Who We Are
simply christian
The goal of the Conifer church of Christ is to be “Simply Christian.” Nothing more. Nothing less.
The Bible describes a group of people who follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and they are called “Christians” (Acts 11:26). They were a part of the church that Jesus built (Matthew 16:18). In Acts 2:41-47, those who gave their lives to Jesus through repentance and baptism were added to Jesus’ church. The Christians of the Bible were not called Protestants, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, or Catholics. In fact, the word “denomination” never occurs in the Bible. The followers of Jesus in the Bible were simply called Christians. We believe that if we follow the pattern for the church that we find in the Bible, we too can be simply Christian. Our goal is to get back to the Bible for everything we do. We don’t want to be a denomination of Christianity, we want to be simply Christian.
Not only do we want to be “Simply Christian” by our name, but also by our practice. We seek to do only the things we find in the Bible, nothing more and nothing less. It is our goal to have no other authority that guides us other than the Bible. We seek to practice what the Christians in the Bible practiced. We seek to live the way the Christians in the Bible lived. We seek to worship the way the Christians in the Bible worshiped. We don’t want to add or take away from what the Bible says (Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation 22:18). We speak where the Bible speaks, and are silent where the Bible is silent. We are Simply Christian — Nothing More. Nothing Less.
Our history
The history of the church of Christ goes back before the beginning of time. In Ephesians 1:4, Paul reveals that before the foundation of the world, God determined a plan to save those who are “in Christ.” In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, “I will build My church.” In Acts 2:41, that church began with three-thousand souls being baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. This group that God planned before the foundation of the earth, the group that Jesus said He would build, and the group that we read about beginning in Acts 2; this group was the church of Christ (Romans 16:16).
Since that time, many people have strayed from the simplicity of the church that Jesus established by following teachings of men rather than the teachings of Jesus. This has led to the numerous denominations that are seen today. Denominations are not something that God desires. In fact, God hates division (1 Corinthians 1:10). This problem is what led to the establishment of a church of Christ in Conifer, CO.
In 2006, two men, Wayne Burger and Will Hanstein, recognized a need in these mountain communities for a church that wanted nothing more than to follow the Bible. There were people in the community who wanted that, but were having to drive long distances just to find a church that was providing solid Bible teaching. So, these men gathered these people and the Conifer church of Christ was born.
In the Fall of 2006 a small group of Christians began meeting at the Mountain Resource Center on Wednesday nights for Bible study. On January 7, 2007, the Conifer church of Christ had its first official Sunday worship service with 17 people. Since that time the church has grown and many people have been saved through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Conifer church of Christ today is still a thriving group of Christians that have dedicated their lives to follow the pattern found in the Bible (2 Timothy 1:13).