Grace and Life Church

Our Mission Statement is: "To Make Christlike Disciples in the Nations." We do this by reaching out into our Denver Westwood Community in several ways. Iglesia Gracia y Vida (Grace and Life Church) is a Spanish language congregation that is home to about 100 parishioners. Our church looks for answers to our community struggles by raising up leaders who seek God and love people. Many of our program leaders and volunteers are people who live in our neighborhood and have found Christ through our ministry. When society offers nothing but closed doors and harsh words we want our doors thrown open with the opportunity to know and be loved of God and his Church in such a way that stimulates worship, service and holistic growth. Jesus of Nazareth Compassion Ministries Purpose Statement is: "To Grace the Body of Christ with Opportunities to Evangelize the Hurting via Compassion Ministries and to Love Them into the Church." We have done this by becoming an official "Community Safe Haven" in times of gang violence, organizing community events such as our "Young Men's Career Day" and Christmas Drives as well as by striving to become a community Justice Center that will help all immigrants file their documentation and paperwork to help them achieve legal status. In addition we continue to collaborate with the District 4 of the Denver Police, GRID (Gang Reduction Initiative of Denver), area universities and colleges, churches, and service organizations like the Lakewood and Englewood Rotary Clubs to bring resources into our under-served community. The Academia Mauricio Saravia is our after-school program that endeavors to reach children ages 4-11 from the five elementary schools in and around our neighborhood. Our purpose statement is: To H.E.A.L. a Child’s Confidence by Supporting His/Her Growth in: Health, Education, and the Arts with Love. We are achieving this by offering three 8-week sessions where we provide the children with a hot meal, help with homework, an online digital reading library and teaching program, a physical activity time, and a one hour class of their choosing. Our 2017 Spring session offered classes in ballet (taught by the Colorado Ballet), cooking, carpentry, arts and crafts, zumba, and K'NEX (a machine building class). During our 8 week session we averaged 49 children in attendance every Wednesday. Our program is very unique in that our leadership and volunteers are from Latin America which puts our community at ease and gives them opportunities to serve as well.