u biblical justice: the call to see and act | 4 investing in youth through prayer | 6 resolving to grow in faith | 8
Dear First Pres Family, What a beautiful Advent and Christmas season we shared together. It felt like the last two months of 2012 flew by, and now we’re at the start of a new year. Once Christmas passes and the New Year dawns, it’s usually a time when we take stock of where we’ve been, where we want to go, and what needs to be done to get there. Sometimes that takes the form of resolutions we make about what we hope to accomplish, or what behaviors we hope to change in the New Year. Church life is no different. For months now the leaders and staff of First Pres have been thinking about how we can make a bigger impact for the Kingdom of God in 2013. There are a lot of exciting ideas that I hope to share more about during the next days, weeks and months together on this journey. The pages of this magazine offer us a chance to focus on the big ideas we share as a church. How do we live out our mission and vision statements — being “Alive to God’s Desire” and striving to “Love, Grow, Go — Together.” Additionally, we shared a simple but profound idea during the Stewardship campaign last fall. The theme was Invest in the Kingdom, and throughout this year we want to continue to share ways this congregation is Investing in the Kingdom and offer opportunities for you to Invest in the Kingdom in a new way. One key idea, which is the focus of my vision message this month, is the idea that this would be a year focused on worship. Worship is one of the things that we do well here at First Pres, but this year I want to expand our thoughts on worship. Worship is a way to express our hopes and dreams, disappointments and shortcomings to God. Worship is a way to allow the Holy Spirit to move through us. But we also worship God through the ways we carry His message to the world around us. So as this New Year gets under way, consider what God is calling you to in 2013. What new commitments or renewed commitments has God laid on your heart? What commitments or renewed commitments has He laid on First Pres? I look forward to discovering the answers to those questions together. In Christ,
Graham Baird Senior Pastor First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs
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JANUARY 2013
contents Biblical Justice: The Call to See and Act . . 4 Katie Dayton 4
Investing in Youth Through Prayer . . . . 6 Matthew Fox Resolving to Grow in Faith . . . . . . . . 8 Matthew Fox
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Contributing Writers: Katie Dayton, Matthew Fox Contributing Editors: Matthew Fox, Alison Murray Graphic Design: Beryl Glass Proofreading Team: Mary Bauman, Christine Dellacroce, Betty Haney, Daisy Jackson, Marty Kelley, Karen Kunstle, Linda Pung All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, © 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. First Pres Magazine January 2013, Volume Five, © First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, CO. Published by First Presbyterian Church, a non-profit organization. To contact First Pres Magazine: 719-884-6175 or 219 E. Bijou Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80903-1392 or magazine@ first-pres.org. Printed in the U.S.A.
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BIBLICAL JUSTICE: THE CALL TO SEE AND ACT
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By Katie Dayton
ver and over again in Scripture we see God has a heart, a passion for justice. The psalmist says, “The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.” (Psalm 99:4) The prophet Isaiah reminds us, “For the LORD is a God of justice.” (Isaiah 30:18) God Himself says, “For I, the LORD, love justice.” (Isaiah 61:8) The word “justice” is perhaps a loaded term in our culture so it’s important to ask what is biblical justice? There are three aspects of justice we see in Scripture.
1. Justice is care for the vulnerable.
To seek justice we must constantly ask who are the weak and the powerless in our midst? In Scripture widows, orphans, immigrants and the poor are constantly lifted up as the most vulnerable and those most likely to be exploited. As author and pastor Tim Keller points out, today that list of vulnerable ones, “would be expanded to include the refugee, the migrant workers, the homeless, single parents and elderly people.” At First Pres, we seek to join in God’s heart for the protection and care of the vulnerable, whether that is teenagers in homeless situations served through Urban Peak, the working poor ministered to through Marian House or refugee families met with 4 | www.first-pres.org 1/13
the love and support of a mentoring team through Lutheran Family Services.
2. Justice has to do with right use of power.
Injustice occurs when power is misused and people, made in the image of God, are trampled upon and oppressed. Gary Haugen, president and CEO of International Justice Mission, defines injustice as, “abusing power by taking from others the good things that God intended for them, namely, their life, liberty, dignity or the fruits of their love or their labor.” Our God’s heart breaks when authority or strength is abused and people suffer because of it. In a direct contradiction with the ways of the world, Jesus tells us that power is not to be used to lord over people (Mark 10: 42) and in fact the meek, those who rightly use their strength, will inherit the earth. Try looking around at your life, at our city and our world — who seems to hold power? What does that power look like? Where do you see power being abused? What groups are at risk of abuse and mistreatment?
3. Justice is about right relationships.
In Scripture, justice and righteousness are deeply woven together and connected. Righteousness is not simply about personal piety but also about right relationships in all of life and society. As Keller points out, this aspect
of “being just” refers to “day to day living in which a person conducts all relationships in family and society with fairness, generosity and equity.” This is what our God is calling us to pursue. As we examine our lives, we ask how does our right relationship with God through Jesus Christ spill out into right relationships with everyone else? Where have relationships in our society broken down and led to injustice? Where is our God calling us to work to make things right? Over the next few months, as a church, we will be asking what does it mean for First Pres to live as a “just church” and to pursue God’s heart for justice. It is a question we must wrestle with both as a community and as individuals. The stakes are high in this world full of injustice, but the promises of our God for those who engage in the fight for justice are staggering. Katie Dayton is the Associate Pastor for Missional Strategies.
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.” — Isaiah 58:6-8
Opportunities to Engage: � Attend The Just Church Workshop on Saturday, February 2 from 9 to 11 a.m. led by Jim Martin of International Justice Mission.
� Hear Jim Martin preach on Sunday, February 3 and attend the follow-up lunch at 12:20 p.m.
� Study God’s word together through this year’s Lenten sermon series Balance: Justice and Mercy Issues in our Everyday Lives and participate in Journey to the Cross as we further engage with God’s heart for justice and mercy in our city.
� Pray: Pray for our church, that God would grant us humility, wisdom, hope, love and guidance as we seek to be obedient to God’s call on our lives.
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InvestingINYouth THROUGH D
uring our Stewardship season last fall we focused on the idea of Investing in the Kingdom of God. Throughout 2013, we want to look at different ways to make those investments. One of those ways is investing in the future generations through prayer. One of the concepts First Pres is focusing on is the Sticky Faith model. Sticky Faith is based on research conducted by following 6,000 young people to see why half of them left the faith between the end of high school and the first two years in college. The study reveals that making faith stick requires an investment in the lives of the younger generation. Nate Stratman, Director of Family Ministries for First Pres, is a big proponent of the Sticky Faith principles, something he’s working to incorporate in the ministry model to a larger degree in 2013. “We are trying to empower families to know how to tell their own faith stories,” he said. One of the easiest ways to invest in future generations is through prayer. Last fall, the youth ministries unveiled prayer walls. The wall, designed and built by volunteer Cindy Brown, is a place where First Pres youth can come and share the concerns of their heart 6 | www.first-pres.org 1/13
— big or small — and have adults intercede on their behalf. Collin Grant, Route 56 director, said that the student response has been great. He has seen his students — who were the first to get a prayer wall — eager to offer up prayer requests. “Our kids in Route 56 are excited to write prayer requests,” he said. “We write them on occasion as part of the lesson, but kids often go in without prompting to put requests on the wall. It gives them a comfortable way to express needs and concerns they have, but I am also surprised how many kids want prayer for others.” Collin said hundreds of requests have been put in the walls since they went up in the fall. There is now a prayer wall in each of the three meeting rooms occupied by student ministries. The biggest challenge now is finding
PRAYER more adults who are willing to spend time praying for the needs, requests and concerns of these teens. Adults who are interested in praying over these requests are invited to come to the Weber Street center Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. beginning January 10. To be a part of the prayer team for these youth, contact student ministries at 884-6220. Matthew Fox is the Manager of Communications at First Pres.
The following are some examples of the prayer requests kids have placed in the wall.
I am too quiet and don’t really get noticed. I pray for a girl in my school who has special needs. No one really seems to like her or want to hang out with her but I think she is amazing.
I pray God will help me find new friends that will not be mean to me after my best and kind of only friend moves. Please pray that God will help me know how to bring my friend to Him
My dad gets really angry. P lease help him to know that You still love him. 1/13 | www.first-pres.org | 7
Resolving
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n January 1 — or some time in the week following — millions of Americans will make a list of resolutions for 2013. These are resolutions that will be thought about for about a week, then broken, then quickly forgotten. Trust me, there’s no judgment here. I’ve done the same thing. It’s hard to make resolutions stick. To make our resolutions real requires more than an idea; it requires some sense of urgency to make it happen. I think that is true for all of us, especially when it comes to growing in our faith. We all know it’s important, we know we should do it, we know ways it can be done and we want to do it. But it’s about making that resolution stick. So the challenge for 2013 is to resolve to grow in your faith and to grow in the way you live out your faith. One of the passages that’s always challenged me in this regard comes from the book of Micah. Micah is one of the 12 Minor Prophets — you know those little books in the back of the Old Testament that you have to flip through before you get to Matthew. Micah probably wasn’t a super popular guy in his day, but he pushed for something really important. His ministry is regarded for the fact that he stood up for the little guy. He spoke to a people who were lost and broken during a time before Jesus came, a time when they were looking for direction. And the words of comfort and direction he offered the Israelites during that period of wilderness in their lives are true for us in 2013.
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g to Grow in Faith Micah gives a response to the people that is one of the most powerful and beautiful verses in the Bible. Micah 6:8 reads, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah tells us what is required — that we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. It’s so simple, yet so complex and so difficult, especially in a world as chaotic, blessed and distracted as the one we live in today. The question is how do we begin to live out that call in our lives.
❶ We Need Christ’s LOVE to Show Through Us
It’s easy to walk humbly with God on Sundays while we’re worshipping, but what about the rest of the week? We show our love for God not just while worshipping but in the way we interact with others seven days a week. If we really believe what we say we believe, and if we really love God with our whole heart, that will be evident in the way we live our lives and interact with others on a daily basis. Unfortunately, we live in a world where it isn’t popular or easy to be a Christian. It’s hard to stand firm for your faith. Robert Frost said in one of his poems, “two roads diverged in the woods and I took the one less traveled by.” Christianity is that lesstraveled road, especially in the contemporary culture of the United States. But it is important to stand firm and take that
To make our resolutions real it requires more than an idea; it requires some sense of urgency to make it happen less-traveled road; and it is worth it. Frost followed that famous line with this — “And that has made all the difference.” That is how we make the difference in our lives as well.
❷ We have to GROW Deeper in Our Faith
We talk about growing and studying God’s word a lot in church. It sounds like a simple enough task. Read the Bible more. Pray more. Go to church more. Those all sound like easy things to do, and they are in some ways, but they’re also really hard. Nicky Gumbel, who created the Alpha Course, said that it is harder in the Western World today to be a Christian than not to be a Christian. What he meant by that is that in the Western World — both England where he lives and here in the United States —we have so many things competing for our time. We have work, family demands, social demands and we live in the era of
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“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” —Leo Tolstoy
24-hour-a-day access to news and entertainment. When you combine all those factors with the ways we are truly blessed in this country in terms of the lifestyles we lead, it’s easy for our good intentions about God and our faith to get squeezed out of the way. You know that some of the places where Christianity is growing the most, where the people are the most on fire for God, is where they have the worst quality of life. The people have nothing, they face persecution and, possibly, even death for their faith. But their faith is all they have and they cling to it. Doubtless the people during Micah’s time felt somewhat the same. It wasn’t a great time to be an Israelite. There is a reason that Jews during that period were hoping for and
crying out for a savior. There were catalytic events in their lives that spurred the kind of faithful change that they wanted to make. They were able to make that commitment to God in a new way. We can, and should, do the same thing. It can be as simple as getting involved in a Bible study, deciding to attend a GTW course or starting each day with prayer or in the Word of God.
❸ We Need to GO Act on Our Faith
Faith isn’t just about words and setting an example, it’s about putting those ideas into practice. You’ve probably heard the phrase faith without deeds is dead. That comes from the book of James, and it’s one of the most misunderstood concepts in Christianity. Some think that James is saying that you have to do good works to earn your salvation. That’s a misinterpretation of the passage and bad theology. James isn’t saying you have to do good works to earn salvation, what he’s saying is that if you have real faith, if you truly believe in the Gospel and it’s taken root in your heart, your actions will reflect that. Your life will reflect that. That’s something that the great author Leo Tolstoy was touching on when he said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” In other words, the change has to start with us. Our behavior, our actions are the only things we can control. We can all do something, and we all should do something. It doesn’t have to be big; it doesn’t have to be costly; it just has to be real. So this year, let’s continue to Love, Grow, Go — Together! Matthew Fox is the Manager of Communications at First Pres.
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The Just Church Workshop Saturday, February 2 9 to 11 a.m. Fellowship Hall Led by Jim Martin, VP of Church Mobilization for International Justice Mission and author of The Just Church Continental Breakfast served, $10 Nursery by reservation only, by January 25 (infant -K) What does it look like to be a just church? Where do we begin, and how to we build on the foundations already in place? At this workshop, we will explore the call to Biblical justice in practical ways both as a church and as individuals representing God's heart in all spheres of life. Register at www.firstpres.org or at 884-6144. Jim’s book will be available for purchase for $10. JIM MARTIN WILL ALSO BE PREACHING ON FEBRUARY 3 IN ALL WORSHIP SERVICES, AND HOSTING A BROWN BAG LUNCH AT 12:20 P.M. IN THE FELLOWSHIP HALL. 1/13 | www.first-pres.org | 11
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