A few months ago, our church sponsored and hosted an event for men that was new and unique to the Arkansas Valley of Southeastern Colorado.  We referred to the event as a “Cattle Feed”—a Western themed extravaganza of food, fellowship, and spiritual enrichment.  Ultimately our goal was to see men of all ages and all backgrounds come to a place where they could be spiritually encouraged and empowered and, in turn, pour that spiritual enthusiasm back into their respective churches, families, and communities.  The event, by all calculations, was a tremendous success.

 

While the goal was spiritual enrichment, the drawing card was definitely physical nourishment—that, and the over two dozen door prizes that were distributed.  The event was billed as a “contest” to see which man could create the best beef dish in Southeastern Colorado.  We figured we would get lots of good food that night and we were not disappointed.  In all, 26 beef dishes of all varieties were served up by the men, so we ate really, really good that evening.  The food was absolutely excellent and the fellowship around the table was very edifying.  All told, 43 men came from numerous churches of various denominations representing multiple communities in the Arkansas Valley.

 

As aforementioned, the food was the drawing card, but the personal and spiritual enrichment that took place was definitely the purpose of the event.  Following a scrumptious dinner, the men filed upstairs to the church sanctuary where we had an eclectic program that lasted about an hour.  The program featured 10-15 minutes of corporate worship and it was awesome to hear men from every walk of life singing to our Lord!  The worship segment was followed by a very meaningful message by Jeff Harris, a Christian farm banker from Western Nebraska who happens to be a good friend of mine.  Jeff challenged all of us men to live lives of humility and integrity, fully devoted to Jesus Christ.  All in all, our first “Cattle Feed” event—something that we are hopeful will become an annual staple here in the Arkansas Valley—turned into an evening of tremendous encouragement and inspiration for all who attended.

 

From a pastoral standpoint, the “Cattle Feed” Men’s Event was a huge delight!  Obviously it was wonderful to have that many men from our community in our church building that evening.  Still, the greater joy by far was to see how men of our little, small town congregation got behind this massive undertaking and made it fly.  Our church was solely responsible for the organization of the event.  I formed a steering committee of 4 men besides myself and they really bought into the concept.  Many others helped in various capacities as well.  The comradery and enthusiasm the event generated within our congregation was worth all the planning and preparation alone, not to mention the dozens of men who were obviously enriched and inspired that night.  Through this and other meaningful events and enterprises our church has undertaken, people in our small, older congregation are beginning to realize that they can still accomplish great things for the cause of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  To God alone be the glory!  I can hardly wait til next year!

 

Sonrise Baptist Church in West Valley City, Utah celebrated Easter with a number of different activities.  It is unlikely that anyone could have attended one of the activities without learning of or remembering Jesus’ gift for all of us.

The first activity was the Good Friday service.  This somber service concentrated on songs and Scriptures that talk about Jesus’ crucifixion.  We had the chance to hammer nails into a cross representing the nailing of our sins to the cross.  After, we celebrated Communion together.  At the end of the service, the lights were dimmed as we exited quietly reflecting on Jesus’ sacrifice.  Thinking about the facts of the crucifixion is always a bittersweet time.  What Jesus went through was terrible, but we remember that it shows how much He loves us.

Saturday morning brought an Easter Egg Hunt.  Some eggs held only candy, while others were filled with something much more nourishing:  God’s Word!  After the hunt, families were invited into the church to learn about the Resurrection Eggs.  Cherie Bonzo  facilitated this event where kids found specifically numbered eggs containing a physical reminder of something from the Easter story.  Items included inside the eggs were, among others, nails which represented the nails that held Jesus to the cross, dice which represented the dice that the soldiers used to gamble for Jesus’ clothing and a stone representing the stone rolled in front of Jesus’ tomb.  The final egg was empty which represented the empty tomb.

Sunday morning was brought in with a few inches of snow on the ground.  Because of that, it was decided to conduct the sunrise service inside the church.  The service was held in the foyer so that we could still enjoy the sunrise.  Squeezing so many people into such a small area definitely brought us closer together!  The theme of the service was clearly “He is Risen!”  “He has Risen Indeed!”  Pastor Troy Bassham spoke about the first visitors to the empty tomb on the first Easter morning and why their testimony was valid.

Breakfast followed the sunrise service.  We enjoyed great conversation with old and new friends over delicious bagels and a good cup of coffee. It was nice to spend quality time with others – something we don’t usually get to do during the busyness of an average Sunday morning.

The regular worship service brought a great time of praising God with some favorite songs about Jesus’ resurrection.  Pastor Troy shared about the disciple Thomas who is usually referred to as “Doubting Thomas.”  He challenged us to think about him as “Believing Thomas.” 

But, the best part of the entire weekend was when we witnessed seven people obeying the Lord’s command and entering into the waters of baptism, declaring that they are new creations because of the resurrection of their Savior!

This Easter season, the various congregations at Clear Creek Valley Church in Wheat Ridge, Colorado held a combined service on Palm Sunday, all meeting at the same time in the sanctuary for the morning service.  We have found that since Easter and Christmas traditions vary in different cultures, Palm Sunday and Thanksgiving are good times for the combined services.  When this happens, the pews, the balcony and extra chairs are all brought into use.  To experience the Scripture, prayers and music presented in Russian, Spanish and English is truly awe-inspiring.  It demonstrates that God is and has been at work in ALL cultures.

Each time we bring our four congregations (which consists of a Russian speaking, a Hispanic speaking and 2 English speaking congregations) together, we learn how to conduct the service better.  The Scriptures that are being read in one language, is being shown on a screen as a power point presentation in the other languages. Each Pastor brought prearranged Scripture that moved us from Palm Sunday thru Good Friday and prepared us for Easter.  Since English is the common language, especially among the younger, head phones and translation is only needed for recent arrivals or those not schooled or working in English.

These congregations all make up the membership of the one church and it is encouraging to see the ministry being done as each congregation assists the others.  As one of the English pastors, it again reminds me that America is only 5% of the world’s population and that we are now the mission field.

The Hispanic congregation meets in our chapel on Sundays and Wednesdays while the main sanctuary is used by one of the English congregations.   On any given Wednesday night, we feed about 100 people, before we break into study groups.   This is, primarily, a ministry of our English congregation, although the Hispanic youth and adults join in to help.

The Russian congregation takes over the premises on Sunday afternoon until after 7:00 p,m. They hold their midweek service on Thursday night and conduct youth group on Friday evenings.

Harry Olsen & Paul Fischer are working with the twenty/early thirties group (the emerging generation) on Wednesday evening.  Following the meal they meet in Harry’s home, which is walking distance from the church, for study (the room they were using in the church got too noisy with youth upstairs!).  This group is planning to start a Friday evening church service as soon as they get their “group” organized. 

In addition, we have three schools (preschool through 12th grade) using the classrooms and park during the days.

God is at work in this neighborhood church locating in a culture-changing area west of Denver.  Praise His name!