Commission Church began on a beautiful Monday in August of 2017 at Lake Loveland, CO. I had been on sabbatical after suffering the pain of closing the church that I had previously been a pastor, and I brought my Bible and my heart to that lake. My words to the Lord were, “My mouth is closed and my heart is open, Jesus. I'm listening. Please speak to me.” And He did.

He brought several passages and chapters from His Word to me. As I read, I became convicted of several things:

He showed me that though I had been praying throughout my years as a pastor, I had not been devoted to prayer as I ought to have been (Acts 2:42; Colossians 4:2). Way too often, I spoke many words to God, but I didn’t spend enough quality time hearing from God. There are lots of things that we can say to the Lord, but He desires for us to have a humble, desperate, needy heart from which our words pour out and to which His voice pours in (Psalm 139:23-24).

He convicted me that in the five years I was a pastor in Windsor and the almost 11 years I was a pastor in Greeley, I was more concerned with the church surviving than I was about the purpose of His church: to make disciples of Jesus—by His power and for His glory!

I began to wonder in my heart, “Lord, are we in church leadership in this country doing a good enough job of equipping the disciples in our churches? Do the people in our care know how to share the gospel and share their personal testimonies of salvation? Do they know what to say to their friends and co-workers when spiritual issues come up? Are we equipping our people not to simply hear Your Word on Sunday’s, but to use it throughout the week?”

He brought me to 2 Timothy 3:1-17 and 4:1-5 to answer these questions. And it was there that I committed to Him to be a desperate man of prayer, and to give myself wholly to the equipping, sharing, teaching and discipling of His gospel & His Word to His people.

I spent several days in prayer and discussion with my wife, and we determined that the Lord wanted us to share these thoughts with a few of our friends. And to our delight, these friends were excited to join us for whatever the Lord was going to do.

A small group of believers gathered weekly in our home for worship, prayer, Bible teaching and discussion. As the weeks and months went by, we began to see people spiritually grow like we’d never seen before in our ministry. And we also grew slowly in size.

We left our living room at home and began to gather at a local coffee shop in Windsor, CO—officially calling ourselves “Commission Church.” There was excitement and momentum as we continued to worship the Lord together and witnessed Him bring more people to our Sunday gatherings. However, in March 2020 the covid-19 pandemic was unleashed upon the planet and our new church, like all other churches in this country, was forced to stop gathering in person.

As the next few months went by and the uncertainty of the pandemic persisted, we determined that it was time for us to gather in person again. The next several months were some of the most difficult for our church body (as was the case for most other churches). But as time went by, we were able to re-group and stay on mission for Jesus.

The Lord has blessed us immensely, as the different pages of this website will show. The name of our church, “Commission Church,” is from Matthew 28:18-20 — that Great Mission Statement that Jesus personally gave to His people to “go and make disciples of all the nations.” We do not want to merely create church attenders, and our goal is not to go and make converts---we want to make disciples of Jesus who genuinely know Him, love Him, learn from Him, serve Him, and share Him with others.

For those of you who will join us on a Sunday gathering, you should not expect any of the polished “bells and whistles” of usual church services. Our worship in song is done with only a keyboard and voices, our children’s ministry is very small (but loving & equipping), and after our preaching time, we break up into small groups and discuss what the Holy Spirit taught us from His Word. We trust that the people the Lord will send our way will be of like mind & heart.

If you have questions about what God is doing in and through Commission Church, I am more than happy to meet with you. My personal email is willieoburke7@q.com. Feel free to reach out to me and we’ll see about setting up some time together.

For those who are searching for the truth about Jesus, know this: He is God, not just a famous prophet or religious figurehead. And He is also a Man. He loves you so much that He was willing to do what only He could do: die for your sin. When He hung on that cross, badly beaten and nailed there, your name and soul were on His mind. He bled and died for you. And after He died, He rose from His grave. Death did not defeat Him—He defeated death. He conquered sin and the penalty for sin, which is hell. And right now, He offers you salvation.

In this chaotic world in which we now live, Jesus is our answer. He is our hope. He wants to be our Savior and our Lord. I pray that you will turn from your sin and believe in Him today.

God’s blessings to you and we’ll see you on Sunday!
- Pastor Willie