About Us

Our Story

COSILoveYou’s co-founder and Executive Director, Stu Davis, often describes COSILoveYou’s beginning as the convergence of 3 streams, in 2014 and 2015. At that time, there was little cohesion among the many churches in Colorado Springs; homelessness was among the most visible and growing human crises plaguing a growing city; and churches were not considered as contributors to our city’s prosperity. In fact, many viewed the faith community as detractors and instigators, rather than trusted partners. 

In late 2014, 4 churches from different denominations and backgrounds decided to see what would happen if they mixed their congregations and sent them out together to serve various pockets of need spread across the city. “Bless the City” weekend saw approximately 50 volunteers from these 4 churches support local ministries such as Springs Rescue Mission, Family Life Services, and others that needed help caring for homeless neighbors. A few months later, a different local church asked a poignant question as part of its annual series on generosity: “What does it look like for a church to be generous to its city?” This question, and the thoughts to respond to it, prompted a teaching series titled “COSILoveYou,” and was branded with the now-familiar COSILoveYou badge. A third stream arose when local leaders invited 80 senior pastors to meet with then-mayor John Suthers to ask how churches could help support his efforts to address a growing crisis around homelessness. Mayor Suthers invited those pastors to contribute to Springs Rescue Mission’s plan to build Colorado Springs’ first year-round low-barrier homeless shelter, an invitation to which 55 of the 80 pastors responded. Stu Davis (working at Springs Rescue Mission at the time) and Yemi Mobolade (working at First Presbyterian Church at the time) worked together to convene leaders from Church and City to continue the work.

A year later, in early 2016, each of the three efforts had seen substantial movement. “Bless the City” weekend was renamed “City Serve,” and saw an additional 7 churches pile on. That fall, over 100 volunteers from 12 local churches showed up to serve pockets of need through the city. Additionally, the COSILoveYou material from the teaching series was embraced by a large handful of local churches, and pastors even swapped pulpits inviting their congregants to express generosity to their city’s needs. As a way of modeling that generosity, those 55 pastors that responded invited their churches to contribute to the Springs Rescue Mission’s project, raising $1.2M toward the $1.5M needed to raise the new shelter. Churches and their leadership began to realize that they could do so much more together than they could separately, and there began a conversation to sustain this new-found unity and momentum.

By 2017, more churches were on board; the city’s new shelter was caring for hundreds of homeless neighbors every day, powered by church-based volunteers; more churches wanted to participate in City Serve; and there was a recognition among our city’s leadership that the local Church can be a force for good in the city. Trust began to grow. Later that year, leadership teams from both City Serve and the COSILoveYou band of churches brought together their infrastructure and relationships, founding a new nonprofit organization with the highly-local brand of COSILoveYou. Its focus and mission was “to unite and ignite the church of Colorado Springs so that every woman, man, and child experiences the tangible love of Jesus.” Yemi Mobolade, who had moved to Colorado Springs’ Chamber of Commerce by this point, became the new board chair, with a number of pastors from prominent and diverse churches rounding out the charter board. Thanks to the generosity of a few local funders, COSILoveYou was able to hire a project manager to sustain City Serve, and Woodmen Valley Chapel served as COSILoveYou’s fiscal sponsor, paving the way for this small experiment’s success.

In 2018, COSILoveYou welcomed Stu Davis as its new Executive Director. Stu’s partnership with Yemi and the board in COSILoveYou’s early days, as well as his role in the effort to fund Springs Rescue Mission’s shelter project, gave him the experience needed to grow this small startup into something more prominent. In the years since, COSILoveYou has continued to gain both a trusted reputation and an impactful footprint, bringing churches together to meet practical, tangible needs across a range of challenges in the city. As of the end of 2024, nearly 20,000 volunteers from over 100 local churches have contributed over 100,000 hours of service to Colorado Springs and its many local nonprofits, schools, public spaces, and under-resourced neighborhoods. With an annual impact of over $500,000, COSILoveYou has grown to become one of Colorado Springs’ most trusted partners, by taking a listen-first approach to building positive partnerships that demonstrate the local Church’s desire to be good partners.

As COSILoveYou moves toward its ten-year mark, it has begun to make a strategic shift in how they engage churches and other partners in the work. Pursuing a vision of “a united church serving a flourishing city,” COSILoveYou deploys networks of church, business, nonprofit, and public-sector partners who meet regularly to collectively address some of the most pressing needs in the Pikes Peak region. While no one partner or organization can address the challenges alone, the collective commitment to work together, building trust along the way, will foster environments where an array of solutions can be developed.

We look forward to a day when the Church of Colorado Springs becomes our city’s most trusted partner in addressing human suffering and advancing human flourishing. We know there are many hands involved in the work; but we believe that the love of Christ compels us to love our neighbors, to work with other partners, and to uplift the dignity of all who call our city home.