January Assembly Highlights

Thank you to Grace Presbyterian Church, Rev. Justin Spurlock and all the volunteers for welcoming our January Assembly!

Rev. Justin Spurlock welcomed the Assembly to Grace Presbyterian Church where the Assembly enjoyed fellowship, hospitality, a delicious meal and special desserts in honor of Rev. Amy Mendez 14 years of ministry. The Assembly was gifted with the talents of Grace’s Celebration Band and choir.

Our newly installed Presbytery Moderator, Rev. Justin Spurlock brought the message. Listen below.

New Worshiping Community Lead Team is beginning to plant seeds!

The Cultivation and Innovation (formerly Long Term Initiatives) workgroup of Council has been hard at work discerning priorities for our group.  One of central priorities continues to be seeding and cultivating new worshiping communities as we:

• Innovate ways for being church to effectively reach new populations. 

• Form leaders and communities to navigate a rapidly changing world.. 

• Collaboratively work to seed new churches with traditional churches, and the national church. 

To focus on this priority, we have created and are developing a team within our workgroup to focus solely on this work.  We are naming this the New Worshiping Community Lead Team.  This team will oversee, guide and shepherd leaders and communities through all stages of development, from beginning to end. The hope is it will produce fruit and their work will mostly be about cultivation, formation and innovation!  The truth is that we want to experiment a lot, so we will continue taking gospel worthy risks to reach folks not coming into the doors of our existing churches and with experimentation and risk we, of course, anticipate failures.  Like most practitioners, we want our failures to become organic material tilled back into the soil to help provide nutrients for the next seed. 

Currently we have six active new worshiping communities—all in different stages of development.  We are encouraged by the deep and powerful ways we are experiencing God at work in and through these communities. We are reaching:

• The African refugee and immigrant population mainly in Aurora, but reaching into Denver.

• The Vietnamese Community in Denver. 

• Those who have given up on church and faith, along with those who never had faith.

• The Mexican-Hispanic population in the Aurora and Denver area. 

• In addition, we are:

• Ministering to and sharing the good news of God with the Burmese Myanmar refugee population here in Denver’s metroplex.

• Creating spaces of inclusiveness and curiosity for those often marginalized and excluded from the church experience.

• Actively engaging our beautiful wilderness to expand folk’s hearts, souls and minds to experience God in creation as they encounter Christ. 

 As of today, we are working with two groups of leaders who are discerning if seeding a new community is right for them. The work as the New Worshiping Community Lead team is central for us and very timely. We have gathered a diverse group of leaders, both teaching and ruling elders, staff and congregational members for this work.  We have committed to ongoing learning to help us lead and guide in the post-Christendom, rapidly changing world. As we are being trained in the practice of discernment as we come together to discover where God is at work in Denver, in these communities and then discern where God is inviting us to join in.  What we desire is a rich ecosystem in Denver Presbytery where new seeds can be planted, nourished and grow!

This team will be staffed by Joel Adams our new, Presbytery Associate for Congregational Development and our Associate for Mission once filled. 

 The Team Members are:
Deb Rillos - Ruling Elder (First Golden PC)
Rev. Joe Mares (Bethel PC)
Rev. David Pettit (Calvary PC), Committee on Ministry Representative
Rev. John Yu (True Light Community)
Mindy Heimer (formerly of Shepherd of the Hills)

 WANT TO LEARN MORE?

1. Click here to find out more about 1001 New Worshiping Communities through PCUSA.

2. Call Joel!  He would love to take you out for coffee or a beer to explore how you can collaborate with this work, discern whether God may be calling you or your church to seed a new community or just hear more about the communities.

3. Invite Joel, or one of our leaders, to come speak/preach for your congregation about new worshiping communities during worship.

Rev. Joel Adams, Denver Presbytery Staff
Presbytery Associate for Congregational Development

Email Scams are Happening in our Churches - Spread the Word!

New phishing scam uses church pastors’ names as bait

To combat these scams, please let your staff and congregation know that you will never request funds by email, or that any request must be verified by phone with the person involved. Emails from the Presbytery Staff will come from our domain @denpres.org. Look for your churches domain, if you have one when receiving a request involving money or gift cards.

Saving yourself from potential rip-off is easy, says the FTC

An old email phishing scam targeted at church-goers has been picked up and dusted off, hoping to find new victims it didn’t hit the first time around.

The basics of the scam are that church members get an email from their minister requesting for them to make a contribution to the church by buying and sending in gift cards.

Be cautious

Despite the lack of confidence consumers have in the government, the government can actually be of help in situations like this -- especially the consumer friendly Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The agency has three important recommendations that might save you, the consumer, from being ripped off.

1. Don’t text back. Legitimate companies won’t ask you to verify your identity through unsecured channels, like text or email.

2. Don’t click on any links within the message. Links can install malware on your device and take you to spoof sites to try to get your information.

3. Report the message to your cell phone carrier’s spam text reporting number. If you’re an AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, or Bell customer, you can forward the text to 7726 (SPAM) free of charge.

The best advice might be to forward any suspicious emails or texts to the FTC via spam@uce.gov. The FTC recommends that you also cc: the organization impersonated in the email/message -- a step that might give the scammer some pause before going ahead with their scheme.

If at all possible, include the full email header. Header information is typically hidden, but a quick search for “full email header” and the name of your email service (for example, Yahoo) will give you the steps necessary to find that information.

Resource: www.consumeraffairs.com 

Meet Rev. Joel Adams - Presbytery Associate for Congregational Development

Joel remembers at the age of seven, his mother taking him and his sister into College Hill Presbyterian Church in Easton, Pennsylvania. Little did he know, being raised in this church would influence him in profound ways eventually leading him into the church as a pastor, then to seed a new community here in Denver and now to serve as the Associate for Congregational Development with Denver Presbytery.

Joel moved to Denver in 1993 and fell in love with the city and the wild-land throughout the state. When he walked into First Presbyterian Church in Golden he knew he had found a home and began to participate in their life and mission. He met his wife Juli while working as a front line counselor at Denver Children’s Home. The two both wanted to try working in wilderness ministry and were wondering if they should go to seminary. So for a few years, they led ministry based wilderness trips for youth throughout Colorado before heading off to Fuller Seminary for theological training. Joel had no intention of being a pastor, but as God works, through many classes, professors, friends and spirit-led experiences Joel discerned the call to become a pastor. The session at First Presbyterian Church in Golden took him under their care and he began the ordination process with Denver Presbytery.

Upon finishing his education he found a wonderful internship serving the urban, diverse congregation of what was then, North Presbyterian Church. His first call took him to a rural, traditional congregation as their solo pastor for six years in Southern Illinois. These experiences formed and shaped him in deep ways as he began to learn the art of pastoring. And then along with friends, and in partnership with Denver Presbytery and First Pres. Golden, they plotted an adventure of living out their faith in tangible ways here in Denver West Highland neighborhood to see what God might be up to. Out of this mission experiment, a small gathering of misfits, many who came from outside of the church, formed and still worship in member’s homes most Sunday evenings.

Joel is excited about this opportunity as it fits his passion to see churches thrive in this rapidly changing world. He will be able to use his gifts and experience to come alongside existing churches to resource, coach and encourage. Simultaneously, he will work to create infrastructure, cultivate a culture and develop leaders for seeding more, new faith communities throughout Denver Presbytery.

Joel still loves to get out into the mountains when he can, and loves spending as much time as possible with his kids and wife. He enjoys movies, seeing live music, learning to make plants taste great and talking about Jesus. He has three teenagers, Gabriel, Kate and Micah and an English Springer Spaniel named Bella.

Celebration of Ministry of Rev. Amy Mendez

Dear Presbytery Friends and Colleagues,

You may have already heard the news, but I wanted to take a moment to let you know that I am leaving my position at the Presbytery of Denver to a new opportunity to serve as the Associate Director of Racial Equity and Women's Intercultural Ministries for the Presbyterian Mission Agency of the Presbyterian Church USA in Louisville, KY.

Serving the Presbytery of Denver for the past fourteen years has been an honor. I appreciate having had the opportunity to work with you. I sincerely appreciate your support, prayers and the spirit of collaboration to serve the One who calls us to love God and our neighbor. I have loved working on our workgroups, mission partnerships and joining mission trips with you. I will miss you all and I do not say goodbye because I am sure we will cross paths again.

Pray for me as I will pray for you.

Paz, peace!

Rev. Amy Mendez

A Note from Denver Presbytery Vision Team

A Note from Denver Presbytery Vision Team

Denver Presbytery Vision Team is a group of Ministers, Ruling Elders serving and worshiping in our Presbytery. Led by Transitional Presbytery Pastor, Rev. Dana Hughes, we meet monthly to discern God’s vision for the future of Denver Presbytery. In 2020, a member of the team will share something with you about the work we are doing and ask for your prayers. I, Rev. Susan Boucher, Pastor of Church of the Hills in Evergreen, begin this effort with the following brief report.

We are reading Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger; this has prompted lively and profound conversation and reflection about the future work of Denver Presbytery. There are no “new” decisions, but there is tremendous energy, intelligence, and dialogue that will lead us into a vibrant future. The cord struck for me is our immediate need to pray for those that are currently in leadership, specifically the Council. During this time of transition, both within our culture and the life of Denver Presbytery, they are diligently striving to lead us with intelligence, imagination, and love.

Please join me in praying for each member of Council, their work together, and their families as they lead. Their names are listed below.

In the peace of Christ,

Susan

Evan Amo | Wanda Beauman | Sharon Blackstock | Georgia Comstock | Jo Culbertson | James Fouther | Kim Graber | Peter Hulac | Michael McLane | Kendal Mullins | Sue Pilcher | Pat Queen | Justin Spurlock | Paula Steinbacher