Tucked into a single acre in the 40West Arts District along West Colfax Avenue in North Lakewood, Lakewood United Methodist Church has been a presence in the neighborhood for well over a century. The congregation itself dates to 1881; the present church building has been on its Brentwood Street lot since 1949. What makes LUMC unusual is the way its leadership has chosen to use that land and that building in recent years, not just for Sunday worship but as a community hub where art is made, food is distributed, dancers rehearse, and plans are taking shape for new deed-restricted housing for older neighbors.
The Vision That Drives Everything
LUMC describes itself as a progressive, Christ-following congregation sowing hope, love, and hospitality to nurture the flourishing of all people. Its leaders prayerfully wrote a vision statement that hangs over the work of the church. In Lakewood, it reads, the good news is shared, the hungry are fed, the thirsty are quenched, the homeless are housed, the stranger is welcomed, the naked are clothed, the sick are comforted, the prisoner is liberated, the directionless are called, and God's creation is nurtured. Pastor Ben David Hensley has described this vision as a vision of verbs in the past tense, a declaration of what God will do through the congregation if it remains willing to be attentive and obedient. The church is not the perpetrator of this vision, he has written; it is a steward of an abundance God entrusts.
The vision is grounded in Jesus' words in Matthew 25 and the congregation takes it literally. Sunday worship from late summer through early fall follows a sermon series that walks through each line of that statement, with scriptures from Exodus, Matthew, Romans, Philippians, and 1 John.
Worship on Brentwood Street
Worship at LUMC happens every Sunday morning at 10:00 in the Sanctuary. The service is rooted in the United Methodist tradition, with congregational singing from the United Methodist Hymnal led by the Chancel Choir and, several times a month, the LUMC Brass Ensemble. Music Director Ashleigh Haase-Bryson and Associate Director of Music Dr. Valerie Fassbender guide the selections, with an emphasis on music that the whole congregation can actually sing. Accessibility for singing is a value the program clings to when choosing each week's songs.
At 9:00 each Sunday, a small group called Holy Conversations gathers in the chapel for discussion and study of scripture or a book they might be reading together. From 9:30, the Genesis Gallery opens for fellowship, with coffee and donuts laid out, and visitors often drift between the gallery and the sanctuary.
Children are welcome throughout the service. Infants through kindergarten-aged children have childcare available, and Children's Church for first through fifth graders happens during worship right after the opening hymn. Children and Youth Director Cindy Clement oversees programs that she frames around the conviction that every young person is beloved, whole, and made in the image of God.
The sanctuary is ADA accessible, and assisted listening devices are available for those who need them. Services are broadcast on the church's YouTube channel for those who prefer to worship from home.
The Pastor and the Staff
Pastor Ben David Hensley, OSL, is an ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church. He holds two bachelor's degrees, in music and theatre, from High Point University, and a Master of Sacred Music from Southern Methodist University. Before coming to Lakewood UMC he served as a choir director, and the musical sensibility of the church today reflects that background. Hensley writes a weekly pastor's reflection and is active in local advocacy around homelessness and housing policy, including public testimony before the Lakewood Planning Commission about a transitional housing proposal on West Colfax.
Ashleigh Haase-Bryson serves as Director of Music and Worship, leading the choir and guiding the congregation in music each week. She is a professional flutist and lifelong musician who also teaches elementary school music in the wider community. Dr. Valerie Fassbender, the Associate Director of Music, is a church organist of many decades who has served Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Episcopal congregations across the country, most recently Trinity on the Hill Episcopal in Los Alamos, and who studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York with a concentration in Worship, Theology, and the Arts.
Cindy Clement, Director of Family and Community Engagement, is a lifelong United Methodist, a Deacon's daughter, and a graduate of Iliff School of Theology. Metzli Aragón serves as Office Manager and Facility Coordinator, and is also a xicana artisan, an azteca/mexika dancer and leader, and a co-host of an indigenous music program on KUVO Jazz. Keith Singer is the Worship Technician; he came to LUMC after a long career in social services including a thirty-person housing program in Englewood with Family Tree, and on Sundays he can usually be found in the balcony running the sound board.
The Building as a Community Hub
The congregation made a deliberate decision a few years ago to treat its large building and its acre of land not as a private asset but as a community hub. The church sits in the 40West Arts District, a state-certified Colorado Creative District, and it has leaned into that location. The Arts, Poverty and Homelessness, and Community Partnerships are the three pillars of the community hub.
Inside the building, the Genesis Gallery has become a working gallery with rotating exhibits, a curated store of art-related merchandise, and a steady calendar of book signings, town halls, community events, festivals, and meals. The gallery is also available for fundraisers, receptions, vendor expos, and game nights. Adjacent rooms house three resident dance companies: Baila Conmigo, an international folk dance team under Ana Rojas-Artica that shares Latino culture through dance from South America, Central America, Mexico, and Spain; Fiesta Colorado, a Hispanic dance company directed by Jeanette Trujillo-Lucero that has produced world-class dancers in Denver for forty years; and Kalpulli Yohualli Ehecatl Mitotiliztli, a collective of peoples with lineages to the Nahuatl speaking tribes of Anáhuac that promotes ancestral activism through movement and dance. The music wing of the building houses the Chancel Choir and the LUMC Brass Ensemble, and it is shared with community choral groups including the Colorado Children's Chorale and The Lutheran Chorale of the Front Range, both of whom rehearse and perform on the campus.
Outside, the church property hosts a community garden, and the church has been a lot operator for the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative. The sanctuary building itself is open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for anyone who wants to walk in.
Feeding the Neighborhood
Food justice is one of the consistent threads of LUMC's ministry, and the pastor's reflections return to it often. In his own household, Pastor Ben has written, cooking is a primary act of love, and the church has tried to extend that logic into programs that work at several scales.
Jeffco Eats operates out of the church on Fridays, a program designed to tackle the root causes of hunger by providing healthy, nutritious food to families and children, with a special focus on weekend food for food-insecure children in Jeffco Schools. Volunteers are welcomed on distribution days. The United Women in Faith circle at the church regularly prepares meals for Recovery Works, a local program that provides resources, community, and recovery to neighbors without homes. Lakewood UMC also provides a monthly meal for fifty of its unhoused neighbors through the Delores Project, which partners with individuals experiencing barriers to housing to identify a path to stability. The church keeps supplies on hand for those who need nourishment, hygiene, warm clothes, and socks in a hospitality closet.
Beyond its own building, the congregation has supported food drives for the Action Center, a Lakewood-area organization serving more than two hundred households per day.
Affordable Senior Housing on Church Land
Perhaps the most ambitious project underway at LUMC is the early-stage plan to build deed-restricted affordable housing for seniors on a portion of the church's property. The elders of the church have recognized that the elderly are one of the fastest-growing demographics of homelessness in Colorado, and they want to be a part of changing that. The proposed project would serve residents aged 62 and older earning between 30 and 60 percent of Area Median Income.
Because the parcel has been owned by the church since the 1950s, the land would stay in the church's hands permanently through a ground lease, paired with a Land Use Restriction Agreement, or LURA, that legally restricts the property to affordable senior housing for the life of the agreement. No future developer could repurpose, sell, or change the use of the land without the church's consent, regardless of whether the developer is for-profit or nonprofit. The property is already zoned for this kind of project, and the church sits in one of the oldest and poorest census tracts in Jefferson County.
LUMC is working with Community Investment Alliance, a nonprofit providing technical assistance, on a Colorado Housing and Finance Authority application. With a Letter of Intent deadline of December 2026 and a full application due around February 1, 2027, the timeline is tight. A new state law, Colorado HB 26-1001, is expected to push demand for experienced affordable housing developers sharply upward, so the church is working to get ahead of that wave.
Music at the Heart of Worship
Music is central to who LUMC is, and the people who lead it are central to the church. The Chancel Choir is the worship choir, an inclusive ensemble that welcomes singers of all ranges and backgrounds and that draws from both classic hymns and traditional choral compositions. The LUMC Brass Ensemble, made up of trumpet, trombone, and euphonium players, gathers several times each month to fill the sanctuary with brass, ranging from traditional hymn arrangements to contemporary melodies. All brass players are welcome to join.
Two of the region's most respected community ensembles call the LUMC campus home as well. The Colorado Children's Chorale, founded in 1974, has performed around the world and has won the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, and the El Pomar Award for Excellence in Arts and Humanities. The Lutheran Chorale of the Front Range, founded in 1976 and directed by David Hodel, performs a rich variety of choral works with a special emphasis on the Lutheran heritage and sings six to eight major concerts each season in addition to civic events.
The Arts: A District-Wide Partnership
LUMC sits inside the 40West Arts District and partners formally with several of the cultural organizations that define the corridor. 40 West Arts, a state-certified Colorado Creative District along historic West Colfax Avenue, supports and promotes the district as a creative and economic destination. The West Colfax Community Association brings together citizens, business owners, community leaders, and local organizations to foster the corridor's vitality. The Chicano Humanities Arts Council, the oldest Latinx nonprofit arts organization in Colorado, founded in 1978, shares the goal of an inclusive creative community. The Colorado Folk Arts Council, one of the oldest multicultural organizations in the state, encourages the preservation of ethnic cultural arts, history, and traditions.
Resident fine artists at LUMC include Ann Morgan, a painter and digital artist trained at Michigan State University; Jim Rabiolo, a photographer whose prints draw on natural forms to convey mood; Stephanie Kranstover, a ceramicist who explores fungal and seed-pod-inspired forms; and Todd Pierson, an internationally published photojournalist whose long-running project Return of the Corn Mothers has been exhibited at History Colorado, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Arizona State University.
Children, Youth, and Family Programs
LUMC approaches children and youth programming as a partnership with families. During worship, children aged three through ten are invited to Children's Church for crafts and lessons after the opening hymn. Younger children, infants through kindergarten, are cared for in the nursery.
In the summer, the church runs a Peace Camp, a three-day program for children from age three through fifth grade that introduces them to peace as the root of the faith journey and gives them tools for living and modeling peace in their communities.
Youth in grades six through twelve are part of the Westside Youth Group, a joint youth ministry serving United Methodist congregations on the west side of Denver. The group meets weekly during the school year, with a focus on service, study, community, and fun, including lock-ins, weekend retreats, service to neighbors experiencing homelessness, and a yearly mission trip.
Adult Faith Formation
Adults at LUMC have several ways to go deeper. Holy Conversations meets in the chapel at 9:00 on Sunday mornings for study and discussion. A Bible Study led by Rev. David Persons meets on Thursdays at 2:30 p.m., and Pastor Ben has also taught a five-week Being Methodist class that walks through United Methodist history, theology, practice, and how the denomination works locally, regionally, and globally.
Past studies have included a Lenten book study done jointly with Applewood Valley United Methodist Church, focused on Where We Meet: A Lenten Study of Systems, Stories, and Hope. Qi Gong in the Genesis Gallery is offered as a time of therapeutic and spiritual movement accessible to any age or physical ability, with a $10 cost to keep it going.
Groups for Men and Women
The United Women in Faith circle at Lakewood UMC meets every second Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to noon, with the explicit mission of connecting and nurturing women so they can inspire, influence, and impact local and global communities for good. The men's group gathers on Zoom every other Wednesday for fellowship and discussion. Both groups are open to newcomers.
A Part of Something Larger
LUMC belongs to the Mountain Sky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, a regional body that covers churches in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and parts of Idaho. Every year the pastor and lay members drive to the Annual Conference meeting for worship, inspiration, and the business of the connection. Pastor Ben has written that this annual trip is one of the things he most loves about being United Methodist, that the Lakewood congregation is part of a sprawling network of churches around the country and the world. The next time Annual Conference convenes, the church's lay leader Gary Dyer will join online while the pastor and the United Women in Faith president make the eight-hour drive to Billings, Montana.
The Preschool on the Property
The Lakewood United Methodist Preschool has long shared the church campus and shares LUMC's progressive approach to early childhood. In addition to the preschool, the church runs a Parent's Day Out program for families looking for flexible care. Together with the Sunday children's programming and the summer Peace Camp, the preschool makes the LUMC campus a place where children of all ages have a place.
How to Get Involved
Volunteers are at the heart of nearly everything that happens at LUMC. The church regularly needs help with the Community Garden, with Jeffco Eats food distribution on Fridays, with the Genesis Gallery as docents and installers, with the A/V team for Sunday mornings and special events, and with the Worship Team behind the scenes. Intergenerational activities run throughout the year, including Bingo, chili cook-offs, Blessing of the Pets, and Genesis Gallery openings.
Anyone interested in connecting can email info@lumc.net, and anyone who wants a one-on-one conversation with the pastor can schedule a time directly through his calendar. Newcomers looking to learn more about what it means to be United Methodist are pointed toward the Being Methodist class.
Visiting Lakewood United Methodist Church
The church is at 1390 Brentwood Street, Lakewood, Colorado. Worship is at 10:00 on Sunday mornings in the Sanctuary. The Genesis Gallery opens for fellowship at 9:30 with coffee and donuts. Holy Conversations meets in the chapel at 9:00. The building is ADA accessible and assisted hearing devices are available. Children are welcome throughout, with nursery care for infants through kindergarten and Children's Church for first through fifth graders. Office hours run Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and the church phone number is 303-237-7768. Giving can be made online.
What to wear and what to bring are up to the visitor. People come as they are. In the words of the church's own tagline, this is a place for all.