Featuring Rev. David Williams, Founding Pastor Abyssianian Christian Church of Fort Collins
Rev. David Williams has dedicated his life and his work to sharing the Gospel and helping communities connect. As the son of a pastor, he has gained a lifelong knowledge of faith and theology. He developed a range of experiences and fresh perspectives from them. As the current and founding pastor of Abyssinian Christian Church in Fort Collins, CO, he has brought that experience and perspective to connecting communities through his ministry.
Rev. Williams established Abyssinian Christian Church in 1989, as a small congregation on the campus of Colorado State University. The church soon outgrew the campus facilities and found its current home in Fort Collins in 1998.
The name “Abyssinian” means “diversity of colors,” and comes from historical traditions found in northern Africa in the first century in the country of Ethiopia. In the first century Christian Africans from Ethiopia would return to Jerusalem to celebrate the holy days they were often met with ridicule and verbal abuse because of their different pigment and diverse skin color. The slang name “Abyssinia” was given to them to refer to the “people of many colors.” Rev. Williams and his wife Debbie believed that name would serve their church well.
Rev. Williams also has served on numerous community boards, civic committees and service organizations and currently serves as a board member for Community Equity Initiative and Clergy for a Safe and Just Community in Fort Collins. He also serves as chaplain for the Fort Collins Police Department, Poudre Valley Hospital, and as Director of Black Campus Ministry at CSU.
Rev. also serves as Adjunct Director of Connection and Development for Midwest Conference of the Christian Covenant Church. In that role, he provides strategic ministry leadership in church planting, church health and missional leadership development.
Rev. Williams’ background stretches beyond Colorado. He completed his undergraduate study in Religion and Pre-Theology at the University of Evansville and theological study at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH. David was ordained in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and has served under a Ministry License in the ECC since 2010.
Both Rev. Williams and Debbie served for two years in DR Congo as church development and special assistants to the President of the ECC in Congo. Currently, he serves on the ECC’s Citizens Action Committee and Covenant Kids Congo.
With his many experiences of connecting communities in Northern Colorado, around the country, and globe, Rev. Williams demonstrates his belief that the church of the future looks brighter and fuller.