Articles for tag: Longmont Colorado

March 7, 2026

Wes Woodell

Intentional Churches Event

Lap 1: Executive Leader Training + Learning Community

Intentional Churches’ Executive Leadership Training Cohort – Lap 1 is a year-long development experience for executive pastors and church leaders who are either in their first five years of executive leadership or preparing for a future executive role. The cohort includes two and a half days of in-person training, a special group dinner, monthly 90-minute Zoom calls, the Intentional Executive Leader Toolkit, and workbook materials. Lap 1 is built around the 12 Disciplines of an Intentional Executive Leader and is designed to provide practical tools, coaching, and peer collaboration for leaders serving in the complex world of executive ministry.

May 21, 2019

Christian Standard

Rusaw Takes on New Challenge

Pastor steps down after 28 year at Longmont, Colorado, church to lead Spire By Chris Moon “I’m not a hugger,” Rick Rusaw told Christian Standard as he was preparing for his last weekend as pastor with LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colo., “but I’ve been giving out a lifetime’s worth of hugs this week.” Rusaw stepped down Sunday from his 28-year run at LifeBridge and now is focusing his efforts as CEO of Spire Network, the successor organization to the North American Christian Convention. Rusaw started at the church in 1991 after a stint as executive vice president at Cincinnati

September 13, 2018

Christian Standard

Rusaw Announces Plans to Step Down from LifeBridge

Rick Rusaw has announced plans to step down as lead pastor of LifeBridge Christian Church, Longmont, Colo., by September 2019, and transition to serving with the Spire network, formerly known as the North American Christian Convention. Rusaw and his wife, Diane, have served in Longmont for 28 years. LifeBridge averaged 3,264 in weekly worship attendance last year. “We knew there would be a time when we would pass the leadership privilege to someone new,” Rusaw wrote in a letter to the church posted at lbcc.org. “Now, as I look to the future of our church’s opportunities and needs, it has

July 29, 2016

Christian Standard

Bless the Hands

By Nancy Karpenske When my family gathers at the dinner table, it is common for the designated prayer person to pray, “Lord, thank you for the hands that prepared this meal.” Those would be my hands they are talking about. Sometimes fixing dinner has taken hours, chopping, mixing, stirring, grating. Occasionally my hands smell like the onion I chopped, or they are scratched from picking raspberries. But quite often my hands have merely pushed the buttons on the microwave or flipped the switch on the Crock-Pot in order to produce a satisfying meal. I like to cook and bake. But

July 25, 2014

Christian Standard

Right Here, Right Now

By Rick Rusaw (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) I had moved to Fort Myers, Florida, to begin my first ministry in a local church. I was a young man, and I was filled with aspirations, not only for this opportunity, but for other places with other opportunities. It wasn”t that I considered this church to be merely a stepping stone, something to endure until a better situation arose. No, it was a wonderful place with plenty of opportunity. But I also knew that those who do their ministries well are usually offered leadership positions

May 30, 2014

Christian Standard

More Than Medicine

By Nancy Karpenske One little typing error. Instead of Communion meditation, if you hit one wrong key, you type Communion medication. Medication: a substance used to treat, to heal, or cure a disease. Meditation: a process used to focus one”s thought on a particular idea. Communion is a time where we stop to meditate, to focus our thoughts. The Communion emblems, the bread and the juice, are not medicines. Consuming them doesn”t heal you. They do, however, have a therapeutic effect. Touching and tasting the bread and the juice provide a visible reminder to refocus our minds and hearts past

May 23, 2014

Christian Standard

In the Painting

By Nancy Karpenske William E. Barrett”s novel The Shape of Illusion tells a story about a painting. The scene depicted on the canvas is Pilate”s courtyard. Jesus is there, beaten and bloodied. He is surrounded by the angry mob screaming insults and throwing rocks. This fictional painting is no ordinary work of art. It seems that everyone who looks at it finds his or her own face in the raging crowd. Saints, sinners, priests, paupers: all instantly see themselves acting despicably in the gruesome scene. How would you respond if you saw your own likeness in that setting? What if

May 16, 2014

Christian Standard

Time to Recharge the Batteries

Nancy Karpenske Have you ever suddenly been awakened in the middle of the night? You lay in bed, wondering what woke you. About 30 seconds later you have almost fallen back to sleep when it happens again. Your smoke alarm emits that tiny chirping sound. Oh, it”s not detecting smoke””that noise is loud and blaring. Instead, the annoying little chirp is warning you that the battery is losing its power. Wouldn”t it be great if your spiritual life gave you a little warning chirp when your spiritual batteries are losing power? Wouldn”t it be great if you could be just

September 27, 2013

Christian Standard

Images of Colorado Flooding

LifeBridge Christian Church staff member Drew Depler, who is coordinating disaster relief efforts for the Longmont, Colorado, church, provided CHRISTIAN STANDARD with a number of photos of flooding near the church, and recovery efforts in and around the church. The photos were taken in the days after the flooding started. A slow-moving cold front that stalled over the state clashed with warm, humid air from the south, producing heavy rain starting September 9, 2013, and ultimately catastrophic flooding. Disasters have been declared in more than a dozen Colorado counties.

August 19, 2013

Christian Standard

The Pearl Group: More than a Donation

By Nancy Karpenske The Pearl Group is a nonprofit that helps single parents in specialized ways. This group was launched by business owners from LifeBridge Christian Church who wanted to do more than just donate money. The Pearl Group can apply for grants, seek donors, and arrange partnerships with foundations and agencies that might not give to a church. The Pearl programs offer a wide array of services: “¢ A car clinic happens on Saturdays every other month. Two local garages open their doors for teams of volunteer mechanics. “¢ The Closet is a free clothing bank for moms and

August 19, 2013

Christian Standard

How We Serve Single Moms

For nearly a decade LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado, has been trying to figure out how to bless single moms. We”ve had some breakthroughs and some setbacks. Here is the one clear truth: God doesn”t measure success the same way we do.  By Nancy Karpenske I”ll call her Debbie. When she started attending our group, she sat hunched over, making no eye contact. I kept expecting her to storm out. Ever so slowly her protective layers of hostility began to melt, just a few degrees. She has three children, each with a special needs diagnosis. She typically works three

January 28, 2013

Christian Standard

Get in the Game! Volunteer Anxiety Disorder

By Craig Wilson I thought God and I had a deal that I would never have to go to a hospital to have any form of surgery. I have a very real fear of being put under anesthesia, cut open, and stitched back up like a teddy bear that”s losing its stuffing. I don”t like the idea of an IV needle in my arm, and had never had to have one. Apparently God was not aware of this deal, because there I was, just two days after my 43rd birthday, lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my

June 8, 2012

Christian Standard

A New Meaning to an Old Memorial

By Nancy Karpenske Imagine family and friends around your picnic table at Memorial Day. The head of the family is explaining to the youngsters about the origin and importance of the holiday. But instead of reciting history, as one would expect, he puts himself in the middle of the meaning, as if he is going to leave your family picnic and volunteer to give his life for his country. He even claims that from now on, Memorial Day will focus on his sacrifice more than on the remembrance of previous veterans. You might be glad this imaginary family isn”t yours””or

May 1, 2012

Christian Standard

Turning Around Our Middle School Ministry

By Kile Baker “What are you doing here?” One student”s question started a process that led us to evaluate all our strategies and activities with the students we were trying to reach and teach. “What are you doing here?” That question was directed at me as I sat at a table with a handful of my students in one of the local middle schools. It was lunchtime on a Tuesday, and it seemed rather odd to the students that I was there poking at the school”s version of a burrito, muttering under my breath about the “meat” being rather gym-mat-like.

July 5, 2011

Christian Standard

Turn Them Loose

By Dan Scates “No one is helping. No one else is carrying the load. No one is leading. No one is committed. No one seems to own anything. I feel alone and overwhelmed.” Now what? Church planting taxes every leadership skill and exposes every motive of the heart. After three decades of church planting experience, one thing I have learned: Each church plant is unique, yet the challenges they face are similar. Distinctive to each plant is the planter”s ability, church location, target audience, ministry priorities, and available resources. On the other hand, the challenges faced by each new church

August 30, 2009

Christian Standard

The Multisite Movement: Success Stories

  by Darrel Rowland The couple had a simple question: How much does it cost to join the church? That”s when the leaders of Rocky Mountain Christian Church (www.rmcc.org) knew they were hitting their target audience of unchurched people with their first multisite campus. “They said, “˜Don”t you have to pay a membership fee? Do you have to buy tickets? We”ve never been in church before,”” recalls Rick Thielen, who helped launch the new 30-acre site about 17 miles east of Rocky Mountain”s home campus in Niwot, Colorado. “When you start getting those kinds of questions, you”re starting to get

June 7, 2009

Christian Standard

“˜You Made Me Feel Like I Matter”

  By Nancy Karpenske Margie came because a friend insisted she give us a try. She told me, “I always felt a total failure as a wife and a mother. When I came to the group, I found a whole room of women like me. I realized the very first night that there”s nothing wrong with me.” Lisa said, “I never knew what a normal marriage was supposed to look like until a small group from church started coming over to do repairs at my house. Watching the way the husbands and wives interacted with each other and with my kids

January 4, 2009

Christian Standard

Small Groups that Give and Live Graciously

By Brian Mavis What would happen if a church gave back to her small groups half of what the groups tithed and asked them to invest the money in ministry? I had pondered this for a few years. I wondered whether the people in the small groups would be motivated to give more, and what they would choose to do with the money. When I joined the staff at LifeBridge Christian Church, Longmont, Colorado, I shared some of these thoughts and questions with the leaders and elders, and I was floored when they said, “Let”s find out.” Before I share

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