Location: Colorado Springs, Colo.

Presbytery: Midwest

Organization: 1981

Membership: 101 communicant; 56 baptized

Pastor: Ed Blackwood

Website: springsreformed.org

How far would you travel to attend a faithful church? Would you worship in someone’s living room? How about in a garage? Or in a classroom?

Springs Reformed Church (SRC) was formed in 1981 from a core group of families who had been driving from Colorado Springs to Westminster (over an hour-long drive) every Lord’s Day. For the first three years, SRC met in Bob and Ruth Mann’s living room. Though God graciously provided a church building in which to serve the Lord in 1992, it was only after SRC had faithfully worshiped the Lord in a 5-car garage for almost 10 years.

From those first few families who were willing to drive over an hour to Westminster, or worship in a garage, we have grown to be a church of 101 communicant members and 56 baptized members. Many members of SRC have been blessed to see God’s faithfulness in the baptisms and professions of faith of children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren! Two recent additions to our membership have been Felix Mann and Riley La Savio, who are 4th-generation communicant members at SRC and are both great-grandchildren of Bob and Ruth Mann (who were among our first members). What a gracious gift from God!

In our 42 years, God has also granted us the opportunity to plant another church. In 2011, we planted a mission church in the Tri-Lakes community of northern Colorado Springs, which has since been organized as Black Forest RPC.

As a church body, the core part of our fellowship is our time worshiping together on the Lord’s Day—singing God’s praises with one another, hearing God’s Word preached, and joining together in a time of prayer for one another at the end of our Lord’s Day. Our other times of fellowship include bimonthly prayer groups, global prayer groups, Bible studies, monthly fellowship meals, youth fellowship events, presbytery retreats, Sabbath school for all ages, and psalm sings with our (grown-up) daughter church, Black Forest.

Though we find immense joy in our worship and fellowship, we have not been without trials. Most recently, we suffered the lack of both a pastor and a building for almost two years. In May 2022, our pastor resigned, and, just a few weeks after that, we had to move out of the building that God so faithfully provided for us 30 years earlier (to make way for housing expansion in the city). Even so, God is still, as He has always been, faithful. Though we met for a time at the Black Forest RP Church and later worshiped at a school, experiencing the inconveniences that come with that—meeting in the afternoon for a time, battling the middle school club basketball teams for parking, and cramming into a classroom—every Sunday the Lord graciously provided a place for us to worship. And though we had different preachers every week, the Lord provided (through the hard work of our elders) someone to preach for us morning and evening every single Sunday.

Looking back, it seems the trials we experienced have ended. We installed our pastor, Ed Blackwood, on Dec. 8, 2023, and we started worshiping in our (new to us) building in March 2024. Yet we know that whatever the future holds, God is and will be faithful, as He has always been to us. In the future, we may lack a building, we may lack a pastor, and we may even face innumerable and unimaginable trials as we wage war in this world. But no matter what the future holds, we pray that we will, as a church body, be able to sing with the psalmist for many generations to come, “The Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” (Ps. 100:5).

Please continue to pray for us:

• Give thanks that the Lord provided a pastor and a building for us this past year.
• Pray for our pastor, Ed Blackwood, that he and his wife, Nancy, would continue to transition well and that the Lord would bless his ministry.
• Pray that we would have a ministry in our new neighborhood, that the Lord would see fit to save souls and bring them to Christ in our church.
• Please pray that each member will faithfully live out his/her calling to live as lights in a dark world, and that God will give each of us opportunities to witness to our neighbors.
• Give thanks for the many covenant children in our church, and pray that the Lord would soften their hearts and save them from a young age.

If you would like to get in touch, please visit springsreformed.org or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).