A Ministry of People and Place

Tabor is dedicated to providing spiritual service to the body of Christ which involves the wise stewardship of God's resources for the accomplishment of the work of ministry. Our New Ministry Team tasks recognized that we may not be able to draw a significant number of new volunteers to new ministries, but we could find new ways to use our church building as a more accessible and visible asset in active service to the community.

In 2024, the New Ministry Team began community research to help us refine what Tabor’s future might look like in the current environment. Our congregation numbers have decreased, but our commitment to be engaged in service and community has not. Tabor is well-known as the ‘round church’ on the corner of 7th East and 2nd South. Our location to mass transport, the university and downtown are enviable.

Over the past couple of years, we secured $36,500 in grant money from the ELCA and the Rocky Mountain Synod to support a significant new ministry program. As our research changed and revitalized partnering possibilities came to pass, we announced our commitment to creating a Family Promise temporary family housing program. This includes converting the entire second floor of our church building to get kids and their families off the street for good and working towards a future and where we, as a house of God, offer safe, supportive temporary housing, embedded in a tried-and-true comprehensive re-housing program.

The commitment is that Tabor re-engages with Family Promise (FP) to build a dual church housing ministry for families. The first phase of this will be transitional housing. In this model we will house a single family in a renovated area (about 1⁄2 of the second floor) for six months at a time. They build more confidence and real-world skills to support themselves and increase the expectation of permanent housing success. A second phase envisions shifting to a 3 month emergency housing model providing 2-4 families housing, again working with Family Promise. This model expands to using the entire second floor with 7 bedrooms, a common kitchen/dining/living room and a second bathroom both with showers.