Changes

The Brethren in Colorado apparently had two independent beginnings, one of them the effort of an Englishman who had recently broken from the ‘exclusives’ in England, and the other by farming families from Kansas.

The assembly later moved to 2428 Ogden Street, now one of the oldest residential areas of the city, but then a new area. Among the men in leadership at the Denver Bible Hall besides Sadler were Will and Tom Henry, Edward Brown, a Mr. Desch, and a Mr. Brookman. Tom Henry was one of the principal preachers. In 1923, John and Nan Scroggie came from Scotland and joined the group. John Scroggie was an able preacher.

An assembly called University Christian Center in Denver started with the blessing of Littleton Bible Chapel in about 1980. The families of William Lansdown and Bruce Hayes were the prime movers, and two other families joined them in the new work. The group had a Breaking of Bread service at the Lansdowns house adjacent to the University of Denver campus in south Denver, along with a preaching service, gave a Sunday meal to students, and had an active work among them. But the group was never able to attract families from the area, and after about four years decided to close as an assembly, although the work with students continued.

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Grace Church in the Denver suburb of Arvada was started as an assembly in 1989 with the encouragement of Fairview Bible Chapel in Boulder and especially the efforts of Jonathan Smith. At the beginning, the group consisted partly of people who were left after a large Bible Church dissolved. Though Grace Church has elder rule, it does not now consider itself to be part of the brethren association of assemblies. Its Sunday attendance is typically several hundred.

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