YES
It starts with
Commitment to Ministry of First Pres
Dear First Pres Family, This will be my 16th October as part of this church. How things have changed from 1999, when I first felt at home attending a Bridges Retreat at Silver Cliff Ranch. I didn’t know then that some of the friendships that began that fall would stretch across the years — from hanging out in the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs as singles to attending one another’s weddings and now trading carpool pickups for school-aged kids. Lately, I’ve been marveling at how good a storyteller our God is. Like no other, He weaves together the details of our lives into an exquisite — if sometimes piercing — work of art. The truth is I didn’t need to know 16 years ago what would come of my budding friendships. It was enough that God knew. Likewise, I don’t need to know now what will ultimately come of the mundane — or delightful, or tedious or crushing — events in my daily life. It is enough that God knows. In this issue of First Pres Magazine, I get to tell the stories of two people in our congregation who said yes when God called to them. Neither Yemi nor Suzanne knows now all the effects of their obedience, and they won’t know this side of eternity. But their steps forward pushed their own faith deeper, and created a ripple effect for the Kingdom that is still spreading out across our city and around our world. October has traditionally been the time when we consider — as an act of love for and commitment to this local body — what kind of financial gifts we will make in the next year. If giving is an area you haven’t considered in faith, or if it has been on auto-pilot for a while, I encourage you to talk with God about it and ask Him what He would call you to. I encourage you to answer yes when He calls. God alone sees the full story of our faith, beginning to end. He masterfully pens each chapter, but we get to help write the story each time we answer His call with a responsive heart. What’s Your Yes?
Under the Mercy,
Lindy Keffer Manager of Miinistry Giving
Is your glass half full, or half empty? The question is age-old, and it’s one that our team asked ourselves en route to choosing this fall’s theme, It Starts With Yes. As we reflected on the great preaching we have heard all year, the Spirit led us through a series of discussions on how we as believers reflect God’s grace in our lives. Do we receive grace, give grace and embody grace as God instructs us, or do we paint a very different picture with our lives? Why is it that Christians are known for handing down the “bad news” that there are negative consequences for bad behavior? If non-believers paint us as not-so-happy people, who can blame them? Our words too often betray the joy of our salvation. How can we introduce people to a God who says yes, when our faces and voices say no? An Opportunity to Paint a Different Picture This October we turn our thoughts toward giving. Giving is one of the most tangible ways we can say yes to God and to our neighbors. How do we answer the call to be generous givers in all aspects of our lives, every day of the year? Do we say yes? Do we say no? Or sometimes, do we just do nothing? Tony Dungee notes in his daily devotional, titled Uncommon Life, that there is a difference between modeling our lives after others around us in church, and giving ourselves over to be transformed into the likeness of God. Transformation can be helped or hindered by our attitude: “As a man thinketh, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7 KJV) While many things go into building our Christian character, our growth starts with our thoughts. Then we are guided by God to be a vessel of His love and joyous impact on the world. A well-known poster reads, “Our thoughts become deeds, and the deeds become actions, and the actions become our character.” Romans tells us that, “Character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” (Romans 5:4) Each time we say yes to God, our character grows more like the character of Christ. When asked what he did in difficult times regarding his giving, a joyous giver said, “I find a way to give just a little more.” What new ways will you find to say yes this fall? David Lewis is the co-chair of the Stewardship Committee.
By David Lewis
Saying
Yes to Our If you’re interested in keeping firm control of your life, stay away from First Pres prayer retreats. That’s the advice Suzanne Lung would give you with a smile. Three times the call to go to Mongolia has come during a dedicated time of prayer, and three times Suzanne has answered yes. “I had no idea where Mongolia even was, and I heard God saying, ‘I want you to do missions abroad,’” Suzanne said. A short time later, she told Susan Buenger, Global Missions Associate, “I feel the Lord tugging at my heart....” Susan wasn’t a bit surprised. Laughing, she said, “I just sent you a letter inviting you to go to Mongolia with a team of teachers. Clearly you are meant to go.” On Suzanne’s first trip to Mongolia in 2008, she and her teammates were astounded by the response they saw. They presented the Gospel to a Mongolian audience over four nights. Suzanne’s part was to describe the mystery of Jesus being fully God and fully man. At the end, not a handful, but dozens of Mongolians accepted Christ. One of their hosts reminded them that though they were not the ones who planted the seeds, they were there for the harvest. They were part of the work God was already doing in Mongolia. (In the 1990s, there were just a handful of believers in the country. Today, there are around 50,000.) Suzanne shared, “They had never heard 4 | www.first-pres.org 10/15
Suzanne and Sunjidmaa
the gospel before, and they were so desperate for a Savior, and we got to be part of that.” Nothing Like the First Time If Suzanne’s first trip to Mongolia was astonishingly good, her second trip, in 2011, was quite opposite. Her daughter, Jessica, accompanied her, and so did all kinds of tragedy and discomfort — a family death back home, a van accident involving Mongolian Young Life staff, Jessica’s violent illness with food poisoning and their exhaustion from teaching every day with little rest. Afterward, Suzanne complained to God, “Wow, that was nothing like the first time. It was so hard.” And God pressed an answer on her heart: “So you don’t want to suffer for me?” Suzanne recalls understanding more deeply in that moment that God’s call is not always pleasant, but His work in and through us is always good. Remaining Open to the Call Suzanne didn’t think she would return to Mongolia, but she didn’t stop listening to God. When He called her again to go, she
knew it was His idea and not her own: “The call often comes out of left field and you want to reject it. It’s then you need to test it against the Scriptures. As soon as I turned to the Scriptures, God started pouring on the confirmation.” Suzanne was especially encouraged by Joshua 1:5 — No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. This time, Suzanne was to lead the teacher team. Her co-leader, Rhonda Wootton, had had a similarly painful experience in Mongolia. “Neither of us thought we would return, but in saying yes, we both saw God do things we never thought we’d see,” Suzanne said. Those Who Go Out Weeping … Return with Songs of Joy Several distinct blessings came out of that third Mongolia mission in 2015. “My relationship with my daughter was strengthened,” explained Suzanne. Because Jessica had been on the previous trip, she could relate acutely to everything Suzanne communicated to her back at home: “Our relationship went a whole level deeper.” More surprising, Suzanne gained another “daughter” — a young Buddhist art teacher whose mother had died when she was 12. The two connected over their shared profession, and before the end of the trip Sunjidmaa asked Suzanne, “Will you be my mother?” Now they communicate every day and Suzanne is able to impart the love of Christ to her. She also got to see Mongolian leaders who had been injured in the rollover accident healed and doing well. Finally, when Suzanne arrived back home, a stack of postcards from her father awaited her. He had written out his prayer for her each day and dropped it in the mail — a
tangible reminder that both her Heavenly Father and her earthly father were with her. He Opens Doors You Would Never Imagine Suzanne counts herself changed in many ways by her experiences in Mongolia, but these lessons stick with her the most: • Asking others to pray for you is a vulnerable experience, but worth it! “I just feel those prayers. People would say, ‘I felt like praying for you at three in the morning,’ and that’s when I had needed prayer.” • “As you draw closer to God and seek His will for your life, He opens doors you would never imagine.” • Hearing God requires time and quiet to listen for Him. “When you take time to get away, you hear Him in a different way.” • “God likes it when we feel incompetent…. Saying yes to a call that’s uncomfortable forces us on our knees, seeking God’s guidance.”
Say YES World Communion Sunday October 4 Wear clothes from around the world. To learn more about our mission partnerships in Mongolia and around the world, and to sign up for the monthly Missions E-Blast, visit www.first-pres.org/missions
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By Marvin Harrell
I
once heard Francis Chan, a respected preacher and worshipper of God, ask those gathered to craft a statement of worship to God using 16 words. The music swelled, as did my heart, and I struggled to come up with something transcendent or meaningful. It was then He spoke the words of Isaiah 6 and my heart shattered: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.” The simplicity of the worship — focused on the glorious Creator — stirred my heart in places I thought were long dead.
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S H A RE T H IS
If you’d like to share this original art by Marvin based upon Isaiah 6, visit us on Facebook (facebook.com/firstprescs) or Instagram (@firstprescos). Or visit the artist at facebook.com/marvin.harrell or @ marvharrell.
Fast forward to the time I was asked to create this artistic representation of Isaiah 6. I hearkened back to that day and remembered anew that the Holy and unapproachable One was not only approachable through Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection, but took up residence in the throne room of my heart! I realized, and continue to realize each day, that the only proper response to this overwhelming invitation of “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” was to say, “I’ll go! Send me!” and realize He is not sending me away from His throne room but is leading me from within — His throne located squarely in my heart. 10/15 | www.first-pres.org | 7
Saying
Yes to Our Y
emi Moboldade’s path to First Pres has spanned decades and continents. His family moved around the world with his dad’s job, but most of his growing up was in Nigeria. He made his permanent move to the U.S. to attend Bethel College in Indiana, since he had family in that area. There, Yemi majored in computer science and business. He worked in the business sector for five years after graduation. Then the pull of a different set of his skills drew him into music, and he served as director of worship arts in two large churches.
Yemi at the Wild Goose 8 | www.first-pres.org 10/15
Not Just a Sunday Pastor Working in the church part-time led to working in the church full-time, and then a war ensued within Yemi. “I began to learn more about the nature of the Gospel and its demands in our life,” he explained. “I could spend all my time creating wonderful weekend services, but I wasn’t very much like Jesus. I was a pastor of a church, but I didn’t know my neighbors. “I grew up in a fairly conservative Christian background. I had never been to the bar before, but I went with friends from work [from his job in the marketplace]. Just the act of being there and volunteering to be the designated driver went so far with them. They started coming on Sunday to see what I was doing at church. Even when I left that church, some of them still stayed. That story — and others like it — now define who I am. I eventually resigned from the church because I didn’t just want to be a Sunday pastor anymore. I wanted to be in the community.” God Showed Up Big Time His resignation created a crossroads experience for Yemi. “For the first time in my life I didn’t have anything planned next, but God showed up big time,” he said. To pay the bills, Yemi spent a season as a traveling musician, leading worship at conferences. Some of them were church planting conferences, and he caught the church planting bug. “I knew that God was calling me to something new — into a new expression of the Kingdom. God said, ‘Yemi, don’t just critique the church; be a part of the solution. Help to redeem the family name.’” Yemi didn’t know exactly what being part of the solution would look like, but he had a feeling it would involve both ministry and business. When a music gig brought Yemi to Colorado Springs for the first time, he knew
affirmed the things we valued: women in leadership, a multi-generational congregation, a welcoming atmosphere, and a church known in the city as really blessing the city,” he said. “Every part of the discussion kept pointing to First Pres — that we weren’t supposed to build this thing, but that God was already doing it and we were supposed to join it.” Yemi and Abbey said yes.
he had found the place where he could live out his call. He and his wife, Abbey, set to work planting a church, intentionally positioning it as a missional community that would bless the city. They also started the Wild Goose Meeting House as a place that convenes Christians and non-Christians around locally-sourced food, artisan beverages, live music and good books. And mostly as a place where the Wild Goose (an ancient Celtic symbol for the Holy Spirit) is at the center. Don’t Build It; Join It Growing a church and a business at the same time took its toll, and Yemi decided to take a sabbatical from ministry and reduce his hours in business to strengthen his marriage. “It has been the best thing I have done,” he said. During their season of rest, God had one more surprise to reveal to Yemi and Abbey — a call they didn’t expect, but one that now seems to point to a design grander than the one they had imagined. “During the sabbatical time, Abbey and I reassessed the ethos of the church plant and
A Rich History of Connection to the City Since July, Yemi has been offering his gifts formally to First Pres, serving part-time as Interim Associate for Local Missions. He celebrates the fact that, “First Pres has had a rich history of connection to the city,” and looks forward to activating the congregation in ways that make even better use of our diverse gifts. “I am thinking about how we can mobilize our church family,” Yemi said. “We are a church of influential people. We are spread very thin with our broad involvement locally. My desire is to help refocus us into holistic involvement in key areas and help the people of the church to invest beyond finances. My hope is that that our ‘city weekend’ becomes a ‘city lifestyle.’”
Say YES
Loving Our City Weekend: October 9-11
Friday, 6:30 p.m. Worship Gathering in the sanctuary Saturday Service opportunities across the city (www.first-pres.org/cityweekend) Sunday, 8:20, 9:45 and 11:10 a.m. Celebrating God’s work in our City during our regular worship services
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What influences have shaped your perspective on giving?
For me, it was my father. He became a believer when I was six, and for many years I watched him write checks every Sunday morning to give to the church we attended. My dad never sat me down, as far as I can recall, and said, “Here’s why giving is important.” But he modeled it for me, week in and week out. And when I grew into young adulthood and began making an ever-so-small amount of money myself, I knew that offering a percentage of it was important — a spiritual discipline I learned watching my father. Fast-forward a couple of decades, and Jennifer and I got married. And even though we were equally committed to giving sacrificially, I have to admit I was still unprepared for my first October at First Pres. Here’s why: In the small, independent Bible church where I spent my formative years, our pastor was so wary of doing anything that could be perceived as manipulative that he never talked about giving. In fact, there wasn’t even an offering. There was simply a small box in the back of the church for congregants to drop off their gifts. Every week in the bulletin, the previous week’s giving was listed, along with an average amount needed to keep the doors open. Other churches I attended after leaving home were more traditional in their approach to the offering, just passing the plate each week without ever putting any emphasis that I can remember on making an annual pledge to give. Pledge Cards? You can imagine, then, that my first October here was a bit of a shock. I was blown away by the way First Pres exhorted members to make an annual faith pledge. I was impressed. This was serious business. And, to be frank, I was a bit overwhelmed. At the time, the whole month of October was devoted to stewardship. I said incredulously to my wife, “Pledge cards? Why do you need pledge cards?” There was nothing about the process that seemed familiar or intuitive to me. With each passing year, however, I’ve come to respect more deeply the intentionality with which our congregation approaches stewardship — not only with our financial resources, but with our time and talents and other gifts as well. And with each passing year, I can see more fully how First Pres strives to cultivate a legacy of giving that has the potential to mold younger generations’ perspective on this significant area of discipleship and stewardship, just as my father’s disciplined generosity shaped my own values. When Giving Isn't A Given That said, I think it’s safe to say that giving to a church today isn’t the given that it might have been in generations 10 | www.first-pres.org 10/15
A Legacy From Gen to Genera By Adam R. Holz
of Giving, neration ation
past. There are lots of reasons for that, including cynicism about religious institutions (for my GenX generation, especially) and the flourishing of so many other places to make a difference with our resources (parachurch organizations, charities and local missions, among many others). For a growing number of young people today, it might not even occur to them to give to a church — ours or any other — at all. Instead, younger generations more often give where we have cultivated relationships with individuals and organizations we know and trust deeply. What's Your Giving Story? Trust. Relationship. Generosity. These are powerful words. And I’d like to connect them with one more: story. Each of us has a story when it comes to how we think about sharing our resources with others. So as we make our way through October 2015, I’d encourage you to ask God who, if anyone, He would have you to share that story with. For those of us in younger generations, trusting God with our money by giving some of it away (whether that’s to First Pres or anywhere else) might seem like a risky leap of faith, and it’s one that’s hard to make alone. Times are tight, and parting with our limited resources can feel scary. But as we hear the stories of those who’ve given faithfully for years and decades — and there are a lot of folks like that at First Pres — it could have a significant impact on our perspective when it comes to living generously. So what’s your story? How have you seen God work as you’ve entrusted your resources to Him? How has He provided in surprising ways? How has He used you to bless others? Those are stories we in the younger generations need to hear. Stories of trust and relationship and generosity. Stories that challenge and inspire all of us to build a legacy of giving of our own. A legacy that we, too, can one day pass down to the generations following us. So what’s your story? And who needs to hear it? Adam Holz is a member of First Pres and a writer for the media content website, www.pluggedin.com.
Say YES
•S ee the present season as one of commission, not just one of transition. •G od is at work at First Pres right now! Learn about a ministry you’ve been interested in and consider volunteering. •P ray about what God would ask you to give financially and bring your commitment forward on Sunday, October 18. 10/15 | www.first-pres.org | 11
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