Colorado Christian University is a century old private liberal arts University in Lakewood, Colorado. Each year, 1,500 students from all over the country and world study there. Community service is a CCU priority at the school and giving back is a core component of the culture there. However, it isn’t as easy as you would think to find local, effective service opportunities that offer real help to people for almost 2,000 students and staff every year.  

In 2017 student government leaders reached out to Lakewood Connects Director, Reg Cox to brainstorm the development of a new program for student community service. “CCU 4 Lakewood” was initiated and over fifty students served food at a church at a program for the community, led activities and programs for older adults at a senior living center, met with our unhoused neighbors at a local shelter and served children at a local underserved elementary school. The program has since continued and expanded! 

Philosophically you create future community servants by mentoring and modeling. Lakewood Connects supported campus student government leaders who then planned service opportunities, recruited other students and then led their projects. If we want a new generation of servant leaders we build them! 

On Valentine’s Day, 2013, Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul joined Reg at Chapel at CCU to invite students to participate in; “CCU Loves Lakewood” day! The invitation for students that day was to step out of their “comfort zone” and into the “compassion zone!” At the end of the talk Reg invited students to join Lakewood Connects in ongoing service, and students responded! 

Why is this story and effort important? Three reasons: 

1) We don’t just encourage a culture of service, we must model it!

2) If we want healthy partnerships between Faith and Government, we need to build it! 

3) Our next generation’s leaders are open and accepting of older mentors and meaning-making models! Become that mentor! Initiate that partnership opportunity! We can change the future by investing in the life of a young adult today! 

Thanks to your support this kind of effort is what Lakewood Connects is leading in our city and inspiring others to copy nationally.  Help us create a future of community servant leaders through your mentoring and modeling! Together we change the culture of tomorrow!  

Lakewood Connects establishes strategies and programs for supporting Faith, Government, Education and Business leaders because strong cities require strong leaders! Philosophies influencing our Lakewood Connects leadership health support efforts include: 

• The health of a community depends on the health of its leaders! 
• Mental, physical, social and spiritual health is learned, grown and nurtured through relationship. 
• You don’t become a healthier leader by reading a book! Leadership health comes from being mentored and challenged by healthy leaders! 

Relationship building is a key to what Lakewood Connects is all about, so it’s no surprise that a significant portion of each week is invested in this core effort. We encourage everyone to grow their relationship pool, because the person you don’t know right now may lead you to transformational insight, conviction or understanding!  Each week, Lakewood Connects executive director Reg Cox meets with someone he doesn’t know! Our community has experienced numerous strategic breakthroughs across the past eighteen years; nearly every one of them has begun at a coffee shop across from an unfamiliar face.

This year, a new opportunity for positive influence was facilitated by a new relationship! A key community and business leader in Lakewood is LaDawn Sperling.  Reg met her for coffee a couple of times in 2022, and at one meeting, LaDawn proposed her idea of a business leaders Bible Study. She envisioned an experience where she would feel comfortable learning, sharing and growing with others. 

The pandemic has broken down connections between us all, and LaDawn was interested in finding new relationships, knowledge and leadership health through this study. She resonated with the idea that we learn and grow best when we are sharpened by the thoughts, reflections and insight of other leaders! 

This past spring, Reg led the study at the Union Business Centre where local partner; Clarity Wealth Group Thrivent, offices. Thrivent has supported several community service programs; when leaders like this converge, transformational energy abounds! 

Leadership requires thriving through challenge. The eight week Bible study series studied the leadership challenges Moses faced. Topics such as the “danger of pride and impulsiveness”, the “strengths and weaknesses of humility”, the “crucible of staying the course through criticism”, “leaders advance through setbacks and struggles” and “convictions and non-negotiable principles” were processed by the group. Another philosophy held by Lakewood Connects is that leadership health is a “team sport.” This means that you become a healthy leader by surrounding yourself and learning from other leaders! 

Challenge: If you’re a leader, who can you connect to in order to improve your leadership strengths? What you learn from another leader is often unattainable from a book or podcast! Healthy leadership is usually built through establishing and nurturing relationship connections with healthy leaders! 

Lakewood Connects is invested in leadership development because we believe a strong community is forged from leader to leader relationships and connections! A healthy community is born out of the health of its leaders! You can’t lead and influence positive change in a community until you lead and influence positive growth in that community’s leaders! Thank you for investing in leaders with us.

The Bridge Church at Bear Creek is located in south Lakewood next door to Bear Creek High School and across the sports field from Bear Creek K-8. The church was born out of a merging of an older Presbyterian church and a young Evangelical church plant. Together their unifying aim was to “make much of Jesus and grow disciples!” How this mission was activated in the new church is seen through their efforts to equip their members for connection, friendship and community service. 

Most churches have a mission statement that says something like the Bridge so what makes them special? From the get-go church leaders rethought how their building could be used. If they were going to “make much of Jesus” surely that meant that their facility should be used daily! They asked; “how could their facility and programs really serve their neighbors everyday year round?” These dreams and discussions led to a “Community First Focused” approach to facility and ministry use. 

The Front Porch Coffee Shop is how most people in the neighborhood get to know the church. The old sanctuary was converted into a community space with tables, soft chairs and art. Baristas work with professional equipment to offer coffee, tea and food to over 100 patrons daily! Outside, the lawn was converted into a patio with tables and chairs and it has become THE community meeting place! “Church” can be intimidating, but it’s not off-putting to walk into a coffee shop! 

As students from local schools started spending time at the Front Porch, church staff and ministry leaders thought through ways to make connections with them. This led to the transformation of the church basement into the Underground Teen Center! The center offers a supervised safe place for teens to hang out and connect, and hundreds spend time there daily during the school year! 

When a church focuses on serving and loving their local neighborhood, every ministry, program and message will be filtered through the lens of this goal! This summer, Bridge youth Minister Scott Hunter developed a neighborhood soccer camp for 75 students ranging from K – 8^th grade. The goal of the camp (pun intended) was to serve and connect to their community and the Bridge used their staff, facility and expertise to accomplish this in the soccer camp! 

Community First Focus is the aim of influence for Lakewood Connects and the Bridge at Bear Creek is making this dream a reality in Lakewood, Colorado! This is what the goal of the church should be and we are excited to partner with faith leaders like those at the Bridge to make much of Jesus!

In the book Seven Habits Stephen Covey, the author encourages us to set our aim in everything from big to small projects with the “end in mind”. He teaches that by focusing on a clear end-definition we ensure that each step we take stays on the right path. Emotionally, there’s an additional benefit to this “end in mind” strategy as it creates a sense of meaning and value in our work and effort! It feels good to see that we’re progressing forward towards a meaningful end!  

Spiritually, what’s the “end goal” of faith? If faith were to be expressed in the best possible way, what will the end result look like? How do we describe the “ultimate faith end goal” so we can aim our daily steps? 

I think our faith end goal is to make a positive impact on others. Until faith affects someone else in a positive way, it is not being used as God intends it to be used. This “impact philosophy” defines faith’s ultimate goal as living to make a positive difference in the lives of our neighbors! 

In Matthew 28, Jesus commands his followers to seek and save others. Jesus’ faith end goal is relationship focused. It’s achieved as faith changes us and then we take on the mission to engage the world proactively. How exactly should faith change us? Jesus answers this in chapters 22 and 25. 

In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus is questioned about the “Greatest Command” and invites us to love God and our neighbor. This love aim teaching is then repeated 6 times: Matt 19, Mark 12, Luke 10, Rom.13, James 2 and Galatians 5. This greatest command is obviously central to Jesus’ end goal of faith! 

In the following chapters Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus describes mankind being judged at the end-of-time by how well we loved the “least of these.” If there is any confusion about the importance of a loving lifestyle, this clears it up!

These two central ideas- “loving your neighbor” and “serving the least of these”- can be combined into what we might call “Kingdom of God Math”. In Kingdom of God math, 22 + 25 = 28! “Love your neighbor” Matthew 22 + “serve the least of these” Matthew 25 realizes Matthew 28! This equation is the end goal for Lakewood Connects. We support the Impact Philosophy for positive community transformation as the core purpose for church. This shapes our coaching, partnership and collaborative efforts in Lakewood, Colorado! 

A stand out example of this impact philosophy in Lakewood is Mountair Christian Church. Pastor Ruben Rodriguez, his leadership team and members live as beacons of hope, support and hands-on care for the underserved of their neighborhood in North Lakewood. For Mountair, the “love your neighbor” and “least of these” love lifestyle commands of Christ guide how they shape programs, messages and interactions with their community. Although small in number, the impact they have had in the community has been enormous!

At Lakewood Connects we’re encouraging the impact philosophy as the end goal for churches. Why is this important? We believe that impact philosophy is the key to obeying the greatest command and the key to the future success of church. Like Mountair, your church may not have tremendous resources, but armed with lifestyle-love and a goal to serve your neighbors, you can make a world changing difference!