History
Imagine a church where the ministry was truly born out of prayer. That's Applewood Community Church!
In 1992, the Spirit seemed to be moving in the hearts of many Applewood families. Trying to fill the void of an evangelical, Bible-based church, many families were driving quite a distance to be involved in weekly worship services, not to mention youth and other special events. The matter was taken to prayer. In 1993, a vision was born out of those prayers for the Applewood/Golden area, specifically the community of Applewood.
At the same time, Arvada Covenant Church, a church that a number of Applewood families attended, was growing rapidly. They were deciding whether to expand, relocate, or plant a daughter church. Their need miraculously meshed with the vision of the Applewood core group. The mutual decision was made to establish a Covenant church plant: Applewood Community Church!
With incredible support and encouragement from Arvada Covenant and the vision of its senior pastor, Wes Swanson, a pastor search was launched. Rev. John Wenrich, a recent graduate of Denver Seminary and passionate young man, was called as our first pastor in December 1993. With financial backing from Arvada, the Evangelical Covenant Church, the Midwest Conference and the Front Range District, we began meeting in the basement of the Covenant House, a building on Arvada Covenant Church's property. We grew quickly, and in order to have more room, we began using their Fellowship Hall. On Easter Sunday, 1994, Arvada Covenant commissioned Applewood Community Church as a new church plant. That day, we held our first official service at D'Evelyn Junior/Senior High School in Applewood.
Applewood Community Church excitedly joined eleven other Covenant churches along the Front Range of Colorado as a part of the Midwest Conference for the Evangelical Covenant Church.
In January of 1999, Pastor Wenrich resigned as pastor of Applewood Community Church. He was called to serve a church Portland, Oregon. After he left, a Pastor Search Team was formed thinking that it wouldn't take long to find a pastor who wanted to serve God in beautiful Colorado. That wasn't to be; the search took about two years. AWCC needed that time to grow and mature as believers who were totally reliant on God, instead of the Senior Pastor. Guest Pastors were brought in to preach on Sunday mornings, and then eventually, God equipped individuals within the church to take turns preaching to and teaching the congregation. Even though this was a difficult time, we wouldn't change it, because our faith grew deeper and we became more reliant on God.
In September of 2000, Guy McCaslin was called to be the next Senior Pastor of Applewood Community Church, and he began in February 2001. He had been serving at the Evangelical Covenant Church of Springfield, Massachusetts, for the past 20 years. He is now leading the people of AWCC in what it means to be the community of Christ.
In May of 2003, AWCC moved to the Clear Creek Campus to share worship and office space with Clear Creek Valley Baptist Church.
In May of 2005, God provided abundantly for Applewood Community Church and blessed us with our first church home at 12930 W. 32nd Avenue. After a month of renovations we had our first service here in June 2005! Praise God for his provision! We want to be open and serve our neighbors. Our building is open for groups to meet in and use when they need space. We have served our neighbors in the fall through Community Caring Weekend. We raked our neighbors yards and helped clean their properties. Each Christmas we invite our neighbors to join us for the annual lighting of our outdoor Christmas tree as well as a hay ride, with Christmas cookies and hot chocolate.
As we continue to worship in the building God has provided, we strive to serve our neighbors & community more each year!
