A WORD ABOUT US
Who We Are
The start of the Brighton congregation was in 1953-54 when Grady Lee Reese began coming to Leo and Ada Dunham’s home for Bible study.
Christians started meeting at the Junior Chamber of Commerce hall on Bush Street, between Third Street and the railroad tracks. In 1955-56, Flavil Yakely came to Brighton. The church rented a two-story house on Bridge street for Flavil and his wife Nadell, and services were held downstairs in the living room. In 1957 Chesley Fritz preached in the building on Longs Peak for about one year. Others filled in and around 1959, Bob Speck came. The exact dates of his preaching are unknown. The decade of the 60's saw Leonard Black here around 1960. From 1962 to 1965 Arthur Gardner and Jim and Tom Barrientez were here. Tom also led the singing. They were followed by Neal Messik and Gale Wells.
In 1971 Carl Farrell was here followed by Bob Taylor who preached in the old building for a short time and continued to preach in the “new” building on 5th and Bush. Kermitt Webb followed Bob in 1976-77. Cliff Diester did some preaching for the congregation while he was principal of the Cross Roads Christian School. John Glover arrived in 1982 and then in 1984 Ray Mitchell was the pulpit minister, preaching full time for 11 years and also working full time with the post office. Ray also served for a short time as an Elder and then decided to help the work in Keenesburg where the Mitchell’s had strong family ties.
Emmett Roberts was hired as the full-time preacher in 1995. In spite of overcoming and dealing with some health issues, Emmett continued the pulpit work along with his personal evangelism. In 2002 there was an outreach to the Spanish ministry with Roberto Rivera preaching for the Spanish speakers downstairs. This effort lasted for about a year at which time Roberto was unable to continue the work here. The congregation purchased ground northeast of Brighton in 2006 to plan for future growth, but the economic recession of 2008 and its aftermath impossible lending environment, coupled with unrealistic demands by Weld County and the city of Brighton caused cancellation of these plans.
However, the growth of the congregation was such that the existing building literally struggled to accommodate the 130 plus attendance on Sunday morning, and further growth was limited. So, the elders purchased a professional office building that was in bankruptcy from an insurance company that was also willing to finance the purchase and the renovation of the church building. God continued to bless us while for one year the members worked side by side with the contractors. We began worshipping in our current building at 1929 Egbert in January 2014. David Garner was our minister from January 2015 until February 2017. In January 2017, we began our Spanish Ministry with Carlos Tario, a recent graduate of Brown Trail School of Preaching. Carlos had been a former deacon of our congregation before moving his family to Texas to attend Brown Trail. In July of 2017, we were very fortunate to hire Sam Dilbeck for our English pulpit. He had served the Westhill congregation in Corsicana, Texas for 10 years as pulpit minister.
The major focus of the congregation always has been and continues to be, obeying and glorifying God.