Building again in mile high suburb

Shifting ground, prairie dogs, CIF loans and trust in the Lord are all part of the story with Calvary Church of Broomfield, which recently added an attractive addition to its building in the northern suburb of Denver.

“This is the fun side of it, where we are expanding and we have room to do what we want to do,” said Senior Pastor Steve Kalb. A new entrance, classrooms and office space were added to the Family Life Center (FLC), a gym building which was modified for services, classrooms and offices. Another addition for more storage will come later.

Assistant Pastor Ken Klepper said the people were mesmerized by the change in the facility. “People walked in there for the first time and the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’, I mean, they were audible … the dreams of what God is going to do through our church and through these additional spaces.”

New classrooms, offices after major loss of space

The gym structure became its main building in 2013 after a much larger main building with a sanctuary had to be removed. Shifting Bentonite soils on the church’s 10 acres were the culprit.

Elder Bob Yost said one end of the building had gone up seven or eight inches and the other end did not, so the structure was coming apart. The church spent a substantial amount to remedy the situation, which became untenable.

“Christian Investors has been our supporting, financing partner since the early 1960s for all of our projects,” said Yost, who has been with the church since 1988.

Pastor Steve, a 23-year veteran of the church, helped guide the people through a nearly two-thirds reduction in space, as the church had to abandon and demolish the nearly 26,000-square-foot main building.

“Steve was kind of the pied piper when we shut down the old building and he led us into the FLC before we knocked down the old building, which was good,” said Yost. “We wanted to get out of it before we knocked it down.”

Among other limitations, the FLC lacked space for adult classes and offices were crowded. Weekly men’s ministry meetings were held in a coffee shop at a local grocery store.

Pruning experience improved church health

Through the disruption the blessings came, explained Elder Chair Perry Merritt. “When we made that move, it happened very quickly, over the course of a couple of Sundays.” Attendance numbers dropped by as much as half, but what resulted was a church body that is remarkably healthy, Merritt said.

“I think people come into our church and they all notice it. They notice how the church is responding to them, how the church is responding to the messages, the singing, everything,” said Merritt.

“The pruning experience brought on by the building loss, while painful, was the best thing in the world that could have happened to us,” he said. “We have a praying church. We have a caring church. People are just really engaged.”

Vision supported, God exalted

Calvary Church exists to make joyful disciples of Jesus Christ through core values of Worship, Growth, Friendship and Spreading. Its purpose is to declare the supremacy of God for the joy of Earth’s inhabitants.

The church has enjoyed faithful stewardship over the years. Elder Todd Bontrager said the estimated cost of their project was $2.2 million. “That’s an enormous amount of money for a church, as a congregation of about 160 people.”

Quoting Jeremiah 17, Bontrager said their trust and faith was not in themselves or their own abilities, but in God Himself. “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” (Jeremiah 17:7 NIV)

The church was able to make a significant pay down to the loan principal amount during the construction process. Bontrager said God is faithful to provide. Three months after the project was done, the monthly mortgage is very much within budget, which church leaders had committed to before the congregation. “It’s a wonderful thing to witness.”

Bontrager likened the church’s relationship to CIF with a Bible passage about wisdom – “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.” (Proverbs 15:22 ESV)

“I looked at Christian Investors as an advisor, if you will, or a partner with us throughout this whole process,” Bontrager said.

The church’s support was quite organic; they didn’t have a formal capital campaign. “We just put it out there, and said, ‘This is what we are doing,’” said Pastor Steve. “That was really important to me, personally.” The people communicated well and banded together.

Pastor Ken said he believes people don’t respond to need, they respond to vision. “I think there’s been a long-laid vision as to why this would be good for our church and its ministry to our community.”

Unexpected financial woe

Even after the church was defrauded of a substantial amount by bad actors from without, building plans soldiered on. God moved on people’s hearts to sacrifice and keep supporting the work, Pastor Ken explained. “This was what He called us to do, and we were going to do it.”

Yost was quite upset at the bad news, but when time for a Sunday service rolled around, three people approached him and said, “Bob, don’t worry. Wait until you see what God does with this.”

The rest, he said, is history. “So, I got taught an extremely important lesson in faith, personally.”

Prairie dog purge and permits

A smaller difficulty, of the moving kind, could also have sidetracked the project. Prairie dogs on adjacent land the church owned had to be removed to meet new building codes, Yost explained. To make things more difficult, the church needed a permit to remove them.

The church spent $16,000 to remove eight or nine of the dirt diving creatures, and the permits arrived just in time. Calvary’s history sometimes took interesting twists and turns.

Relationships always supported ministry

When Pastor Steve arrived in the early 2000s, the church had limited funds, but CIF was involved and leaders were confident in the future.

He said CIF has been flexible with Calvary, and helped them time and time again. “We’re very thankful for you, not just for this recent project, which has been more of a joyful project, but you’ve been with us through the thick and thin of ministry for over 23 years.”

Yost went further as he recalled CIF’s involvement in the 1990s when repairs to the old building started to mount. “We carried that (financial) note for 30-some years because we kept having to renew it for building repairs,” he said.

CIF was flexible with Calvary Broomfield’s situation, with a priority toward ongoing ministry. “I mean, it was partnership all the way,” said Yost. “Try that with a secular bank. That would have never happened.”

Kingdom expansion always the goal

The church is overjoyed to have the space to do the things they want to for the glory of God, said Pastor Ken. There is a harvest field here to reach, with about 74,000 people in Broomfield and around 3 million in the Denver metro area.

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