This article was the Cover Story for the Fall 2000 Growing Churches Magazine.  It tells the remarkable story of Trevor Bron's leadership at the Next Level Church in Denver, Colorado.

"If you are a friend or family member of 'Becky,' will you please stand in her honor?" Several people stood and cheered.

"Becky, do you know for certain that you've entered into a relationship with God and His Son Jesus Christ?" She said, "yes." The pastor continued, "In obedience to the command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I baptize you my sister and my friend, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

As the Pastor lifted Becky from the water, the auditorium erupted with applause.

It was February 8, 2000, just another Tuesday Night service at the Next Level Church in Denver, Colorado. But not for Becky, it was a celebration of a new life-a night she and her friends will never forget. 

Becky is a Junior at Columbine High School. Before baptizing her, Trevor Bron, the Senior Teaching Pastor of the Next Level Church told the 2000+ people in attendance, "I don't think you can be a student at Columbine without stopping and thinking about what life is all about. Not too long after the shooting, Becky started searching. That's when a friend brought her here."
 

In the preface to their book, GenXers After God, Hahn & Verhaagen point out that this is the first American generation to be raised in a secular culture-a generation born after America ceased to be a Christian nation. In their lifetime, it has always been legal to have an abortion, but illegal to have prayer in the public schools. School officials are permitted to hand out condoms, but not Bibles. What happens when you sow the wind? "If you sow the wind," the saying goes, "you'll reap the whirlwind." Are we reaping what we've sown? Is the spiritual void causing a generation to act as if they are void of any spirituality? Is a spiritual void the reason Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold took automatic weapons with them to school one day and wrecked havoc on innocent people in a school cafeteria?
 

Bron is doing something about the spiritual void in his city-he isn't settling for reaping the whirlwind-he wants to make a difference.

After graduating from Colorado Christian University with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, Bron's University asked him to lead a Bible Study for college students. Bron said "no." He thought the last thing students at a Christian college were looking for was another Bible Study-he closed the door.

A few weeks later, the University called to see if he would lead a worship service. By the time Bron got back to them with a "yes" answer, they'd already decided not to go in that direction-the University closed the door.

In August of 1993, the University called again and asked if the Applewood Baptist Church, the church where Bron served as a staff member, would be willing to host a praise and worship service on Tuesday Nights-this time, God opened the door.

On September 5, 1993 at 7:57 pm, TNL (Tuesday NiteLife) began as a ministry of Applewood Baptist Church of Denver, Colorado. Sixty people came.

Within three years, TNL was running over 300 and was outgrowing the "ministry" status. At first, it was an additional worship opportunity for college students, but by the third year, many of the attendees didn't attend church anywhere else and some of them weren't even in college.

Bron's Senior pastor rarely attended TNL. But one night he came. That evening, Trevor asked him, "How many of these people do you know?" Pastor Phil estimated that he recognized about 20% of them; he'd never see the others. That night, Bron realized that TNL was outgrowing the "ministry status" and was evolving into a "Church within a Church."

Bron continued leading Applewood's Sunday Morning Single's ministry and teaching on Tuesday night, but began feeling that he should put all his energy into TNL. At a John Maxwell Conference in Denver, Bron sensed the Lord leading him to leave his staff position and do TNL full-time, but before he spoke to his pastor about it, he wanted some confirmation. At home, he sat down and opened his Bible. It fell open to Haggai, the heading on the page said, "A call to build the house of the Lord." Bron had his confirmation.

Bron's Senior Pastor immediately flipped out when he talked to him about the possibility, though he listened to everything Bron had to say. "Before you do this," the pastor said, "pray about it for a year, then come and talk to me." Reluctantly, Bron submitted to his pastor and prayed for an entire year and continued to minister in both capacities.

The church gave Bron a 12% raise that year-the pastor was making it hard for him to leave. For an entire year, Bron prayed, "Lord, change my pastor's heart."

Almost a year to the day, Bron's Senior Pastor came into his office, shut the door and said, "I think it is time for you to start a church." Through the entire year of prayer, he didn't talk to anyone about the possibility except his Worship Leader-now he only had a few months to put the pieces in place to launch the church.

In August of '97, Applewood Baptist Church voted to sponsor, TNL, now The Next Level Church. On TNL's fourth anniversary, Bron announced the decision to the 1400 people in attendance.

Within two months, they'd outgrown the Applewood facilities and moved into the auditorium of the Crossroads Church of Denver where they've grown to a congregation averaging 2500. Their passion is to reach their generation for Jesus Christ-people like Becky.

And Nikki.

A Jew, raised attending the Temple, Nikki wanted absolutely nothing to do with church. She made that very clear to her friend Dana who attended TNL, but Nikki agreed to attend "just once." The next Tuesday she was back. "I never stopped going," she said, "the energy that was present around me was all consuming and actually addictive!"

Certainly, Gen-X churches want people to feel comfortable in their services, but they don't see themselves as "seeker churches." Bron's messages are 45 minutes and have strong Biblical content. He believes that people are created to worship and that they do it naturally. Some do it at rock concerts, and others at sporting events. He makes no apologies that TNL services last over 90 minutes and rejects the notion that Gen-Xrs have short attention spans. "Sporting events, movies, evenings out are all longer [than a TNL service]." Bron said, "The key question is, are they captivated? People will listen to a communicator if he is captivating."

Nikki was captivated. She wasn't seeking for God, but she did say, "God was constantly seeking me out. I was asking for proof, and finding it everywhere I looked." 

She had plenty of questions and went through a lot of confusion, but suddenly realized that "In 27 years of 'being' Jewish, never was I 'being' with God, much less in any sort of relationship with Him." On August 18, 1998 she realized that Jesus was the Messiah and her Savior-by God's grace, she became a completed Jew. 

Her life radically changed. "Today, I experience God all around me," Nikki said, "because the hole in my heart is now full of ever-flowing love for God."

Gen-X churches aren't interested in teaching "self-help" lessons, they want to see people's lives transformed.

Sitting in a window seat, Roger Williams III was looking forward to thumbing through a magazine on a short flight from Sacramento to attend a National Youth Ministry Conference in San Diego, California. He'd fastened his seat belt, made sure his chair was in the full upright position, his tray table was locked and that his luggage was properly stowed when two well-dressed Ally McBeal look-a-likes sat down next to him.

Their conversation competed for attention with his magazine. They talked about the club scene-what they enjoyed drinking, who they were "dating," their intimate relationships with men, both single and married. Then it turned into a gripe session.

"Why do guys have such a hard time committing?" One asked. "And why don't they ever leave their wives like they promise too?" Another complained.

They talked about work for a while, and about the time Williams was tuning out, one of them said, "But you know, if it wasn't for church, my life would really be hell." By now, Williams was only pretending to read his magazine, they had his full attention. "Wow, you go to church too. I know exactly how you feel. If it wasn't for church, I don't know where I'd be." "Yea, I know what you mean," the other lady said, "if I miss more than two weeks of church everything in my life goes nuts."

The plane started its descent into San Diego and everything got quiet, and Williams sat still--stunned by what he'd just heard. These women weren't "seekers"-- people looking for the truth. They were attending a "seeker church" getting their religious fix. 

After spending the first 20 years of his ministry as a Youth Pastor, Williams disembarked from the plane with a new determination. Today, he believes that God is leading him to begin a GenX church. "Our goal is not isolation from or accommodation to the culture," Williams said, "but a head-on interaction with the culture to see people transformed by the grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ."

Whereas "seeker" churches emphasize Jesus' words, "Neither do I condemn you." GenX churches, like TNL don't stop there, they also say, "Go and sin no more."

These women on the plane didn't need a sermon on "Five steps to success," they didn't need a band aid, they needed transformation. They were getting a faith-inoculation, when they needed an antidote for sin. 

They needed a life changing experience-like Jennifer got.

Dressed in his blue, double-breasted blazer, red tie and tan pants, Bron arrived early for the college and career class at Applewood Baptist Church, and was startled by what he saw. Sitting alone in a neatly arranged circle of cold metal chairs was a bald-headed, extremely pregnant white girl. (It was in the early days of TNL and Trevor was still pulling double duty.)

When Bron saw her, he darted back into the hallway to regain his composure. Surely she's in the wrong class, he thought. What am I going to say to her?

He returned to strike up a conversation. When she reached out her hand to shake Bron's, he noticed two things, the pack of cigarettes she had under her chair and the word "SKIN" tattooed on the back of her hand.

After a few moments of small talk, Bron exited to his Sunday responsibilities, knowing this would probably be the last time he saw her. Why would she want to come back here? Bron thought.

The next Sunday she was back. This time more pregnant than the week before, wearing the same clothes and with her pack of cigarettes under the chair. Bron talked to her again. This time she shared some of her story. It turns out she attended Applewood as a child before she went to Idaho to move into a Neo-Nazi Camp with the mission of procreating the Aryan race. After getting pregnant with her second child, she fled the camp and was hiding from the skinheads but was searching for God.

One Tuesday night, someone came up to Bron and said, "There's someone out front smoking, will you go out there and tell her to stop?" Knowing exactly who it was, Bron responded, "I'd rather have her here and smoke than not have her here at all."

With time, Bron witnessed her transformation before his very eyes. She had the tattoo lasered off her hand, let her hair grow out and eventually married a wonderful man-a Hispanic man who didn't speak English. She learned his language.

St. Francis Xavier said, "Give me your small ambitions, come save the world." Bron and the people of the Next Level Church are anxious to do just that. They desire to "be the generation that God uses to change the world, maybe one last time . . ."

Bron and TNL are reaching their generation with the gospel. You might say, they are "Reaping the Whirlwind"- for Jesus Christ, that is.

Dr. Wilson' s book Future Church  profiles  TNL and other churches like Mars Hill Fellowship in Seattle, Pathways in Denver, Sandals in Riverside, Graceland in Santa Cruz, Mosaic in Los Angeles, and WestWinds in Jackson.