2023 Ministry Highlights
You’ve supported our tremendous growth as a new church. We need your help as we transition into a sustained church.
The Ministry Highlights detail the significant ways that Juniper Formation has grown in 2023. The germination of our church is a result of the generosity of individuals, grant funders, and churches who helped us to plant. Additionally, congregations and denominational bodies have invested in the mutual growth of our Church by hiring us to accompany them through discernment, change, leadership development, and church-wide retreats.
But to sustain this growth, we need your help. We are in a season of critical transition from being a new church start to becoming a healthy sustained church.
Since our inception two-and-a-half years ago as a United Church of Christ church (UCC), Juniper Formation has received several multi-year grants for new church starts from the UCC and Presbyterian Church (USA). These grants helped us build much of our foundation.
Over the next 18 months, all of our new church start grant funding will expire as we near the end of the three-to-four-year grant cycles. We are working to meet the goal of raising $100,000 a year to replace these expiring grants through new grant funding, increased monthly giving, ministry partnerships, fee-for-service consultation and courses, and the launch of a new wearables ministry where you can purchase clothing and items featuring themes of progressive theology (more on this in November 2023). In the interim, we need immediate assistance.
Our most urgent need for help is support with administrative costs as we transition. Specifically, we took a leap of faith in 2023, when we approved a progressive “Just Compensation Policy: Equality in Pay; Equity in Benefits” (read more below), voted for our first ever Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), and made strategic new part-time staff hires. We were able to maintain a balanced budget for the first three quarters of 2023, and now are facing a potential deficit in the fourth quarter of 2023. As a new church start, we do not have reserve funds, so a deficit means a direct impact to our staff who, as our greatest resource, are intentionally our primary budget expense as a non-property owning or renting digital church.
We know that many of you engage with, follow, and support Juniper Formation because of our mission to prophetically reimagine Church from the margins, and most importantly because you see us doing the work to live out this mission alongside our Gospel-driven values. We can’t do it without you.
We are excited to share our 2023 Ministry Highlights with you below. There is more coming in 2024, that we look forward to sharing with you soon!
We’re grateful for your support in all the forms it takes. We cannot do it without you! To keep going, we need your help. If you find yourself saying ‘Amen!’ to one of our stories, ministries, or advocacy work, we invite you to invest in Juniper Formation’s work to reimagine the church. Give online at juniperformation.church/donate.
A donation of:
$40 funds a mile of yarn for a handmade Warm Fuzzy Ministry prayer shawl that we can gift to show transforming love to people affected by gun violence, suffering grief, and in need of care.
$150 can fund a half-day of progressive, faithful witness at the Colorado State Capitol to protect the rights and lives of people on the margins of society.
$250 supports a ReFrame author to provide a week of progressive scripture-based reflections, faith practices, and journal prompts.
$1,200 funds the technology for our digital church platform at juniperformation.church for a year. Digital church provides an inclusive, affirming, and healing progressive faith community, especially for people who otherwise don’t have access to progressive church.
Whatever you can give, rest assured that you are helping create new Spirit-led, justice-centered, compassion-forward ministries and resources from the margins (the diverse group of people often kept out of leadership and paid ministry in the church).
To make a donation, go to, juniperformation.church/donate, and complete the online form to enter credit card information or set up a direct transfer from your bank account. You can also mail a check to: Juniper Formation, PO Box 19541, Denver, CO 80219.
We are grateful to have received grant support from the national United Church of Christ CASA New and Rebirthing Church Grant and the Neighbors In Need grant, the Rocky Mountain Conference UCC Tributary Fund for New Churches and the In the Mud Grant, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) 1,001 New Worshiping Communities grant with matching grants from the Denver Presbytery.
We’d love to connect with you to learn how we could collaborate with one another in 2024. What is energizing you in ministry, where are you stuck, and how might we connect more deeply with each other to co-create ministries at the margins?
On behalf of the Juniper Formation faith community of ministers—lay and ordained, and with gratitude for your ongoing support and care,
The Juniper Formation Leadership Team
Rev. Javon Bracy (she/her)
Katelin Champion (she/her)
Rev. Kari Collins (she/her)
Amanda Creek (she/her)
Angelle Fouther (she/her)
Daryn Fouther (she/her)
Theo Isoz (they/them)
Jeanette Rojas (she/her/ella)
Rev. Dr. Jenny Whitcher (she/her)
Rev. Dr. Jason Whitehead (he/him)
Keisha Wiggan (she/her)
Being the Church
In January 2023, the Leadership Team voted to adopt our progressive “Just Compensation Policy: Equality in Pay; Equity in Benefits,” ensuring a livable universal hourly pay rate for all staff, regardless of role, responsibilities, experience, or credentialing. Our policy is guided by a Gospel economics founded in generous care for one another, equal value of one another’s gifts for ministry, and co-creation of just and equitable structures that reflect our faith and values. This is a major cornerstone at a time when many churches threatened by scarcity are choosing harmful and unjust compensation structures.
In partnership with UCC Disaster Ministries, Rev. Dr. Jenny Whitcher (she/her) co-led a retreat for LGBTQIA+ community leaders who provided frontline care for the LGBTQIA+ community in Colorado Springs in the wake of the November 2022 Club Q mass shooting. The retreat, themed Queer Joy, was in May 2023, right after the six month anniversary of the shooting, and just before the arraignment of the shooter. Juniper Formation’s Warm Fuzzy ministry led by Theo Isoz (they/them) supported the retreat by providing prayer shawls and other items for all participants.
Juniper Formation’s Leadership Team and two of our UCC ministers have been advocating for justice for Rev. Dr. Anthony Scott, former Associate Conference Minister for the Rocky Mountain Conference UCC who was terminated without cause, in what we believe was an act of racism. We worked in partnership with First Congregational Church of Greeley to collect Love Gifts for Rev. Dr. Scott to support him and his family during this time without pay, after the Conference failed to provide severance without strings like an NDA or requiring that Rev. Dr. Scott not work/volunteer in the region. Jenny presented and navigated a successful resolution (passed with about 80% of the vote) at the Rocky Mountain Conference UCC Annual Celebration to take reparative steps to Rev. Dr. Scott, including apologizing to him for the harmful actions taken, thanking him for his ministry, and providing $68,000 in restitution to him.
Two Juniper Formation members Logan Bennett (she/her) and Allyson Sawtell (she/her) co-wrote and Logan presented a resolution at the RMC UCC Annual Celebration that passed to build a Climate Justice Team at the Conference level including a Creation Justice designated Board position.
Congratulations go to Juniper Formation minister and co-facilitator of the Gathering, Rev. Javon Elisea Bracy (she/her), who was ordained at New Hope Baptist Church in Denver, CO on Sunday, July 16, 2023! Clergy and lay leaders from various denominations, as well as friends and family from across the country, gathered in person and online to celebrate this sacred moment.
Juniper Formation’s lay leaders and clergy were recognized as leaders throughout the Rocky Mountain Conference UCC Annual Celebration, particularly on justice issues and as advocates for the need for new leadership in the Conference. The Conference membership elected our Minister of Transformative Generosity, Rev. Kari Collins (she/her), as its new Treasurer, recognizing a deep need to bring about increased transparency and financial stability to the Conference. Kari, along with an almost entirely new Board of Directors, is working to bring many of the principles that Juniper Formation holds in reimagining the church to reimagining the ministry of the Conference.
New ministries we’re cultivating and growing
We are continuing to grow in our digital church community and co-creative ministry space juniperformation.church. Membership has tripled since last year. We invite you to join us there to build relationships and faithful community, to co-create new ministries, to celebrate with one another, and care for one another!
Jenny led three retreats this fall for The Table in Casper, Wyoming, a nine-year-old 1,001 New Worshiping Community of the Presbyterian Church (USA); the Rocky Mountain Conference United Church of Christ Board of Directors; and Heart of the Rockies Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Fort Collins, Colorado. Let us know if you are looking for retreat planning and facilitation for your church, denominational bodies, or community group.
Rocky Mountain Conference United Church of Christ Board of Directors met in Gunnison, CO for their fall Board Retreat.
We accompanied our first UCC Member-in-Discernment (person preparing for ordination), Candace Woods (she/her), who was overwhelmingly approved for ordination pending call at her August 21, 2023 Ecclesiastical Council. Candace is called to ordained ministry in gender and sexuality inclusion in and outside of faith spaces, including sexual health and body wholeness. We also supported Candace in her first time attending the UCC General Synod.
We’ve had initial conversations with a few additional potential Members-In-Discernment. The importance of these relationships and opportunities for formation of ordained ministers moves Juniper Formation deeper into our mission. By supporting and accompanying those who are called to new forms of ministry and who come from identities that have been historically and presently marginalized by the Church and wider society, we seek to transform the Church, to turn upside down systems of oppression so that the Spirit of God might move freely amidst us all.
As part of a team, Candace and Juniper Formation member, Bry Brannan (they/them) were awarded an RMC UCC In the Mud grant to start development of and to pilot a congregational workshop titled “Open and Affirming 2.0 - Transgender and Gender Expansive Inclusion.” This effort is in direct response to anti-trans legislation around the country and in response to harmful experiences nonbinary and trans individuals have experienced in other local churches within our Conference. Development begins soon, and the pilot will be launched in 2024. We will let you know when we are looking for ONA RMC UCC congregations who want to participate in the pilot workshop.
We initially set out to hire one part-time Storyteller. In the search process, we identified three people who we believed would make a strong and diverse team and were able to get a donor commitment of $25,000 per year for three years in order to be able to hire all three part-time. The expectation is that in three years’ time, their collective work will enable us to raise these and more funds to make this a sustainable staff team hire. The team has drafted a communications strategy and is implementing this plan to help Juniper Formation get our liberative Gospel message out in the world to advocate, fundraise, and build relationships with individuals and other congregations who want to work with us to reimagine their faith, ministries, and churches. Please welcome: Amanda Creek (she/her), Angelle Fouther (she/her), and Daryn Fouther (she/her)!
After our public launch of the ReFrame app in November 2022, we’ve grown! The ReFrame app has been downloaded 1,700 times with over 900 accounts created. Between the app and SubStack email subscription account, we have 200-300 unique engagements with ReFrame every week. ReFrame is one of very few progressive and liberative scripture-based apps in a digital market dominated by conservative evangelical theology, and is built around the idea that better rituals make better disciples who co-create a better world. We use scripture-based reflections written by a diverse team of 17 writers, which include ideas for faith practice, and journaling prompts, Monday-Friday, all year. There is also a community discussion board where you can reflect, commit to a faith practice, and build community. ReFrame is available in the Google Play and Apple App Stores for FREE! You can make a donation to support ReFrame and our writers, at juniperformation.org/donate.
We submitted a major (36-page) grant application to the Lilly Endowment Thriving Congregations Initiative in partnership with the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado. We should hear in late fall if we receive the grant. Our grant application focuses on the intersection of antiracism (beyond 101 training) to embodied practice and structural change within congregations, and at the intersection of mental health and wellbeing for all people. The program uses a cohort model that equips congregational leaders to have these important conversations and embody antiracist actions. Using a five-year development, implementation, evaluation, revision, and expansion time frame, we aim to offer to the wider Church a congregationally-tested and -evaluated curricula, training, and collaborative antiracism and mental fitness ministry development and advocacy program that transforms the Church and its relevance to systemic injustice within our society. All curriculum will be available through an app in the Google Play and Apple App Stores, alongside facilitator training.
Justice Education & Advocacy
Jenny was selected to speak at the Colorado Religious Freedom Day at the State Capitol with the governor and other religious leaders, and gave the following speech: “Religious Freedom for Who?,” challenging our normative history and ideas about religious freedom.
With support from the Leadership Team, Jenny has provided testimony on a number of bills supporting abortion and reproductive rights in Colorado. This year, she received an unsung heroes award from the Reproductive Rights Coalition. Our Leadership Team votes on issues on which we want to advocate, giving freedom to our lay and ordained leaders to give legislative testimony on behalf of Juniper Formation.
Jenny is participating in a television and digital ad campaign called “Interfaith Perspective on Reproductive Justice,” sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado in partnership with Progress Now Colorado. This campaign is part of the larger Colorado Reproductive Rights Coalition campaign to add reproductive and abortion rights to the Colorado Constitution so that we don’t have to continue fighting for our rights every year. We are about to film the ad campaign, while the larger Reproductive Rights Coalition campaign kicks off in 2024.
It has been a full year of ministry, and we look forward to another year of co-creating, challenging, advocating, and learning as we live out our faith together.
