Our story
It started with eleven people
and the Gospel of John.
Lamplight has been teaching the Bible verse by verse in the south metro since 2013. We're bigger now, but we're trying hard to stay the kind of church where people know your name.
- messages
- 1,037
- messages
- books taught
- 40
- books taught
- years
- 13+
- years
2013
A living room in Centennial
Nate and Amy Whitaker open their home on Tuesday nights to read through the Gospel of John with a few neighbors. Eleven people come the first night. By spring, they're borrowing chairs.
2015
The first Sunday
On January 11, 2015, about 90 people gather in a rented middle-school cafeteria and open to Mark 1. We set up and tear down every week for four years.
2019
A home on Orchard Road
We buy a tired two-story office building just off I-25 and turn the ground floor into an auditorium and the second into kids rooms and classrooms. Volunteers do most of the demolition.
2020
Streaming, then back together
Like everyone, we learn to livestream in a week. We keep it after we reopen, and it's how many people first find us today.
Today
Still opening the Book
Around 650 people on a Sunday, 1,037 messages taught verse by verse, and 18 home groups across the south metro. Same simple idea as that first Tuesday night.
What we're about
Four things you’ll notice
on your first Sunday.
Verse by verse
We teach through whole books of the Bible, so we hear all of it, including the hard parts, and nobody's hobbyhorse sets the agenda.
Come as you are
Jeans are fine. So are questions, doubts, and a messy week. Nobody will put you on the spot.
Simple, not shallow
No fog machines or hype. Songs you can sing, teaching you can take home, and people who'll know your name.
Love first
Right doctrine matters because it produces people who love God and their neighbors. That's the measure we hold ourselves to.
Staff
The people you'll meet.
Six of us on staff, and a few hundred volunteers who do most of the real work.
Nate Whitaker
Lead Pastor
Nate started Lamplight as a Tuesday-night Bible study in his Centennial living room in 2013. He teaches most Sundays, reads too many commentaries, and still coaches his daughter's rec soccer team.
nate@lamplight.exampleLuis Ortega
Associate Pastor, Midweek & Care
Luis leads Wednesday nights through the Bible and oversees hospital visits, counseling, and care. Before ministry he spent twelve years as an engineer in the Tech Center.
luis@lamplight.exampleRachel Kim
Director of Kids Ministry
Rachel runs Sunday and Wednesday kids classes for newborns through 5th grade, and the 60 volunteers who make them happen. Former Cherry Creek Schools first-grade teacher.
rachel@lamplight.exampleJordan Pike
Students Pastor
Jordan leads Lamplight Students (grades 6–12) on Wednesday nights and the summer trip to Colorado Springs. He knows every good burrito spot on Arapahoe Road.
jordan@lamplight.exampleMicah Dunn
Worship Leader
Micah leads the Sunday and midweek worship teams. He cares more about the congregation singing than the band sounding big.
micah@lamplight.exampleGrace Lindqvist
Operations & Groups
Grace keeps the building, the calendar, and the home groups running. If you want to find a group, she's the one to ask.
grace@lamplight.example
Elders
Led by a team,
not a personality.
Lamplight is led by a plurality of elders: two pastors and three men from the congregation who meet twice a month to pray, shepherd, and oversee the teaching and the budget. No one, including the lead pastor, has the final say alone.
- Nate Whitaker
- Luis Ortega
- Dave Kincaid
- Tom Albrecht
- Samuel Okafor
