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