Church Leadership & Staff


  • Mark alderton, Senior pastor

    Mark is a native of northern Wisconsin who attended the University of Wisconsin - Madison where the two most important things in his life happened: he became a Christian and he met his wife Mary. In 1985 he graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and moved to Minneapolis, where he worked for a medical device company as a scientist for 15 years. He also joined Sovereign Grace Church (formerly Grace Church of Richfield) where he eventually became an elder. In 2002 the Lord led Mark to leave his scientist career to pursue pastoral ministry as his vocation. He attended the Sovereign Grace Churches Pastor's College, and after graduating he returned to his home church in Minneapolis where he served as associate pastor for 5 years. In 2008 he moved with his family to Colorado to become the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Aurora.


    Mark and his wife Mary live in Aurora and have five adult children: Stephanie, John, Joshua, Shannon, and Sarah.


  • Dan Luevano, Associate Pastor

    Dan was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Systems Design at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and currently works full-time as a Senior Systems Engineer at Lighting Analysts, Inc.. UTSA is also where he met his wife, Dinah. They have been married for over 33 years. Dan and his family moved to the Denver area in September of 1998. The following year they attended the opening day celebration of Community Life Church of South Denver, which is now known as Sovereign Grace Church of Aurora. Dan has been involved in local church leadership over the years and was ordained as an elder in January of 2015.


    Dan and Dinah have three children, Savannah, Sierra, and Daniel, who live in the Denver area. They also have five grandchildren and two grandpups, who are cherished and loved by grandparents, uncles and aunts.

  • TOdd Santee, Associate Pastor

    Todd was raised in Aurora, Colorado, and became a Christian at the age of 6. The next summer, his family began attending Sovereign Grace Church (then Community Life Church) in 2000. Todd grew up in the church and became a member in 2010.

    Todd attended CU Denver where he received his bachelor's in civil engineering. He currently works full-time as Engineer-in-Training at Horrocks. Todd also graduated from the Sovereign Grace Pastors College in 2019, after which he married Bekah from our sister church, Grace Community Church. Todd was ordained as an elder in August 2020 and serves the pastoral team in thinking through outreach and evangelism.


    Todd and Bekah live in Aurora with their sons, Josiah and Ezra.

  • Bill maxwell, worship leader

    Born and brought up in Houston Texas, Bill started playing the guitar at the age of 8. After he became born again in 1975, the focus of his music dramatically shifted to writing Christian songs and playing in local churches. He moved to Colorado in 1978 to continue his

    career as an applications programmer and work on his skills as a musician.

    Not realizing it at the time, God had providentially moved his future wife JoAnn to Colorado from Wyoming on the same day in the same year. They met a few summers later and have been married for over 35 years. The Maxwells have served here at Sovereign Grace Church for the past 16 years.


    Bill and JoAnn have one daughter, who is married, and five grandchildren who live in the Denver area and whose family serves at Grace Community Church in Westminster, Colorado.

  • Savannah Platz, secretary

    Savannah was born in Texas and, after some years in Florida, moved to the Denver area in 1998. She began attending Sovereign Grace Church (then Community Life Church) in the summer of 1999 with her family and it was there that she would eventually meet her husband, David, as a teenager. She has a background in a little bit of everything. When not sending bulletins or creating new sermon graphics for us, she works full-time as office administrator for Taylor, Roth & Company, a financial auditing firm working exclusively with non-profits. Savannah is also on the women's ministry leadership team, and serves on the finance committee and in our small groups. 


    Savannah and David have been married for over 12 years and live in Aurora with their daughters, Selah and Marley.