Embracing a New Chapter: First Love Revolution Church in Colorado Springs
It’s official! I have accepted a role to pastor a new campus in Colorado Springs!! We’re so excited and have been longing to tell you. We waited until the church made the announcement yesterday, and now we’re heralding the news.
This is a dream come true in so many ways. First off, some of our dearest friends and ministry partners live in Colorado Springs. We have been together and taking on national and international assignments for about 15 years together. For the last several years, we’ve tried to land in Colorado Springs, spending several months here at a time, and each time we sensed as a family that the timing was not quite right. Well, the timing is for now!
I happened across a pastoral listing for an open position in Colorado Springs, and sent in my resume. After reading their church history and looking through the website, I was struck by the storyline that was unfolding for this fledgling church. They were new, just a few years old. They had already, as a staff and community, paid a dear price for what was an unexpected move of the Spirit. As you probably already know, the Holy Spirit can be quite disruptive to business as usual. Of course, I mean that in the best way!
As I interviewed, getting to know each of their pastoral and executive team one by one, I was gripped by the way they openly spoke about their longing for God and their love for one another. They asked me all the tough questions, and I asked them about their journey with God and their work with this ministry. Over the course of several weeks, I became certain that this community was indeed pregnant with revival. They were carrying something real. They were committed to God in ways that were compelling and stretching. And they were committed to walking out real community life together.
A few weeks ago, they flew out our entire family to interview us all together and to allow themselves to be vetted by us. The whole process of getting to know this team, of feeling their love for us as we sought the Lord as a family, has been utterly healing. I didn’t even know I needed to be healed! However, throughout our conversations together, I realized that God was bringing me into something I’ve longed for since giving my life to Him all those years ago: a real team. I’m just so grateful. We all are!
While our family was in town being interviewed, the team brought up that my campus in Colorado Springs was hiring a new children’s director. Of course, if you know anything about my daughter Juniah, you know she has always had a love for children. At Resound, our church in Orlando, as soon as she became old enough, she stepped in as the children’s director. After it was official that I was taking the job, Juniah also began interviewing for the kids director in Colorado Springs. And guess what!? She got the job and is signing her offer letter today.
The new church plant in Colorado Springs was launched on Easter Sunday, 2023, and so it’s just getting off the ground. They already have a great support staff in place, and I’m excited to lead as the Campus pastor. Our goal over the next years is to launch 25 more churches along the front range around the Rocky Mountains, and also to launch into Mexico and the Latin-speaking world. I’m thrilled to say, I will also be helping with all of that! We already have our first trips to Mexico scheduled for this February. I could not be more excited!
There’s more!
Yesterday, as I was announced for the Colorado Springs campus pastor, which fell on the three year anniversary of the main church, they announced a name change. You’re not going to believe this. I can almost not believe it, and I’ve known for a couple of weeks. Our new name is First Love Revolution Church. You can visit the church website at: FirstLoveRevolution.com.
Click the link above or HERE to watch the service online
For those of you who have been tracking with us from the beginning, which goes back a long way, almost 25 years now, you may remember that the first organization we launched, which centered around regional prayer gatherings, was called First Love Ministries. In fact, everything we have ever done in ministry has been a DBA under that name. God has a way of writing a story! He’s the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
For the last several years we have prayed, alongside our long-time friends who reside in Colorado Springs, this prayer:
Isaiah 25:
6 On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.
9 In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord; we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.
In fact, while we labored in Tennessee for a spiritual breakthrough in that region, we prayed from our mountain there in agreement with our friends praying from Pikes Peak (also called America’s Mountain) in Colorado Springs, these very verses. I’m even more gripped at the weight of these promises and the intentions of the Lord for our region and nation. I’m believing for death itself to be swallowed up! Life and life in abundance are coming!!
There’s so much more! Wait until I tell you about the building in Colorado Springs… It’s going to blow your mind. That will have to wait until my next update.
After a very long season in the wilderness, where, in all truth, I often wondered if I would ever come out, I am just so grateful to the Lord. With tears streaming as I write this, I’m just so humbled to be part of what God is doing here. The last several years have been difficult in ways I can’t even express… I’m still processing it all. And yet, in all of the difficulty, God never left me. He never left us. Who is this God who stoops down so low to come into our mess? He’s far better than we know. Far more kind. Far, far more committed and loving.
He’s not after big ministry. He’s after communion. Him in us, us in Him: Oneness. And He’ll stop at nothing to bring us into it once He has our yes. Christ in us, the hope of glory!
I’ve said yes, and I’ve made it my life’s mission to just keep giving Him my yes. Over and over again, I’m saying yes to this full immersion. I’m saying yes to this blended life, the full baptism. With no regrets, I echo Paul, who said this:
Philippians 3:
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
I pray even as you read this, the yes in your heart comes into the full resonance of God’s yes toward you.
If you happen to be reading my update and are in a hard place, maybe like me, you’ve been driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, don’t despair. Your story will not end there. And for however long you may remain, just remember to open your eyes. The Lord has not abandoned you. It may be dark, but it is not dark to Him. He loves you and will never leave you. Never. Rest with Him there.
And for the rest of us, those who are living in the sunshine of grace, please let us remember and be patient with those in the hard. Many we sit next to, who say they are “fine” when asked how they are, are barely hanging on. Let’s remember to pray for one another. Let’s be better at really looking into one another’s eyes and listening with our hearts. Surely, the Lord will shine through, breaking into even the darkest of nights.
Thank you for praying for us. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
Love,
Leah Ramirez
