Rising Stars: Meet Adam Bailey of West side of Denver, Sun Valley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Bailey.

Hi Adam, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m both unspeakably grateful as well as baffled when I think of the childhood God gave me. Grateful when I think of its quality, baffled when I think about why. I grew up in an exceedingly affluent zip code in the Bay Area of California with more resources than I was capable of appreciating. My parents did an incredible job of raising me and love each other deeply to this day, I think of them regularly as I parent my own kids. I also had an amazing friend group that grew out of the church we went to, they shaped my character in immeasurable ways. In those early years, I had an awareness of God from a very young age and began to feel Him seeking me. I learned about Jesus, who I came to believe to be the only son of God, and decided to follow him as the Lord of my life. You would think with an upbringing so abundant I would surely have been a young man full of admirable character. Instead, I was filled with arrogance and when I doubted it, people confirmed it for me. I felt I deserved all the things that had come to me from the hands of others and couldn’t empathize with those in different circumstances. Going into college, my grand vision for my life was to “make more money than my dad”. By God’s grace, such a vain vision wouldn’t last. I met my would-be wife the first week of school and we were dating by freshman year.
By the second year of college, I developed a pain in my back. I thought it was from sports, so I ignored it by paddling onto a peaceful wave of nightly ibuprofen. Eventually, a chiropractor took an X-ray and advised that I get a scan. It turned out I had a softball-sized tumor growing on one of my ribs. Fortunately, the mortality rate was low, around 0.5%, but the problem was that it was on my spine and threatening my spinal cord. The prognosis was terrible. I was to start chemo, then radiation, and eventually major surgery that would remove some ribs, vertebrae, and half a lung. It’s a strange thing how the bitter cup of suffering can challenge everything you believe in a moment. I was despondent. How could this happen to me? I didn’t know what to do and I needed to hear God’s voice. I believed God to be loving, and so I expected to hear from Him. I sought Him out in the Bible where I was reminded that God didn’t create the world with evil and brokenness in it (Genesis 1-3), but God wields the brokenness to His greater purposes, refining His sons and daughters to be more like Him. One day He will remove it completely.
And yet I still didn’t want the path in front of me. But then, something wildly unexpected happened. Out of nowhere as I sought God and prepared for the treatment, I began to meet people who had dealt with cancer via alternative means, diet-based approaches and the like. I was skeptical yet let myself begin to research the options. Eventually, my mom and I designed a protocol from our research we thought might help. My neurosurgeon was also skeptical but agreed to give it a shot. The diet was a combination of something called the Budwig diet, alongside heavy vegetable juicing and some other supplements. We scanned 45 days later, and low and behold, half the tumor had melted away. I was stunned. My neurosurgeon was stunned, and he advised me to continue my course without his treatment. I continued the diet that year and saw a 90% reduction in its mass. The below picture is 4 successive MRI images of the tumor shrinking that first year. To this day, about 16 years later, it remains a small sliver and basically non-responsive. I consider myself healed, and my diet has been able to somewhat relax.
I don’t tell that story to advise anyone to take a certain course of action. As you might imagine, in the years since I’ve had many conversations with people with cancer. One dear friend with brain cancer even did the diet perfectly, and he still passed, leaving his wife and kids behind. The diet seemed to work particularly well with my cancer, and God showed me a particular grace. In fact, without God’s leading, I simply would not have had to courage to try the alternative approach. That’s the main reason I tell the story, because it taught me in a deep way what the grace of God is. It’s at the heart of the good news of Jesus, that God has come to save sinners who didn’t deserve it. I also tell it because it permanently altered my path, and even my personality.
I had never dreamed of being a pastor, I was too different from pastors I knew. They were humble, I was arrogant. They loved people, I was annoyed by them. And yet after the cancer experience and the kind words of a premarital counselor, I began to consider the path. God was humbling me, giving me a clearer view of myself and my mortality. Eventually, the sense of calling and desire to be a pastor grew so large I couldn’t ignore it. God continued to shape my wife and I after college with an incredible period as foster parents, the pain of losing our first child 7 months into pregnancy, and the birth of our two beautiful kids. After about 8 years of working in the marketplace (which I loved), I took my first job at the church we had been going to in Denver. That led to a Church Planting Residency in Fort Collins, which trained me to plant a new church as a pastor. Then in the summer of 2023, our launch team of 21 incredible people moved to west Denver to start a new church to grow as disciples of Jesus and share the grace of God with those who had not yet heard.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been simultaneously the most satisfying and most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to move somewhere with a group of people excited about the same mission and then to labor side by side through highs and lows. It binds you together as friends in a unique way. The most difficult part has been yet another major health problem. Around March of 2024, right as we were launching publicly, my gut health descended into oblivion. I lost the ability to eat a lot of major foods like dairy, gluten, eggs, oats, and many others. They would throw me into flu-like symptoms. I even lost coffee which has been as sad as it sounds! I had this terrible brain fog & loss of memory descend on me. This made it extremely difficult to write sermons and just not be a general moron. It has been quite humiliating to be honest. My energy also fell through the floor, I would spend a lot of Saturdays just trying to recover. I felt like I was running a race and right as the gun went off a cleaver came down on my Achilles. Why would this happen right as I started?? It pushed me to deep depths of pain yet again, and I realized I had to go even deeper with God. He has strengthened me by reminding me that in a life with Him, suffering is not pointless and futile. In fact, Jesus uses it to bring you closer to him in unimaginable ways. I have experienced that and have begun to despise the suffering less. I’ve also been held up by my wife, co-pastors, staff team, leaders, and our church generally. In recent months, some of the worst symptoms have lifted. My energy has increased, and I have more mental clarity. I think I’m scratching the surface of learning contentment in any and every circumstance (Philippians 4:11-13). Maybe one day.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Ha, I love this question. I’m not really known for anything nor am I widely known. It’s quite nice. The other day my co-pastor told me I’m known for backing into parking spots (because it’s OBJECTIVELY safer). Many have also told me I can be direct, which as a pastor is both a strength and a weakness for me. I’m one of the pastors at a new church called Skyline, which is a part of the Crossway network. The church is only about 2 years old. Most of my week is spent working on things like preaching God’s word, supporting our people in their lives and their suffering, counseling for all sorts of different things, helping our church love Jesus and our city more, and leading our staff team. It is truly my privilege to sit with many in some of the hardest moments of their lives and give them hope. You could say I specialize in helping people walk in the footsteps God has called them to walk in. To put it another way, I specialize in helping them see their purpose! I have to say I feel I was born to do this, which is simultaneously mysterious and deeply satisfying. As a pastor, I’m most proud of our church family. The growth we’ve all experienced as we do life together and steadily mature in character is already affecting our neighborhoods and the people we love as it ripples out of our lives. Our church also has a focus on serving college students at the Auraria campus downtown. It houses the three schools of MSU, CCD, and CU Denver. College students are one of the best parts about my job.

What matters most to you?
This is very straightforward for me. The most important thing in my life is to love God and love people. Loving God looks like walking with Jesus and being faithful to do the things he has made me to do. Loving people looks like considering others more significant than myself, especially my wife and kids! I love being a pastor in Denver, there are many good ones here already, and many more needed. If anyone would like to talk more about faith, or receive prayer, or find life-changing friends, we would love to have you!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.skylinechurchdenver.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/skylinechurchdenver
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554954431654