In many ways, our history parallels the history of Broomfield. In late 1957, shortly after the city itself was founded, Rev. Harold Rarick started a worship group. In March of 1958, the group held its first official service in Rev. Rarick’s home on Midway Blvd. just west of Main Street, with 40 people attending. Two months later, the group officially formed the United Church of Broomfield. Church members continued meeting in homes until April 2, 1961, when we opened our church building at our current location at 825 Kohl Street. Like the city itself, we had grown substantially: 269 people attended the first worship service held in the new facility – and some of them are still members. We dedicated the new education wing, as well as some additional space on November 2, 1988.
We have always treated our building not just as a place for our own use, but as an opportunity to serve the community. We are the proud sponsors of Boy Scout Troop 511, which has met in our building since 1988. Seeing a need for quality before and after school care for the children who attend Kohl Elementary, just across the street from us, we opened the Kohl Street Kids before and after school program in 1985. We added a preschool program in 1990. Today, both programs are still going strong. Over the years, we have also provided meeting places for a number of community groups, notable Alcoholics Anonymous, and other kinds of support groups. Most recently we provided space for the annual Broomfield Piano Festival.
Members of our church have never been content just to wait for the community to come to us, however. We have actively sought opportunities to serve the needs of our growing community in the almost 60 years since our founding. Anne Crouse, an early member of our church, was also a founding member of the FISH food pantry, which to this day continues to provide for our neighbors in need. Over the years we also worked with other faith communities to organize the CROP walk, which addressed hunger in our community and in the world. Our tradition of service continues to this day.
We have a tradition of being served by loving and dedicated pastors, including:
Bradley Skinner 1960-1966
Wayne Reid 1966-1975
George Cushing 1975-1980
Jim Sherman 1980
Jon Almgren 1980-1996
Jack Wieczorek 1996-1998
Greg Garland 1998-2019
Andi Fox 2019 to 2022 & 2024 to present (Associate Pastor)
Shaye Champ-Correll 2022 to 2023 (Interim Associate Pastor)
Michael Blackwood 2017 to present