Faith Statement

God 

We believe that God is the Creator of the universe with all of its grandeur and beauty, and that He sustains it with His almighty power. He also created our first parents, Adam and Eve, in His own image that they might live in fellowship with Him and be His instruments to both care for the creation and enjoy it as a generous gift.  

Sin 

We believe that Adam and Eve doubted and rebelled against God’s commands. Through their sinful disobedience God justly brought a curse on them and all their offspring. As a result, every human being is born with a self-centered nature and a tendency for evil that violates God’s will and desire. Attempts to change human nature or to please God with good works are doomed to failure. People need forgiveness and new life which God provides by His grace through faith in the Son, Jesus Christ.

Forgiveness 

We believe that God out of pure love forgives people of sins and thus reconciles them to Himself. He does this because Jesus Christ, his own son took the punishment for all sin for all people when he died on the cross. God raised Jesus from the dead on Easter and thus demonstrated to the world that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God has been accepted and man’s sin has been paid.

Faith 

We believe that people receive forgiveness by grace through faith in Jesus. Faith is the hand which accepts God’s free gift. Faith is created by the Holy Spirit through the means of the Gospel message which tells of God’s love demonstrated in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation.

The Bible 

We believe that the Bible is the source of knowledge about God and His forgiveness. It is also the means by which he speaks to us today. The Bible was written by various authors as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and is a trustworthy source of wisdom and truth for all time.

The Church 

We believe that the Church is the fellowship of all those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. The Lutheran Church gets its name from Martin Luther who ‘reformed’ the church with basic principles of faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone. The purpose of the church is to nurture faith through the Word and the Sacrament of the altar, and to share the love of God through Word and deed with the whole world in order to make other people disciples of Jesus Christ.

The Sacraments 

We believe that God has given two Sacraments to build His church, Baptism to create faith and Holy Communion – also called the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist – to nurture faith. In Holy Communion Jesus Christ gives the communicant His body and blood, “in, with, and under” the bread and wine. 

Everlasting Life 

We believe that the fellowship which God establishes with His believers on earth will continue after this life as believers live with Him in heaven for all eternity.

The Dream

Trevor Kunze has dreamed of starting an outdoor ministry ever since his days working as a camp counselor at Camp Luther in northern Wisconsin. After his camp counseling days, Trevor graduated with a degree in lay ministry and theology from Concordia Wisconsin and accepted a call as a youth minister at Our Savior Lutheran Church, in Arcadia, California. A few years later, he accepted another call to serve as youth minister to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Wausau, WI.

During his time as a youth minister, the dream of starting an outdoor ministry stuck with him and he often shared it with others. The more he shared it, the more he realized that it was more than just a dream. While at St. Marks, he felt a calling from God to pursue turning his dream of planting an outdoor ministry into a reality. After a few months of praying and asking God for guidance, it was more clear than ever that now was the time.

In response to this new call on his life, Trevor hit the ground running and began searching for the right location to plant this new ministry. He knew it needed to be a growing area where he could reach youth, families, and businesses, and a place where he could see himself putting down roots over the next 30+ years. He settled on the front range of Northern Colorado and never looked back.

During this time, Kaitlin Kunze and Caleb Kunze joined the Three Trees ministry team. Trevor and Kaitlin (his wife) moved to Colorado in May of 2019. Over the next year and a half, Trevor led the team to lay the ground work for what would become Three Trees Outdoor Ministry. As of October 1^st, 2020 Three Trees became an official nonprofit organization.