Our Staff – Sixth Avenue

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Reverend Christopher Gilmore, Lead Pastor

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I grew up in Ft. Collins, CO and began attending Plymouth Congregational Church UCC regularly during confirmation in 9th grade. While my previous church experience was mainly around attending Ladera United Church of Christ in Portola Valley, CA with my grandmother during the holidays, confirmation struck a unique chord in my heart. There was something about church that captured me. I began attending camps and retreats, attending church regularly, teaching Sunday school, and before long I became active in the wider church of the United Church of Christ. When I went to college in Colorado Springs, I stopped by First Congregational Church UCC and within a month was hired to be the Youth Director. During my four years at FCC, I found myself moving from a career in business or law to the ministry. In the fall of 1992, I began my studies at Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS). While seminary challenged me to my core, I found it to be an extremely enriching experience and couldn’t have asked for a better education. Through a full year internship at Wayside UCC in Washington state, Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) in Chicago, and as a CUE intern in Colorado and South Dakota, I began to get a lot of pastoral experience as well as see different styles of ministry. During my last year at CTS, I began working at a large Congregational church outside of Chicago where I served as a youth director for two years. My first call as a minister came from Santa Cruz UCC where I stayed for about three and half years before I headed back to Illinois to serve as an associate pastor in Winnetka, IL (where I had served as a youth director). I served five years in Winnetka until I moved to Boulder to become the associate pastor at First Congregational UCC. After two plus years there, my ministry ended, and I began to work at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless where I worked as program staff and supervisor. Concurrently I served a director of youth ministries at First Congregational Church in Greeley, CO until January of 2012 when I became the Interim Minister of the Kirk of Bonnie Brae, UCC. During the interim time at the Kirk of Bonnie Brae, the church began the process of becoming an Open and Affirming church (which subsequently passed in the fall of 2013), combined two worship services into one, fostered the emergence of a new preschool for the neighborhood, and hired three new staff members. In August of 2014, I began my ministry as Senior Pastor of Sixth Avenue UCC.

Email Chris: chris@sixthavenueucc.org

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Rev. Kari Collins, Minister of Stewardship and Philanthropy

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Rev. Kari Collins entered into her covenanted ministry with Sixth Avenue UCC as Minster of Stewardship and Philanthropy in 2019. Kari sees the vital need for our churches to change from a mindset of scarcity to an expectation of abundance. Many churches are steeped in the fear-based scarcity model of ministry. Congregations often say, “We need a pastor who can grow our church because we are dying.” Or its financial equivalent, “We have cut our budget to its bare bones. We are funding our building but not our ministries or mission.” There is little talk about the transformative ministry that is happening in and through our faith communities. If we stay in the scarcity mindset, we aren’t inviting people to share in our ministry or to celebrate their gifts. When we believe that there are limited funds for ministry, we neglect Jesus’ message, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” [MT 6:21] God’s provision is abundant for the work we are called to do, which is to transform lives. After all, transforming lives is why we are called to Be the Church! This is where Kari is called to minister—to help faith communities find their call to abundance, rather than scarcity and to see how they can transform lives.

Kari earned her B.A. in Political Science from Colorado College, J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, M.B.A. from University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and M.Div. from Iliff School of Theology. She was ordained to ministry in the United Church of Christ on August 14, 2016. Following a Call to parish ministry, Kari has focused her ministry on helping faith communities organize a structure of generosity. Kari completed the UCC’s “Cultivating Generous Congregations” workshop in 2018 and the Executive Certificate in Religious Fundraising from the Lake Institute of Faith and Giving in 2019. She also serves as the Special Advisor for Fundraising for Juniper Formation.

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Rev. Dr. Jenny Whitcher, Minister of Prophetic Formation

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Rev. Dr. Jenny Whitcher (she/her) is the Minister of Prophetic Formation at Sixth Avenue United Church of Christ in Denver, Colorado, and founder of Juniper Formation.

Jenny is an entrepreneurial minister, community organizer, and theologian committed to social justice. She has over 15 years of experience coaching and mentoring leaders, teaching, and developing community partnerships. Her work spans nonprofit, congregations, and higher education. Her areas of expertise include change management; entrepreneurial and prophetic ministry formation; democratic culture, leadership, and pedagogy; and social change theory and practice.

She is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) and was the recipient of the Peacemaker Award from the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Church of Christ in 2006. She has a B.A. from New York University, an M.A. in International Human Rights from the University of Denver, and a Ph.D. in Religion and Theological Studies from Iliff School of Theology & University of Denver.

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Rev. Kimra Perkins, Minister of Marketplace Ministry

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Rev. Kimra Perkins has served as the Associate Pastor of Marketplace Ministry at Sixth Ave UCC since 2015. She is a graduate of the University of Utah, Colorado State University, and Denver Seminary. Kimra is bi-vocational and has worked in the shopping center industry for the majority of her career. She enjoys encouraging and equipping people serving in business to embrace inclusive hospitality as a way to live out improving the common good for everyone. Kimra and her husband enjoy traveling and living in the mountains. She also enjoys writing poetry, skiing, and pursuing her quest of teaching everyone she knows how to play the kazoo.

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Support Staff[push h=”15″]

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