Our Story

In 2009, Dan and Maria Crosby and their two children, Seth and Alyzsa, were living in Springdale, Arkansas, when God spoke to Dan early one Sunday morning to plant a church.  The Crosby family had been ministering together on short-term missions trips in over twenty countries of the world, and now God had dropped a desire in Dan’s heart to plant a church. Maria was hoping the idea was a fleeting one and would soon go away, as she grew up as a pastor’s kid and knew from experience how hard it was to pastor a church.  After months of prayer, Dan and Maria took the initiative to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and attended an ARC (Association of Related Churches) church planting conference in Alabama.  It was there that they felt God confirm the call to plant a church in Colorado.  Later, they would discover that this call was narrowed to a beautiful area known as the Tri-Lakes.  God had called Fuel Church, as it would eventually be named,  “to create an authentic environment where God and man connect and lasting transformation takes place.”  It was about building a real relationship with God, building real relationship with people, and connecting the hand of God with the hand of people in the ministry of reconciliation.

In 2021 Pastor Dan Crosby went home to be with Jesus, but his legacy has continued.  In looking back, we discovered that at the same time God was calling him home, He was also calling the Bensons (our current leaders) to make a major shift from the church that they restarted back in 2010, and away from all of their family and the secure life they had created for themselves.    For 3.5 years they waited on the Lord for clarity of direction and timing, holding primarily onto two clear words:  You are not to lead your present church into the next season.  I am transitioning you to Colorado.  That 3.5 years found its culmination in 2025, as the Lord clearly and supernaturally directed them to the Tri-lakes to restart what was then Fuel Church.  Pregnant with words like, "I am sending you to your promised land", Shawn & Misty have the utmost confidence in the future of the church and what God is about to do here!

We are forever grateful for the foundation laid here in this church and in the Tri-lakes area.  No matter where we go from here, there is no question that we are standing on the shoulders of giants who sacrificed so much to get us this far.  So where are we going?  The same place we have always been headed.  We want to see God's name made great in this region.  We want to see people saved, healed, delivered, discipled and sent.  We want to create a place where people don't just encounter our best efforts, but they encounter the living God and actually experience His transformative presence.  We want to see a people so in love with Jesus, and so shaped into His likeness that they not only transform their homes, but the city in which they live.   We want to cultivate a church environment where no one wants to leave, and people, who you can genuinely call family, are looking for you, holding you accountable, challenging you in your faith, calling you on the weekends, and missing you when you are gone.  It might all sound simple; it might even sound like nothing new.  But it is what we are giving our lives for here.   Will you join us?