More than 100 Colorado Springs churches to participate in ‘Back to Church Sunday’
Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette
When life is harder than usual, people often turn to family members for personal nourishment, which is why The Table At Highland Park is participating in this year’s “Back to Church Sunday” in a few days.
“It’s important to get people back to church — we’re a huge family and have that legacy of people knowing everybody and being able to share their burdens with each other,” said Stephan Goodrich, co-senior pastor with his wife, Laura, of The Table At Highland Park.
It’s one of more than 100 Christian churches of varying denominations and personas in Colorado Springs that will observe Sunday’s nationwide show of unity and call for people to return or show up for the first time to services.
In all, some 5,000 churches around the country will take part in the 17th annual “Back to Church Sunday,” campaign on Sept. 21, according to the Oregon-based Luis Palau Association, a worldwide evangelical ministry that organizes and sponsors the event.
The association promises church-goers a warm welcome and no pressure or judgment, wherever they choose to go.
The 2025 push seems pivotal, pastors say, in light of incidents that many view as troubling.
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The past month’s school shootings at a Catholic school in Minneapolis and a public school in Evergreen along with the fatal stabbing of a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte, N.C., train, the public assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, and a new opinion poll showing a growing belief that violence and murder are acceptable ways to deal with division are among the disconcerting signs, they say.
Being able to watch on social media video clips of such evil acts wasn’t meant for human souls to digest, said Pastor Aaron Pennington, leader of Trace Church, whose 3,000 congregants follow the mission to “leave a trace of God’s love everywhere we go.”
Laura Goodrich, co-pastor of The Table at Highland Park Church, spruces up the sanctuary with a new coat of paint on a door while getting ready for “Back to Church Sunday,” a nationwide movement to draw people back to church or to churches for the first time. More than 100 Colorado Springs churches are participating. (Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
“People are feeling a sense of lost-ness, they feel stuck, they’re confused, especially now with so much happening at once. They’re looking for hope, and we believe hope is found in Jesus – hope for not just heaven but also hope for deeper community, greater purpose, finding healing in the midst of a lot of brokenness,” he said.
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The recent tragedies “have demonstrated it’s really hard to find areas of agreement and spaces where disagreement is OK and acceptable,” said Pastor Stu Davis of COSILoveYou.
As one of the Luis Palau Association’s City Gospel Movements, the nonprofit organization in Colorado Springs amasses large-scale community-service projects using hundreds of volunteers from more than 100 local churches. The next CityServe volunteer event is Oct. 3-4.
Data consistently shows that between 17% and 21% of El Paso County residents attend church on regular basis, Davis said, meaning that roughly four in five residents do not.
The hope is that the multiplied effort of Back to Church Sunday introduces the spiritually curious to the varying traditions, styles, approaches of churches that are available in the community and provides “an experience that’s different from perhaps their perception as they drive by and don’t come in the door,” he said.
Pastor Tim Fulkerson of the nondenominational ClayHouse Church encourages people to set aside past experiences and “take the bold step and come to church,” as houses of worship extend an invitation to “find wholeness, spiritual clarity and purpose for living, in a world filled with chaos and confusion.”
Church attendance fell precipitously during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many states, including Colorado, mandated their closure for a period of time, which gave way to virtual services and gatherings.
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Some closed altogether, including The Table At Highland Park’s predecessor, Highland Park Baptist Church. The location at 2550 E. San Miguel St., also was home to Central Church of The Nazarene before Goodrich recently reopened it as a nondenominational church. The new congregation is small but growing steadily, Goodrich said.
“Christ always showed love for anybody he came across, and I think we need to get back to that,” he said. “Because Jesus welcomed everybody no matter their problems, we are trying to do the same.”
Church leaders scheduled a fall open house from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, to pair with Sunday’s Back to Church focus and distributed mailers and flyers around the neighborhood in the central part of the city.
Countywide, 267,000 households in El Paso County received promotional materials, according to the event organizer.
“There are a lot of churches that aren’t necessarily trying to make lightning-rod statements but just love their neighbor, serve their city and be a part of the community,” Davis said. “They are largely the silent majority, and they’re trying to do the best they can.”
A Pew Research Center survey in February gave Christian churches reason for hope. After years of more and more Americans claiming atheism, agnosticism or “nothing in particular” in religiosity, there are signs that the category is leveling off at 29% of the population.
While at the same time, the continual decline of Americans who self-identify as Christians appeared to have reached a plateau of slightly more than six in 10 adult Americans claiming a Christian faith.
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Trace Church, another first-time Back to Church Sunday participant, is seeing a huge resurgence in interest, particularly young people, Pennington said. His nondenominational church baptized more than 150 people in the past five weeks and 700 people in the last two months — a 50% growth.
“The Bible is the oldest book that’s been written that records human history, and it’s the No. 1 most-sold book,” Pennington said. “Right now people are looking for hope, and we believe that hope can only be found in the person of Jesus.”
To find participating local churches, go to backtochurch.com/cos.
Contact the writer: 719-476-1656.
