhausting season.
During this time, we were approached by another church and asked if we’d consider merging, with the dream that we would be better together. After months of discussions, we ultimately decided to merge as one church in two locations. Unfortunately, the downtown location was never really given an opportunity to develop its own contextualized ministries and thrive. By the end of 2021, the decision to end the merger experiment and return to being two separate churches was mutually made.
The Downtown Relaunch
Through all the trials and setbacks, a core group of resilient and godly friends remained committed to God’s call to downtown Denver. Years of generous giving, prayerful planning, and a culture of tenacious, risk-taking faith enabled us to relaunch as Grace City Church downtown on January 23, 2022.
We renewed our mission of sharing the Gospel in word and deed with our homeless neighbors, the inner city school on the block, and local residents and small business owners. We re-established partnerships designed to bring shalom and flourishing to the Ballpark District and our city, even helping lead the efforts to establish a local GID (General Improvement District) to improve the safety, cleanliness, and hospitality of our neighborhood. We preach Christ – and our identity in Christ – to a growing group of younger and more diverse neighbors. We’ve seen the hopeless find hope, the lost get found, and the broken receive healing in Jesus.
And we believe the best is yet to come!