MONTROSE, Colo. (BP) — Celebration Church here has burst into bloom on the state’s Western Slope. Like the church, stunningly beautiful mountain meadow blooms cast their seeds as far as the wind takes them.

“Brandon Mathis has done an amazing work since coming to Celebration Church in Montrose,” the state convention’s Executive Director Mike Proud told Baptist Press. “The church is outgrowing its facility and Brandon co-directs the Pastoral Institute in Montrose.”

Celebration church started The Pastoral Institute of the Western Slope — a separate 501c3 nonprofit — as a pastoral trade school for those unable to go to seminary.  This Institute started as a dream, but now, three years later, has graduated 13 men to vocational ministry.  It will start its second two-year program in September, with another 19 already registered.

Celebration has grown by more than 350 attendees since Mathis was called as pastor.  The church where more than 450 attend Sunday services has added two associate pastors and has plans to break ground in January for a larger facility.

“The Lord did a thing,” Mathis told Baptist Press. “I came in and preached the Word as well as possible and loved the people. It’s been fun these last five years.”

Mathis previously served in support staff roles — collegiate, discipleship, missions, youth and occasional preacher — at Applewood Baptist Church in the Denver area when he was called to Celebration. In 2020, it was essentially a 13-year-old church plant that had grown to about 100 attending services but just one adult Sunday school class and no consistent local ministry.

“We were in the midst of COVID when I came, and COVID did something to churches,” Mathis said. “People got outside their routine, and (the pandemic) brought any unhealthiness in churches to the surface. People today are less inclined to put up with unhealthy churches. COVID caused people to look for something healthy. We saw that all across the country.”

Celebration Montrose also partners with several nonprofits in the area, including a homeless shelter, women’s residence, teen support, food pantry, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and more.

They have plans to go to Romania and an Apache reservation in Arizona this December on short-term missions.  “We need our people going on missions,” Mathis said. “Without missions it all crumbles. We are training people to know (God) and to go.”

Celebration also has a commitment to give 10% of undesignated income to support missions through the Cooperative Program and another 10% to help support its association and local missions.

“In the same way the church asks others to tithe, the church needs to tithe for the greater needs of others,” Mathis said, citing the church’s founder, Larry Walker, with instilling that commitment on the church family. “We’ve done that since our inception.

“The Cooperative Program is something we believe in for the Great Commission being accomplished,” Mathis continued. “Plus, our state does a ton to support pastors and churches. We received support to start Celebration and we want other churches to get that same support.”

Within three months of taking the helm, Mathis started “Discipleship 1,” a class that includes core doctrines and Christian foundations. Several graduates of that first discipleship class were called to be small group leaders. 

“We started with three small groups, but when seven-eighths of the congregation signed up, 125 people, it was clear we had underestimated the desire,” Mathis said. “Everybody coming out of COVID was starved for relationships… within two months we had expanded to eight small groups.”

The church now offers 24 different small groups.

“When we do discipleship we want people to grow in their understanding of the Bible and the knowledge of God,” Mathis continued. “We don’t want them to just have head knowledge but to grow in obedience, and part of that is sharing their faith.”

Mathis introduced the idea of a Pastoral Institute in 2022 when he looked about and saw the need on the Western Slope. 

“A third of churches on the Western Slope had no pastor, and some of them had already closed their doors,” Mathis said. “A lot of these churches were in communities where if that church died, there’d be no Jesus presence in 100 miles.” 

Men are trained from a Baptist perspective with four key areas: theology, preaching, pastoral care and leadership. 

“We believe if they do those four things well, they’ll be effective as pastors,” Mathis said.

“Our hope is that Celebration is a lighthouse for other churches on the Western Slope,” Mathis said. “There’s no good reason we as Baptists shouldn’t be celebrating. He’s doing something none of us predicted.” 

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Karen L. Willoughby is a national correspondent for Baptist Press.)