COLORADO SPRINGS — Seven years ago, Discovery Church Colorado’s 75 members were meeting for services at a Colorado Springs high school.
Now the nondenominational Christian church has a permanent space inside a renovated Austin Bluffs grocery store and a congregation that’s among the fastest-growing in the nation.
“We definitely have almost doubled here, and it’s really been because of the commitment of the people and volunteers stepping up to take a lot of roles for us,” said executive pastor Andrew Reichart, whose church, founded in 2003, draws about 1,800 for Sunday services.
A 46 percent increase in the congregation in 2015 earned the church the top slot for Colorado, and a No. 8 ranking nationwide, on a list of the country’s fastest-growing churches compiled by Outreach Magazine, a resource publication aimed at Christian church leaders.
Reichart attributes the exponential growth, in part, to “the excitement and contagious enthusiasm of the people showing up and excited to be part of the mission,” he said.
“It’s also the great teaching of (lead pastor) Greg Lindsey, who is an incredible communicator.”
Lindsey has a state-of-the-art worship facility — renovated with an eye and ear for production value — in which to deliver that message.
“I think that the way we do worship, it’s a concert-type experience versus a church experience,” said Lindsey, a former trial attorney who openly speaks of the struggles and challenges he encountered on his “unconventional path” to the ministry. “We are kind of unique in the environment that God has helped us create here.”
Church leaders and volunteers from the congregation share that “no-strings-attached” message with the greater community through regular spiritual and charity work, including a new partnership with Springs Rescue Mission.
