Patrick Lightfoot has spent the past nine years learning about the faithfulness of God’s timing and what it looks like to wait on Him. On March 30, 2025, Lightfoot, who serves as the senior pastor of Traverse Christian Church in Windsor, CO, saw firsthand the blessings that are found in the waiting. Accompanied by his congregation, he exited the school that had been the church’s temporary home since 2016 and walked to the four-acre property next door that now houses the brand-new Traverse Christian Church. Together, they celebrated God’s unfailing devotion.
“It was super gratifying, and I was filled with thankfulness,” Lightfoot said of what he dubbed the “crossover service,” reflective of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land. “We’ve been longing for this for a long time and the community has been waiting for it.”
It was Lightfoot’s passion that TSF staff noticed and appreciated during their initial meetings with him. “I remember the day Traverse Christian Church came to TSF hoping to purchase their first building,” said Chief Lending Officer Brittany Wagner. “Patrick had an enthusiasm about him that made all of us passionate about seeing decisions made for Christ in Windsor.”
Lightfoot and his wife Hannah followed the Lord’s call on their lives when He sent them in a very different direction from what they had planned. While working for his in-laws’ promotional and advertising business, Lightfoot also served as the pastor overseeing adult ministries at Journey Christian Church in Greeley, CO. After four years in that role, where he oversaw various ministries and only preached once a quarter, he felt called to plant a church. When the Lightfoots sat down with Hannah’s parents to tell them they wouldn’t be buying the family business as they had been planning to for the previous five years, Patrick said his mother-in-law was grinning at him the whole time. Baffled by her reaction, he asked why she was smiling at their derailed plans. “She told me that the night before, she told my father-in-law that she felt I was supposed to go into ministry,” Lightfoot recalls.
With his family’s blessing and the Lord’s leading, Lightfoot and nine families from Journey launched Traverse Christian Church in 2016. From 182 in their first service, they grew to 350 before the opening of their new building. Lightfoot never planned to meet at Windsor Charter Academy for as long as they did, but God closed a number of doors on his initial efforts to secure a building site. In three years, Traverse had eight offers rejected, including a dairy farm they wanted to convert to a church, but it came with too many environmental issues. “God kept telling me, ‘Keep at it; I’ve got a place and time,’” Lightfoot said.
“God kept telling me, ‘Keep at it; I’ve got a place and time.”
Wagner recalls that despite so many properties not being the right fit, TSF staff and Lightfoot never gave up on finding a permanent home where Traverse could impact their local community. “Ministry and property loss after property loss can be devastating for a pastor, his family, and the church, but Patrick never gave up,” Wagner said. “He remained steadfast and focused on God’s calling on his life to bring hope to a city in need of Jesus.”
For two years, Lightfoot inquired about the four-acre property adjacent to the school, but the owner wanted to sell it as separate plots. When the owner finally decided to sell the entire property to Traverse, Lightfoot saw the reason for the wait. “God knew we weren’t ready two years earlier, but it happened in His time,” he said.
Throughout the process, Lightfoot said TSF came alongside as a ministry partner and supported him in the dream that some may have called too big. “TSF wanted to know our next steps; they didn’t want to dictate what our next steps should be,” he said.
Lightfoot has remained focused on the “whys” of Traverse Church’s need for a new building, which are 1) to reach more people for Jesus, 2) to grow his congregation’s faith in Jesus, and 3) to bless their community with Jesus. They plan to go beyond the walls of the sanctuary and spread Jesus’ love to their community with the opening of Trailblazer Academy in June. Windsor has 5,400 children in need of childcare, and Trailblazer Academy will help meet that need with a childcare ministry that can accommodate 90 full-time kids. “We know the need is great, so we’re going to do this really, really well,” Lightfoot said. The morning of their crossover service, Lightfoot arrived at 6:30 a.m. because he just wanted to be in the new building that was nearly a decade in the making. With a heart filled with gratitude and humility, he thought of each person who will walk through the doors in years to come and what that will mean in the space of eternity. “We’re gritty. We do hard things,” he said. “The church needs more boldness and courage.”
Traverse Christian Church is an example of how TSF builds partnerships based on much more than a church’s finances. The commitment they see in a church’s leadership and their ability to live into the Lord’s calling is an essential part of the relationship-building and lending process. The love and devotion of pastors like Lightfoot are the roots of the churches TSF gets to help build.
“TSF wanted to know our next steps; they didn’t want to dictate what our next steps should be.”
“Now that Traverse has a permanent space in their community, they’ll be able to provide access to needs not otherwise provided,” Wagner said. “TSF is most excited for Traverse’s generational impact because of the faithfulness of their leader.”
