Over the past two weeks I have traveled to Southern California and Colorado Springs – two areas that have long been considered evangelical “hot spots.” Some have even irreverently called Colorado Springs the evangelical “mecca.”
I certainly saw plenty of evidence of evangelical activity in both places. In Colorado Springs, for example, the headquarters of Focus on the Family sits on a hill in the north part of town, overlooking Interstate 25. It is an impressive sight, and when you stand in the parking lot and look west, you have a panoramic view of Pikes Peak, the Air Force Academy, and much more. It is hard to drive through Colorado Springs and not be struck by the ministry’s presence.
An upscale shopping center called The Shoppes at Briargate has several restaurants and coffee shops where you can find Focus employees taking meetings at almost any time of the day. Just a few miles north, you can find Compassion International’s modern new headquarters building – equally impressive, though a bit more tucked away, not as prominent to the surrounding area.
These two mega-ministries are among the 74 Colorado-based ministries in the MinistryWatch 1000 database. This is up from 56 when we last did a count in 2021. An organization called Colorado for Family Values says 500 Christian ministries are in Colorado Springs. Young Life and The Navigators are two more outsized-ministries with headquarters in Colorado Springs.
Given these impressive numbers, Colorado – Colorado Springs in particular – is certainly no pretender to the throne. Also, given the size of the state, with just over 5 million people, ranking it 21st in the nation, it punches far above its demographic weight.
But Colorado (the state) is not number one, not by a wide margin. California is home to 107 of the MinistryWatch 1000 ministries. However, two things jump out at me when I consider this number. First, it is nearly identical to the 104 ministries we found in our 2021 count. So, the number of big ministries in California is not growing. Secondly, we must consider that California is the most populous state in the nation, with 40 million people. So, on a per capita basis, Colorado far outstrips the Golden State.
We should note, too, that the number one state in the nation is Texas, with 147 of the MinistryWatch 1000 ministries headquartered there. Several things about Texas make this exercise in state-by-state comparison interesting but problematic. For one thing, the ministries in Texas are scattered all through the state, with dozens in Dallas, but also many in Houston and San Antonio. It is also interesting that a lot of smaller towns have big ministries. Garden Valley, Texas, about 80 miles east of Dallas in the “piney woods” region of the state (and more than 200 miles away from the nearest ocean), is home to the $155-million Mercy Ships. We should also note that Texas is the second most populous state in the nation, behind California, with 30 million people. So, on a per capita basis, Texas outruns California, but it is still number two to Colorado.
So, what does all this mean?
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For one thing, if you are a demographic nerd (as I am), these numbers are interesting. I think, though, that there is more to these numbers than mere entertainment value. They teach us that even in an era of virtual work, being near others does matter. In a town such as Colorado Springs, talent is discovered, developed, and swapped from organization to organization. Ministry leadership might not be quite as complicated as rocket science, but it requires – especially at the middle and top levels – real experience, technical expertise, and leadership skill. Colorado Springs has development as a “ministry town” for the same reasons that Silicon Valley developed as a high-tech town. When Dawson Trotman moved a fledgling ministry called The Navigators to Colorado Springs in 1953, he set in motion a ministry migration that continues today.
My own opinion – supported by the numbers I’ve laid out here — is that Colorado Springs has been and remains the number one ministry town in the United States. It might not be number one in raw numbers, but on a per capita basis, it far outstrips any other city in the nation. Given the growth of the region, that is a title it will likely hold well into the future.
POSTSCRIPT: In case you are interested, other states in the Top Ten include Georgia (71), Florida (65), Pennsylvania (60), Illinois (52), North Carolina (50), Tennessee (50), and Michigan (46).