1986 - The vision for Computers In Ministry began with a short-term trip to a mission station in South America by its founder, Mark Johnson.  The purpose of the trip was to bring order to a mixture of hardware and software that had been pieced together based more on the merits of current advertising than on a well thought-through plan to accomplish the goals of the local ministry. 

Mark had previously committed all of his skills and interests to the Lord to be used for his service and now began looking specifically at what this would look like.  He became actively involved in student missions leadership at Houghton College before graduation in 1988 and began seeing the importance of challenging others to also offer their lives and skills to the Lord's service.

1988 - Following graduation, Mark spent time sharpening his technical skills and approaches in secular employment doing computer and network implementation, training and support, still looking at ways to apply the issues to ministry.  He used this time also to take further training in the specific fund-accounting needs of ministries.  Mark continued volunteer involvement with several ministries.  He began to see that the computer needs and approaches of other smaller ministries are often not much different from those he experienced on his short-term trip in 1986. 

1991 - Mark and his family moved to Aurora, Colorado to begin directly applying these skills through a staff position with a small Christian ministry.  Through his direct involvement with both the finance and computer issues Mark was able to further develop strategies to better serve small ministries.

During this time, it became obvious that the many different issues falling under the umbrella of information technology were much to broad to be fully served by just one person.  The IT needs for this small ministry were really much the same as for larger ministries utilizing a full staff of IT personnel.  However, the small size of the ministry did not justify having staff experts in every area.

1995 - Mark stepped out in faith to begin Computers In Ministry, trusting that the Lord would bring together other members to form a shared IT staff team to be able to effectively support the different need areas for medium and small sized ministries in the Denver and Colorado Springs area.

1996 - Computers In Ministry began to take shape as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.  CIM began expanding its services to ministries by expanding its staff team with a full-time dedicated server administrator.

1997 - Computers In Ministry began a process of refocusing our strategic approach to partnering alongside smaller ministries.  We met with a Board of Advisors made up of leadership staff from the ministries that we were supporting and began developing a long-term approach to best supporting their needs.  CIM experienced another great move forward as we expanded our Board of Directors, including several members from ministry and others from industry.

1998 - With a developing long-term strategy and IRS acceptance of its 501(c)(3) status, Computers In Ministry saw increased growth as God brought additional staff and ministry partners. Additional database system and technical support staff joined as well, allowing Computers In Ministry to expand its involvement with current ministry partners and begin adding additional partners.

1999-Present - Computers In Ministry has continued refining its partnership process toward a more pro-active approach to better facilitate the long-term needs of our ministry partners.  CIM has seen continued expansion in the number ministry partners and in the level of involvement with them.  CIM's ministry partners also have seen expansion and greater system stability resulting from the pro-active processes that have been put in place.  Computers In Ministry continues to develop its strategies, organizational structures, staffing and donor funding base to better provide for the needs of its ministry partners.