Connecting through prayer

When people ask Reg Cox how to begin a ministerial alliance, his answer is straightforward, but surprising to some:

“Pray and call me back in 7 or 8 years. See what God does in your relationship with each other.”

Reg Cox poses with his coffee at the Front Porch Coffee Shop at The Bridge Church.

Cox, now director of Lakewood Connects in Colorado, was a relative newcomer to the Denver area when he was invited to lunch with leaders and ministers from different evangelical groups who “wanted to start hanging out together, praying together.”

“I was familiar with that mindset — working from John 17 and the prayer of Jesus that his followers would be one. That passage resonated with me,” the former preacher explained.

Cox had moved to the Denver area in 2002 to serve as minister of the Lakewood Church of Christ, a role he filled until 2016. He and wife, Amy, remain members of the congregation where they raised their family: a son who graduated in May from Abilene Christian University and a daughter who attends Harding University.

Three Lakewood schools transformed part of their facilities into a food pantry and clothing and medical distribution site for the neighborhood.

The ministers met regularly, just to pray, and after a couple years asked Cox to lead them. He began planning a monthly prayer gathering and quarterly lunches “to learn about something.”

By about 2010, people in the community began noticing and heard that all different preachers were hanging out together — and liked each other, Cox said.

Over 100 volunteers gather for Love Lakewood Day at Southwest Community Church.

That was the surprising part to many who thought the Baptists weren’t supposed to like the Methodists, who didn’t like the Church of Christ members, and so on.

Eventually, about 25 different churches were involved. The ministers became friends with the mayor’s office and other community leaders until, in 2016, they began Lakewood Connects and Cox stepped out of his full-time role at the Lakewood Church of Christ to lead the new organization.

Related: Special project: Ministerial alliances

Today, Lakewood Connects has built partnerships with Jefferson County Schools, county human services and numerous other organizations. Working with Hope Academy, it facilitates rescue and reintegration of human trafficking victims. Jeffco Prays manages a website identifying prayer groups and events, tells prayer success stories and sponsors a yearly event focused on supporting service providers.

None of that happened without prayer.

Twice a year Lakewood Connects gathers civic, education, business and faith influencers to “make new connections, share stories and build more hope fuel to spread around.”

“God’s got all the resources in the universe, but he wants our hearts,” Cox said. “Relationship in prayer is more important than a big splash — a splash can’t sustain energy, but prayer can.”

Cox said he never encountered the resistance to faith from the city’s civic and service organizations that others had predicted.

“I realized that was never true — it was maybe 5 percent true. That was real eye-opening to me: The rest of the community had just been waiting for faith to join them.”

CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact [email protected].

Filed under: Christian unity Colorado Community service Ministerial alliances National News Top Stories