LifeGate Church in Denver, Colorado, is reaching a generation that many in the church have declared “unreachable,” and they’re doing it with style. “I really thought our main growth would be through young families,” says Nirup Alphonse, pastor, “but God is bringing us a steady increase through millennials—high schoolers (who attend with or without their parents), college graduates, and young singles.” Instead of a generation that is largely “me-focused,” however, Nirup has found that these millennials love Jesus, serving and connecting in a big way “We’re constantly doing outreach,” he says, which includes everything from Adopt a Block to prison ministry and providing for single moms in the community.
LifeGate invests heavily in leadership development and just hired a worship leader as well. And while LifeGate has recently attracted a few empty nesters, the predominant age of the leaders in the church is 25. “We have leaders who are as young as 22 and as old as 65,” says Nirup. “We deploy people who can take a ministry and multiply it,” he says, “which keeps our ministries from getting stale.” His main goal as he ministers in this largely pagan, universalist, agnostic city is that LifeGate would stay energized to do what God has called them to do in this place. “We don’t have some magic formula,” he says. “but God has always provided what we need.” To learn more, visit lifegatedenver.com.
