Jim Mc Cotter - Apostle

Apostle

In 1965, a 20-year-old McCotter left his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado and moved to Greeley, Colorado in an attempt to recreate the "New Testament Church", a church model he believed no existing Christian denomination was emulating fully. After arriving in Greeley, McCotter began sharing his faith primarily at the University of Northern Colorado campus, which he also began attending. According to McCotter, by the end of the first year 12 people had joined him, after 1966 there were thirty, and the following years it "doubled and tripled." Eventually a handful of men moved out to other cities in Colorado, as well as Las Cruces, New Mexico, to start other "works" as they were called back then. The size of these "works" were most likely small, as McCotter has stated that, "Most people wouldn't have called them churches. Most people never knew we were churches." Though McCotter was not ordained by the Plymouth Brethren, he claimed the authority of an apostle.

McCotter dropped out of college to focus on ministry full time, and was planning to move down to Pueblo, Colorado to continue his efforts; however, in 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, he was drafted into the United States Army. During training, at a base in Fort Polk, Louisiana, McCotter met Dennis Clark, with whom he imparted his vision of God's "strategy" to reach the world.