Mile High Baptist Association · A working proposal
Cooperation grows when the table is the right size and the context makes sense. Mile High should stay one association, cooperate in four regions, and share the leadership.
The problem
A church in Evergreen and a church in southeast Aurora are on the same team. They should be. But collaboration and community between them is hard, and the reason is not a lack of love. It is distance. And it is culture.
Evergreen to southeast Aurora is 32 miles as the crow flies, before a single mile of I-70, C-470 or E-470 traffic.
Pikes Peak, the second largest association in the state, has about 53 churches. Mile High has more than twice that, from the foothills to the plains, in more languages than any other association in the state. By its nature, Mile High cannot run the traditional associational model the way the others do. It is an impossible demand on any one leader, and on the pastors trying to know each other.
The idea
We stay connected as a whole. We spend most of our time within our regions.
Think of counties within a state, or states within a nation. One identity, one mission, one annual meeting, one partnership with Colorado Baptists. Underneath it, four regions where pastors actually see each other, pray together, share pulpits, cover each other's vacancies, and plant into the gaps they can see from their own front door.
This is how Mile High flexes to the demands of a metro that keeps growing. Not by splitting. By organizing.
What it could look like
Drawn along how people drive, shop and live, not along the interstates. A strict I-25 and I-70 cut puts 54 churches in one quadrant and 11 in another. These four land close to the size of a healthy Colorado association, and every one of them carries both established churches and language congregations.
Tap a region to show or hide it. Ringed dots are language or ethnic congregations, identified by church name, so the real count is higher.
| Region | Churches | Language churches |
|---|
Counts come from the 101 churches in the public directory at milehighbaptist.org (pulled October 30, 2026). The association reports about 130, so real totals run about a third higher. Final lines are drawn by the churches, not by this page.
Why this grows cooperation
Staffing
The model moves from one leader carrying everything to a team. Each region is led by a pastor who commits to the calling of facilitating cooperation. Part-time or volunteer. A pastor, not a bureaucrat.
Leads the whole. Coaches and equips the four facilitators. Carries the metro-wide work and the state partnership.
A local pastor, part-time stipend or volunteer. Gathers the region's pastors, knows every church, spots vacancies and gaps, and connects needs to help.
The Regional Director and four facilitators. Sets the calendar, shapes the budget, and keeps the regions connected to each other.
Each region gathers its pastors. Prayer, needs, one shared project.
All four regions together. Worship, stories, metro-wide vision.
One Mile High annual meeting. One body, celebrating the whole.
The money
Enter the current Mile High budget and see what an even split looks like. Slide the bar to hold back a share for the metro-wide work first. No budget figure is published here; this is a sketch for the leadership team to test.
Every dollar goes to the regions.
What stays whole
One name, one constitution, one annual meeting, one partnership with Colorado Baptists and the Southern Baptist Convention. Churches choose their region; nobody is assigned. Region lines are a starting draft, and the churches redraw them.
Metro-wide work stays metro-wide: the multiethnic and Hispanic leads, the diaspora and Send Español gatherings, the church planting pipeline with Send Network, and the Regional Director's care for every pastor.
Questions to work through
Let's celebrate the scope of where we are, and not let it limit us.