In 1974 there were 5 families that began meeting for Bible Study.  After meeting with Ed Nelson, Executive Secretary of the Rocky Mountain Baptist Conference, they decided to join the RMBC.  In 1976, we became an official church organization named Sangre de Cristo Baptist Church.  We held our meetings at the Senior Citizens Center Building until 1977, when we purchased our present building.  Our first pastor was Jim Hibbard, who as at the time attending seminary.  Pastor Hibbards emphasis was evangelism, as well as discipleship and community needs.   Our high average attendance was 46.  He came down on weekends until he graduated and then moved to the valley.  Pastor Hibbard resigned and changed vocation in 1979. 

In June 1980, Skip Hansen was called to pastor our church.  He and his wife, Linda, were great encouragers to those in the church as well as those in the community.  Our high average attendance during this time was 60.  Pastor Hansen resigned to go to another church in 1984.  In 1984 we began hosting the Continental Singers as a community outreach.  About 75 people attended the first year and, ten years later, attendance increased to 600-700.  Also in 1984 we purchased the property, house and office just to the east of the church building to be used for Sunday School rooms and parsonage.  Vic Rahn was called to Alamosa in October, 1984 and served as pastor until September, 1987. In 1987 Carroll Vananda was called as our interim pastor.  In 1988 we asked him to stay as our permanent pastor.  The church grew again after experiencing a loss in attendance, and the high average was about 58.  Pastor Vananda resigned to retire and do short term missionary work with the Baptist General Conference.  Attendance dropped, but leveled off and remained steady when Glen Gilpin came to Alamosa in 1994 and remained until August 2002.  He had a strong ministry in preaching and teaching.  He resigned to take another pastorate job in Thornton, Colorado. 

In 1999, the name of the church was changed to Living Water Bible Fellowship; there was confusion with the name Sangre de Cristo, as people thought it was a Spanish-speaking church.  Through the year 2000 we saw four times when the church has experienced numerical growth, but then large numbers of families moved away from our Valley and our numbers dwindled, only to grow again as more families moved into the Valley.  In the early part of this decade the church began to slowly grow again.  We had an interim pastor, Chris Creech, from October 2002 through March 2003 who encouraged and built up our body. 

Pastor Jeron Parkins and family arrived in January of 2004.  In 2005, we purchased a parcel of land on Clark Street, south of Alamosa High School, with the dream of building a new worship center to accommodate the growing congregation.  This last year we began construction on the worship center, which we see as a tool for ministry and serving the community that will be used for decades into the future.  Our current average attendance is about 140.

 

Living Water Bible Fellowship

Living Intentionally For Each Other

1022 Main Street

Alamosa, CO 81101

719-589-6351

Church History