Catalyst Church: February 2026

For 10 years we have been portable, setting up and tearing down every week in a charter school gymnasium. We really love Christmas, spring and summer breaks because the school lets us keep all our equipment set up!
Cañon City is a community of about 25,000 and up to 40,000 with other communities within a 15-mile radius. We are home to The Royal Gorge Bridge, which is one of our biggest tourism draws along with the best rafting in the state on the Arkansas River. We also have 2 big annual festivals in town that are a big draw from all over the state and even out of state:  the Music & Blossom Festival in early May and the Whitewater Festival in mid-July. At both of these events, Catalyst Church is invited every year by festival organizers to hold a church service during these festivals.
Like any smaller community, Canon City has a lot of small mainline neighborhood churches that have been around for a long time. When we planted in February of 2016, there had not been a new church plant in our community in over 25 years.

Ryan has served in full-time ministry for more than 20 years. 12 of those were as a Worship Pastor in various churches, and the last decade as the Planter/Lead Pastor of Catalyst Church. He studied ministry at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri and later earned his ministry degree from the College of Theology at Grand Canyon University. Ryan and his wife, Elise, have been married since 2004 and are grateful parents to three amazing kids—Noah, Eli, and McKinley.

In only 10 years, Catalyst has grown deep roots into our community by hosting several large community outreach events throughout the year. In addition to Church @ Blossom and Church @ Whitewater mentioned above, we also do:

• Labor of Love Sunday - In place of in-person services, everyone in the church goes out in small groups to serve in the community in some capacity on Labor Day weekend.
• Hope For The Holidays - We partner with Toys For Tots and local food banks to turn our space into a large toy store where families with limited resources can come in a shop for Christmas Toys for their household as well as a food box with everything they will need to make their Christmas meal. This event serves over 600 families and 1,500 kids.
• Night To Shine - A "prom night" event for our local special needs community.
• Daddy Daughter Dance - A night to highlight the importance of healthy male influence in the lives of their daughters. This event is always at capacity, with over 850 dads and daughters.

After 10 years of setting up and tearing down every week as a portable church, we recently closed on 9 acres of prime real estate along Highway 50 here in town! The landowner loves our vision and heart for the community, so he discounted the price of the land by $90,000, which allowed us to pay cash for the land. We will begin a capital campaign in the coming months to raise the funds to break ground. We are so grateful for God’s timing and provision in this.