Check Out Aaron Adams’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Adams.

Hi Aaron, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Bethel Baptist Church in Greeley was founded in 1901, and its steeple tops the hill above the University of Northern Colorado’s sports complex. Much has changed over the years. Originally called the Swedish Baptist Church of Greeley, Bethel held its services in Swedish until the 1950s, when the church also moved to its present location. The original church building is a few blocks away and now houses Roma Pizza, but you can tell (between bites of amazing pizza) that you’re sitting in a former church.

Many things haven’t changed at all. For 125 years, we’ve sought to be faithful to the Good News of Jesus Christ and to love our neighbors well, in Greeley and across the globe. As part of that commitment, Bethel sent short-term missions trips to Haiti for many years. When national instabilities in Haiti made those trips impossible, God gave us a new opportunity: Haitian immigrants were coming to Greeley in significant numbers. As one member put it, “We can’t go to Haiti anymore, so God brought Haiti to us.” In partnership with a couple of other local churches and an international ministry called Refugee Oasis, we now offer free English language classes for Haitian immigrants.

There are other great churches in our community, and I’m sure folks would say this sort of thing about their churches, but when my wife and I first visited Bethel, it was like coming home for the first time. A good church is a family, and Bethel is a family. The hard part is that a church like that can become “in-focused,” and it can be hard to become part of a new “family.” So we’ve tried to make sure that Bethel is not just a “church family,” but the kind of family that makes every visitor feel like they’ve come home, too. Some days, we’re probably better at that than others, but my prayer is that it would be more and more true of us as we become more and more like Christ.

I grew up in the Piney Woods and bayous of northeast Texas. In high school in the 90s, my best friend and I were gigging musicians, mostly opening for regional artists in small venues. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to stick with music or go into the clergy. We were an odd pair – I was a straight-edge, straight-A kid, and Donovan had failed out and was trying to kick pot and alcohol. We were writing original, Christian folk-rock music and were starting to think it was going somewhere. But on the way to a gig near Houston, Donovan and our “roadie” buddy, Josh, were killed in a multi-vehicle accident involving a semi truck. The Lord was my comfort in that darkest of valleys, and He called me to bring hope to others in their sorrows, too. That call has sustained me and my family in the many years since, as we’ve followed the Lord’s lead. After twelve years on Chicago’s North Shore, we moved to Greeley in Fall of 2019 so that I could serve as Senior Pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Greeley, Colorado.

Our church’s mission statement, “Building God’s family by making disciples of Jesus for His glory,” is a reflection of what Christians often call “The Great Commission,” given by Jesus to His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28. We aren’t trying anything particularly “earth-shattering” at Bethel, we’re just trying to follow Jesus in a way that’s faithful to Him and true to our unique character as a church.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Bethel Baptist Church in Greeley was founded in 1901, and its steeple tops the hill above the University of Northern Colorado’s sports complex. Much has changed over the years. Originally called the Swedish Baptist Church of Greeley, Bethel held its services in Swedish until the 1950s, when the church also moved to its present location. The original church building is a few blocks away and now houses Roma Pizza, but you can tell (between bites of amazing pizza) that you’re sitting in a former church.

Many things haven’t changed at all. For 125 years, we’ve sought to be faithful to the Good News of Jesus Christ and to love our neighbors well, in Greeley and across the globe. As part of that commitment, Bethel sent short-term missions trips to Haiti for many years. When national instabilities in Haiti made those trips impossible, God gave us a new opportunity: Haitian immigrants were coming to Greeley in significant numbers. As one member put it, “We can’t go to Haiti anymore, so God brought Haiti to us.” In partnership with a couple of other local churches and an international ministry called Refugee Oasis, we now offer free English language classes for Haitian immigrants.

There are other great churches in our community, and I’m sure folks would say this sort of thing about their churches, but when my wife and I first visited Bethel, it was like coming home for the first time. A good church is a family, and Bethel is a family. The hard part is that a church like that can become “in-focused,” and it can be hard to become part of a new “family.” So we’ve tried to make sure that Bethel is not just a “church family,” but the kind of family that makes every visitor feel like they’ve come home, too. Some days, we’re probably better at that than others, but my prayer is that it would be more and more true of us as we become more and more like Christ.

I grew up in the Piney Woods and bayous of northeast Texas. In high school in the 90s, my best friend and I were gigging musicians, mostly opening for regional artists in small venues. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to stick with music or go into the clergy. We were an odd pair – I was a straight-edge, straight-A kid, and Donovan had failed out and was trying to kick pot and alcohol. We were writing original, Christian folk-rock music and were starting to think it was going somewhere. But on the way to a gig near Houston, Donovan and our “roadie” buddy, Josh, were killed in a multi-vehicle accident involving a semi truck. The Lord was my comfort in that darkest of valleys, and He called me to bring hope to others in their sorrows, too. That call has sustained me and my family in the many years since, as we’ve followed the Lord’s lead. After twelve years on Chicago’s North Shore, we moved to Greeley in Fall of 2019 so that I could serve as Senior Pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Greeley, Colorado.

Our church’s mission statement, “Building God’s family by making disciples of Jesus for His glory,” is a reflection of what Christians often call “The Great Commission,” given by Jesus to His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28. We aren’t trying anything particularly “earth-shattering” at Bethel, we’re just trying to follow Jesus in a way that’s faithful to Him and true to our unique character as a church.

Obstacles/Struggles?

It hasn’t been smooth, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be. Certainly, part of the reason I’m at Bethel is because God called me to serve the wounded and broken, and not merely the healthy and happy. And my own story is one of both wounds and healing. There’s a beautiful passage from 2 Corinthians chapter 1, a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a fledgling church in the city of Corinth, that speaks to me powerfully:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” (2 Corinthians 1:3–5, CSB translation)

When Bethel called me to be their pastor, they were suffering. When I learned what had happened, I knew that some people would struggle to trust a pastor again, so my prayer has been that God would show me how to be a man of kindness, wisdom, and integrity in all things. Like all churches, when COVID hit, we prayed (for yet more wisdom!) and tried to do what we believed was most faithful to God’s Word, but it wasn’t easy for any church. We’re also committed to ministering to the students of UNC across the street, and those efforts seem to wax or wane from decade to decade.

The most painful struggles are always the more personal ones. The Church is supposed to pour ourselves out for one another and for our neighbors in love that reflects the love of Christ. One of the ways that happens is in standing together with one another in personal hardships and tragedies. I think people underestimate what a stabilizing force the Church is when everything in your life falls apart. The brokenhearted gets to distribute the weight of their sorrows across one another’s backs, hopefully in a healthy and God-honoring way, and we take up the load together. But when the sorrows are many, the weight can become great on all of us. The loss of a child, the breakdown of a family, or other sorrows weigh especially heavy on the heart of the pastors and other church leaders. These are struggles that you can’t see from the outside, but they’re always present.

There is comfort, though, because just as we share the weight of our sorrows, we also share the joys. And above the everyday sorrows and joys, we get to celebrate the most epic story of redemption in all of history, every single week, when we gather on Sundays to proclaim and sing to one another the truth that in Jesus Christ, believers have peace with God and a hope that cannot be destroyed.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m the Senior Pastor at Bethel Baptist Church. That means I’m the primary preacher and teacher for the church, and I lead our other pastors and leaders in serving our congregation and community.

My specialization is the careful analysis of the Bible in the original languages of Greek and Hebrew, so that I can accurately teach and apply it to our people. I’ve always had a gift for Biblical Greek, but I came late to the study of Hebrew. I love them both! The hard part is taking those insights and finding effective ways of teaching them to people across several generations, including kids, and across pretty much any other spectrum.

Something I’ve really enjoyed in this is developing what I call “conceptual coat hangers.” These are short, memorable explanations of big ideas in the Bible so that when people come across them in their own reading, they remember the short explanation. For exampled, Jesus starts his Sermon on the Mount with what we call the “Beatitudes,” the first of which is, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” But what does it mean to be “poor in spirit?” or even “blessed”? I think many of our people can tell you the “coat hanger” versions:

To be “blessed” is to be promised God’s favor, his presence, and his saving help.
To be “poor in spirit” means you come to God knowing that your only hope is that another has paid your debts.

Another big idea in the Bible is “wisdom.” The “coat hanger” for wisdom is: “Seeing God’s world the way God does.”

But preaching isn’t just supposed to be teaching. Primarily, the Bible uses the word “preach” to refer to proclaiming the message that Jesus has given us, and calling people to hear and believe. So every week, in my sermon preparation, I’m looking for the “call” of any given Biblical text. What is God’s calling upon me from this text, and how does it relate to the bigger story of redemption in Jesus Christ that plays out over the whole of Scripture? Because the answer to that question must drive the “call” of my sermon.

What’s next?
I’m always looking for ways to be more effective in outreach and evangelism. I’ve been asking God for guidance and wisdom so that I can lead well, and He always grants wisdom when His people ask. The beautiful thing about the Church is that, because it’s the “embassy” of the Kingdom of God, in the best cases, the Church will look like the Kingdom of God. And Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed – a tiny seed – that surprises everyone by becoming the biggest bush in the garden, so large that the birds can make nests in its branches (Mark 4:30-32). The Church doesn’t have to be the biggest game in town, or the flashiest, or have the newest building. The surprising results come not from human ingenuity, but from God working in those who are faithful. So the “big changes” I have in mind, which I believe God has put on my mind, are not new buildings or new marketing. I’m finding ways of being more faithful to Jesus’ calling on my life, to help others learn to be faithful to Jesus’ calling on theirs, and helping them see the beauty of how they can do the same for others. Tiny seed, surprising results.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bethelgreeley.com
• Youtube: youtube.com/@bethelgreeley