July 1957 - Our church started with eight people meeting at 2830 S. Yates in Harvey park, SW
Denver, sponsored by Brentwood Baptist And Calvary Baptist.
January 11, 1959 - Lakeridge Baptist Church was organized with 30 charter members.
August 1959 - Groundbreaking was held at 2600 S. Sheridan with Pastor Billy Joe
Davenport. The initial phase was to seat 263 people at a cost of $64,500.
January - March, 1960 - The first unit of the building was occupied and dedicated with 59
enrolled in Sunday School. The following Texas Baptist churches underwrote the building
costs: North Ft. Worth, Highlands, Hurst, Hereford and Galena Park.
November 1963 - Rev. Roland Cooper became pastor. A major layoff at Martin Marietta caused a
decline in attendance. October 1967 - Rev. Pratt became pastor followed by a series of other pastors.
April 1971 - Riverside Baptist began sponsoring Lakeridge, changing the name to Riverside West.
With an average attendance of 40-50 and an annual income of $12,000, Pastor Frank (and Mary)
Tillapaugh came to pastor the church.
August 1971 - the church was named Bear Valley Baptist Church.
The 70's Decade - The Church Unleashed characterized the church with rapid growth and
major ministry evidenced in multiple congregations, target group and multi-ethnic ministries, and
inner city outreaches from the modest facilities.
1980-1986 - Attendance grew to over 1,100 with five worship services each Sunday. Home congregations were started.
Bear Valley members and pastors went to revitalize Trinity Baptist, Heritage Baptist, Centennial Baptist,
Hoffman Heights Baptist and Open Door Fellowship.
1986-1991 - Church Unleashed conferences drew pastors and lay leaders from across the U.S. and several other
countries, coming to learn the philosophy of ministry and the motivation of lay-led outreach ministries.
1988 - Green Gables Chapel at Jewell and Old Kipling became a part of Bear Valley. A pastor and members were
sent to Sherrelwood Baptist in North Denver.
May 1990 - To accommodate increasing attendance, the Sheridan campus was sold, and services were held at the
Seventh Day Adventist Church on Hampden Avenue.
June 1990 - Groundbreaking was held for a new building at 10001 W. Jewell Avenue.
May 1991 - At the first Sunday of worship in the new facility, 1,439 attended.
June 1993 - Jimmy Smith came from Dallas to become Senior Pastor at Bear Valley.
1998 - "Move The World" was the church-wide plan for reducing the church building debt
to provide money for ministry.
January 2001 - Jim Walters became the Senior Pastor following Jimmy Smith's medical
disability. A greater world missions emphasis, small group expansion, and caring connections
became focal points for expanded ministry. Les Health and the Cornerstone group was sent to
revitalize Alameda Hills Baptist.
Kevin Kirby planted Mesa View in Golden, and Karl Wheeler led out The Community, which became the church at Joshua Station.
June 2002 - The building debt was entirely paid off with a "Free To Fly" Celebration.
This debt payoff released funds to give 30% of the church budget for missions and ministry. The centerpiece
of that emphasis was giving "Move The World" grants to missions projects around the world.
2004 - The new vision statement, "Climbing Together The Upward Trails of Life"
placed a vigorous focus on "connecting, maturing, and unleashing." Hiking became the metaphor for the
Christians growing in faith and ministering together.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
For many people familiar with BVC (Bear Valley Church) and
our philosophy of ministry the above question makes complete
sense. For everybody else it sounds like insider shop
talk. Regardless of which group you fall into the question
is important to understand and answer.
To be "unleashed" means BVC is not a come and sit kind of
place, but instead, a go and serve kind of place. While we
have a nice facility and great ministry programs that take
place in our facilities, we aspire to minister far beyond the
walls of our building. Our location at 10001 West Jewell
Avenue is our place to stand to move the world for the
kingdom of God.
BVC is not interested in simply collecting people and becoming
a big, fat church that exists for itself. Rather, we want
to love people into living passionately for Jesus Christ. It
is the community of people at BVC that will carry the gospel
of Jesus beyond our walls into the city and the world. We
believe every member of God's family is a gifted
minister (Ephesians 2:10; 1 Peter 2:9-10). Our pastors
do not exist to "do the ministry", but to equip and
encourage people to go out into the world as a minister
of the gospel (Ephesians 4:11-13). God through His Spirit
has given every follower of Christ a special ability or
talent. God's intention is for all of us to exercise that
spiritual gift He has given us.
"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are different kinds of working, but the same God works
all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation
of the Spirit is given for the common good."
(1Corinthians 12:4-7)
Because every follower of Jesus is a minister, BVC wants to encourage
you to join us in reaching our community, city and world for Jesus.
Church should be a team effort not a spectator sport.
It is important at BVC to maintain a simple organization
that maximizes ministry by keeping responsibility and
authority tied together. Committees are very good at
doing three things: consuming people's time in meetings,
stifling creativity, and slowing progress. What they are
not good at is promoting new ministry ideas, giving
permission, and empowering people to do what they need
to do for the kingdom of God. So at BVC if you are given
the responsibility to do a ministry task, you also have
the authority to carry out your ministry without having to
deal with the bureaucracy of a committee. Where there is
responsibility there is authority.
A key priority at BVC is to extend the reach of
ministry beyond the walls of our facility into the
city. "When a sociologist looks at cultures he or she
looks at the groupings within the culture. Seeing the
city as a collection of target groups is seeing the city
as a Christian sociologist sees it. We look for groupings
of people and design ministries with their life-styles in
mind." (Unleashing the Church, p. 45)
We trust the Holy Spirit to burden our people with the
desire to reach various target groups with the good news
of Jesus. And then the church encourages, trains, and
sends them out to be missionaries in our own city or
wherever God leads them.
Lost people matter to God. "For God did not send his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through him (John 3:17)." Therefore, the message of the
gospel is sacred, and will not be compromised. Methods of
delivering the gospel are not sacred. At BVC we will
change our methods to most effectively reach the people
in our culture. Reaching lost people with the gospel
is more important than preserving traditions and becoming
irrelevant to the community that surrounds us.
BVC exists to extend the kingdom of God. We want
to find where God is working and be a part of it. Often
God's plans and activity do not fit our human plans and
activities. That dynamic requires flexible people who
are willing to change and move out of their comfort zones
for God's kingdom. Consumer Christians who want to be
served and kept comfortable will find their consumer
mentality and comfort levels challenged at BVC.
The idea is to have as little of the churches resources invested
in facilities and as much of the churches resources as possible
invested in people and available for ministry.
Some would say BVC abandoned this value when we built our
facility years ago. But the truth is we still believe
this is strategically important. The growth and
momentum BVC was experiencing in the late 80's
and early 90's made it impossible to continue in our
old facilities. When we finally did build our current
facilities, we built the best facility we could for the
least amount of money possible. The building is used for
ministry seven days and evenings each week. The mortgage on our building
has been paid off and the same amount goes to Move The World Grants
for missions. The result is that about 25% of all giving goes to missions.
We try to make starting ministries at BVC simple. Too many
hoops discourage creative thinking and rob people of their
enthusiasm. All you need to do to start a ministry is get
approval from one of the pastors. Don't expect our pastors
to recruit people or lead the charge. They will help you
get any training you may need and cheer you on. You can
call the church at 303.985.4000 or you can email Jim
Walters at his
would be a good place to start.
No, although we dropped the word "Baptist" from the church
name. This has encouraged many people with mainline
denominational as well as non-denominational backgrounds to
check out our services and discover our church without any
presuppositions about us. We are actively involved with
both Conservative and Southern Baptist networks and a
part of the Willow Creek Association.
Yes. We provide people and financial support to Mile High
Ministries, Denver Street School, Prodigal Coffee House,
Open Door Fellowship and The Inner City Health Clinic. Our
people are also involved doing Multi-Housing Ministry here in
Lakewood to bring Christ to those who live in these closer areas.
We want to see our people move from the pews to the city around
us and carry the good news of Jesus with them in all they do.
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