Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

06 Apr

COLORADO SPRINGS CENTRAL CELEBRATE COMMUNION WITH HOMELESS

RMCNews with Brenda Maldonado – Colorado Springs, Colorado … Some 20 Colorado Springs Central members spent Easter in the community making more than 200 breakfast burritos, putting together hygiene gift bags, giving donations, and going out to deliver the gifts to the homeless.

The congregation has built relationships with the homeless community and now they call each other friends and look forward to each visit.

Brenda Maldonado commented on the experience of getting to know the community: “Every recipient was so grateful for the gifts of food and toiletries. So many, after saying ‘Thank you,’ followed with, ‘God bless you’. Many know us and our church now, but some always ask where we are from.”

Because the group was celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus, Mike Maldonado, Colorado Springs Central pastor, provided communion for those in the homeless community who desired it. Many did want communion and were pleasantly surprised that a pastor would come out to pray for them and then serve them the emblems of the body and blood of Christ. “So many love God, but feel that the church would not want them there,” explained Brenda Maldonado

One member described the scene saying, “It was such a beautiful moment, witnessing [them] take part in the body and blood of Christ. Nothing brings more happiness when tears of joy come because of Jesus,” Ruth Lagos said.

Mike Maldonado commented that celebrating communion was a highlight for him. “Handing out communion,” he said, “was one of the highlights of my 30 years in ministry. Nothing compares to offering the body and blood of Christ to those marginalized by the church and society. I never felt closer to Jesus than when handing out communion on Easter morning to the homeless.”

The members spent time fellowshipping with those in the homeless camp including a man named Justin who visited the church the week before.

Colorado Springs Central makes sandwiches and puts together 125 lunches every Sabbath for the homeless, and delivers them after second service.

–RMCNews with Brenda Maldonado, Colorado Springs Central member; photo courtesy of Mike Maldonado Facebook

05 Apr

Pueblo church members get in the groove

RMCNews with Joey Perrin – Pueblo, Colorado … After a long winter spent inside, Pueblo church members began exploring ways to fellowship outdoors. Out of this exploration, they created “Sunday Groove,” a program that involves various events which include exercising.

The program was introduced to church members with the goal of getting physical and getting to know each other better.

Reflecting on the new program, Pueblo member Joey Perrin commented, “We have decided to start challenging ourselves more physically and have different levels of fitness [goals] for everyone to get involved in. Mountain biking is a great way to get off the beaten path and get out there with God’s creation and each other.”

On a Sunday morning, March 7, the small group gathered at the church with their bikes to begin their day of exploring the Pueblo area.

“We meandered around and went down Pedro’s point. Taking breaks along the way to hydrate and take in the beauty, we made it to the end with grand views of the reservoir and the open spaces,” Perrin said.

The church is looking forward to continuing “Sunday Grove” adventures in April.

–RMCNews with Joey Perrin a member of Pueblo church; photo by Unsplash

01 Apr

COMMENTARY — RECONCILING THE RESURRECTION — OUR FAITH IN THE CROSS—AND THE EMPTY TOMB

By Andy Nash … Years ago, news anchor Tom Brokaw was asked, “If you could interview any figure in history, who would it be?”

Brokaw replied, “Jesus of Nazareth, for all the obvious reasons.”

Sometimes we might take for granted that Jesus of Nazareth isn’t just the most influential Jewish person who ever lived; Jesus is most influential person who ever lived.

That Jesus was crucified also finds near-universal agreement. Agnostic Bart Erhman calls Jesus’ crucifixion an undisputable fact, while liberal scholar Jean Dominic Crossan says, “That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical ever can be.”

But it’s not only modern scholars that accept that a man named Jesus of Nazareth lived and taught in Galilee and then was condemned and crucified in a rock quarry outside the gates of Jerusalem.

Early evidence for the Roman crucifixion of Jesus is found not only in the four extraordinary documents we know as the gospels, but in Jewish and Roman sources as well.

The Roman historian Tacitus wrote of a group called Christians whose founder “Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus” (Annals, Book 15, Chapter 44).

Notice that Tacitus mentions Pontius Pilate, one of Rome’s many governors. For centuries there was no archaeological evidence for the existence of Pontius Pilate until 1961 when excavators at Caesarea found a piece of limestone with an inscription bearing the name of Pontius Pilate.

So, the truth of the crucifixion of Jesus at order of Pontius Pilate isn’t the hard part for people. The hard part—the stumbling block—is the resurrection: the idea that Jesus of Nazareth, who was dead on a Friday afternoon, became alive again on a Sunday morning—that to this today there’s a tomb in Jerusalem that once contained the body of Jesus . . . and then suddenly could not.

It’s the belief not only in the cross but in the empty tomb—and a risen Jesus—that sets apart Christians from everyone else.

“If Christ has not been raised,” wrote the former Pharisee Paul, “our preaching is useless and so is your faith. . . . If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Cor. 15:13).

When we come to the resurrection of Jesus, there are two options. The first option is to view this story as sentimental propaganda written by a few lonely followers of Jesus somehow trying to keep him alive. The second option is to take the resurrection story literally—as an authentic account of something extraordinary that happened.

Using Women as Witnesses

If you were concocting a fake story of the resurrection of Jesus, there are two things you wouldn’t do.

First, you wouldn’t use women as witnesses. In first-century culture, a woman’s testimony was not considered reliable. To use Mary Magdalene and other women as primary witnesses, as all the gospels do, wouldn’t have made any sense from a credibility standpoint.

The only reason anyone would use women as witnesses is . . . if they really were. Modern scholars call this the criterion of embarrassment. It actually lends tremendous credibility to the resurrection story for the writer to tell what really happened—that women were the first witnesses and proclaimers of the gospel—even if this were less convincing to the original audience.

Getting Your Story Straight

Second, if the resurrection story was only propaganda, you wouldn’t have differences in your accounts. You’d get your story straight. Critics have pointed out the following variants in the four gospel accounts.

Matthew: 1 angel; 2 women; women cling to Jesus

Mark: 1 angel; 3 women

Luke: 2 angels; 5+ women

John: 2 angels; 1 woman; Jesus tells Mary, “Don’t cling”

In Matthew and Mark, only one angel is mentioned at the tomb. In Luke and John, there are two angels. In the gospel of John, Mary Magdalene is the only woman at the tomb. In the other gospels, there’s a group of women. What to do with all these differences?

A friend of mine, college professor Chris Blake, once had something interesting happen during one of his classes. The department secretary, Jana, walked in with some photocopies Chris had requested. As she handed the copies to Chris, they accidentally dropped to the floor.

“I’ll get them,” Chris said.

“No,” replied Jana, “I’ll get them. I do everything else around here.”

The awkward exchange between professor and secretary continued—all in front of the stunned students. Finally, the secretary stormed out of the classroom, and Chris turned toward his class.

“Okay,” he said, “I want you to write down exactly what happened here: what we said, what Jana was wearing, the exact sequence of events and dialog.”

Chris had set up the whole thing ahead of time.

Incredibly, as the students wrote down what happened just seconds earlier, every account was a little different. I’ve done this same experiment in my own classes; no two accounts have ever been the same.

So the apparent differences in perspectives of the resurrection may add credibility. After all, if someone saw only one angel, it doesn’t mean there weren’t two angels. And just because Mary was mentioned specifically doesn’t mean there weren’t also other women.

In fact, when put together into a single portrait, the supposed differences in the resurrection accounts actually complement each other.

I love how Ellen White, in her classic work The Desire of Ages, reconciles the different resurrection accounts so beautifully.

Sit back and take in the resurrection story again—for the first time. Read Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 788-793.

–Andy Nash is lead pastor at Littleton Adventist church and author who leads a study tour to Israel each summer. Contact him at [email protected]

01 Apr

CELEBRATING 35 YEARS OF ERIC NELSON’S RMC MINISTRY

RMCNews – Littleton, Colorado … Conference office staff gathered with Eric Nelson’s family on March 31 to celebrate Nelson’s 35 years of ministry in RMC and to bid him farewell as he moves on to a new chapter of life–retirement.

Limited by large gathering restrictions, the celebration wasn’t limited in the tears, laughter, and appreciation for Nelson’s dedication.

The group enjoyed walking down memory lane as Lonnie Hetterle, former RMC director of education, hosted the hour-long event, which included a video from Nelson’s 93-year-old mother recalling Eric’s passion for ministry at a young age and Craig Carr, former RMC ministerial director reminiscing on working alongside Eric for many years. Former pastoral colleague, Steve Schwartz, who worked with Eric at Campion while they were students, sent a letter reminiscing on their dozens of years in the ministry in RMC, and Nelson’s 3-year-old granddaughter stole the show by wishing her grandpa congratulations on his retirement.

Online comments by individuals blessed by his ministry quickly flooded the chat screen. “Pastor Nelson, you were a real blessing for Vivien and me during our time in Colorado. Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for always being there for us,” Ruddy Vivanco said.

Hozho Nahasdlii Nizhonigo remembers Nelson’s support for La Vida Mission. “Thank you for giving your life to the church. We are recipients of God’s blessings through you. Thank you for your love and support to La Vida Mission. You are one of Heaven’s greatest gifts to us.”

Bible worker Harold Alomia recalls the first time he met Nelson. “It was 2003. I had landed in Farmington NM. There was a town-hall event, and the RMC administration was in town. Eric was there and was friendly and encouraging to this unknown kid from Peru working there as a Bible worker.”

“Over the years, Alomia continued, “Eric has been a presence in my ministry–a friend, a mentor. He was supportive, caring, and firm when needed during my time in RMC. Eric, thank you for your care and for your ministry. You and Jerene are a blessing and it’s a privilege to have looked up to you as a leader.”

As the event drew to a close, George Crumley presented Eric and his wife, Jerene, a small financial gift of appreciation from the Rocky Mountain Conference. Ed Barnett, RMC president, becoming emotional at times, closed the event by thanking Eric for all the support, mentorship, and friendship over the many years.

Eric expressed his appreciation to those who had gathered, saying he was trading in his work hat for his cowboy hat. He shared how he will miss the daily work, but that he is committed to staying connected to RMC as a church member.

–RMCNews; photos by Rajmund Dabrowski

01 Apr

Student Opinion: Resilience in the rain

By Sharmaine Monreal … I belong to the high school graduating class of 2021. Last year, I watched as people sympathized with the class that came before me, giving their heartfelt support for what the seniors had to go through: the infamous global COVID-19 pandemic that struck in the spring. It robbed them of their ability to socialize and the opportunity to learn together in-person. It even canceled their senior trip. Everyone expected it to end as quickly as it came, but it didn’t.

When school started in the fall of 2020, a new kind of normal had to be defined. My class had to enter into our senior year—which they say should be the most fun and the most cherished—embracing the fact that it was most likely never going to return to the way it was before. But despite it all, I witnessed something remarkable. I witnessed resilience.

Twenty-seven teenagers huddled under a white tent, just big enough to shelter all of them and their supervisors, as the rain pounded on the tarpaulin roof and the cold mountain air left them damp and freezing. It was a sorry sight. The gas stoves in the tent were turned on to serve as a source of warmth and dryness for the shivering teens. Patiently, they waited for the rain to subside. It never did. Senior survival, an annual tradition of my school, was ruined.

Amidst the apprehension, the natural playfulness of the boys in my class bubbled over. I sat on a cooler in a trailer attached to the tent and stared in amazement as they grouped into a circle and began singing in Spanish at the top of their lungs. A few of the girls joined along. With a good percentage of the class being Hispanic, the remainder of us watched their impromptu concert from the trailer. My fingers and my toes were freezing, but I smiled. Just a few minutes before, everyone had been quiet and watched the downpour with dread. We knew that our makeshift tents could have been torn down by the wind. We knew that the rest of our activities for the day would be affected by this setback. There was even a rumor that we would have to be pulled down from the mountain. And yet, here was Campion Academy’s class of 2021, singing like there was no tomorrow.

When the rain finally stopped and the news came that we indeed had to leave camp, the singing stopped and was replaced by tears and grumbles. We packed up our belongings, piled into a bus and a van, and returned to the campus of our private institution. The next day, everyone was cheerful and willing to make the best of whatever change of plans there were. Gone were the tears and the complaints. We sat on the stage of the school’s chapel, prayed for each other and sang praise songs. When the supervisors apologized for cutting our camping trip short, all that could be heard was, “It’s alright. We can still have fun!”

The rest of the school year looked like that. COVID-19 took sports and music away from us. It sent us on unexpected trips back home and had us begrudgingly take classes online for weeks. There were major hiccups in our plans and none of us liked them, but we swallowed the bitter pills and moved on.

Despite the grievances brought upon my classmates and me by the Coronavirus, our bond as a class grew stronger, and we did it with faith that God was in control of the situations we faced. This is how I would define resilience. We didn’t initially bear the uncomfortable changes with grace, but we wiped our tears away and got back up. We pressed forward with smiles on our faces and the belief that though things wouldn’t get better right away, we could still make the best of any situation. And as my class of 2021 graduates and enters the big world this summer, I know that we’ll carry this valuable asset of resilience into the unforeseen future.

–Sharmaine Monreal is a senior at Campion Academy; photo supplied

01 Apr

VISTA RIDGE ACADEMY GOES AROUND THE WORLD

By Marsha Bartulec … Erie, Colorado … Participants in the annual Vista Ridge Academy (VRA) scholarship gala traveled “around the world” during the virtual event. The evening affair featured ten unique desserts from different parts of the world.

Some 50 participants were invited to the event and were given the option of picking up a dessert box or having it delivered.

Brittany McLachlan began the virtual event by sharing her connection to VRA across the years, going from student-to-student teacher, to current parent and board member. VRA teachers introduced themselves from their classrooms and announced the winners of the drawings for six items: iPad, $250 Target gift card, The Grey House basket, a custom address sign, a photography session with Brittany McLachlan and tickets to the Denver Zoo.

Boulder Adventist church senior pastor Geoff Patterson presented a worship thought on why parents send their children to a Christian school and Rebecca Murdock interviewed teaching principal, Sandy Hodgson.

Hodgson reflected on how the school year has been different this year and shared information on the scholarship program. “One hundred percent of our students benefit from subsidized tuition due to the support of our constituent churches–Boulder church and Chapel Haven church. Beyond the subsidized tuition, about 25% of our students receive financial aid each year.”

The evening culminated with the Virtual Auction hosted by Mr. E., a.k.a. Boulder church associate pastor James Murdock. The items auctioned included themed baskets from each class from Italy, the Middle East, Hawaii, Mexico, Germany and Puerto Rico. Kodo Kids store donated a Rainbow Peg Board and Northland Violins donated a violin for the auction.

Because of the generous support of Avista Adventist Hospital and several local businesses (Brew, COSTCO, Crumbl, Daylight Donuts of Dacono, DP Sweets, Trader Joes and Whole Foods), all event costs were underwritten, and every dollar raised went directly to scholarships. The evening events raised more than $7,500 toward the scholarship fund.

–Marsha Bartulec is vice principal of administration at Vista Ridge Academy; photos supplied

30 Mar

SPRINGS ACADEMY STUDENTS HAVE FUN TALKING ABOUT GOD

RMCNews with Michelle Velbis – Colorado Springs, Colorado … With active songs, fun activities, and bottom lines that taught about the love of God, Springs Adventist Academy (SAA) students enjoyed a special week of prayer.

Students participated in presentations about becoming “Fully Alive through Jesus” from Kiefer and Jessyka Dooley, RMC youth leaders, and speaker John Redmond, youth leader for Colorado Springs Central church.

“It was amazing and fun. We did some fun activities and we got to talk about God,” said third grader Mayson Tucker.

Jessyka Dooley commented about the fun the youth department had spending time with the students. “It was incredible to connect with Springs Adventist Academy. The students have a joy and energy that is contagious. We had so much fun going through the story of Zaccheus, learning new dance moves, playing games, trying new experiments and, most importantly, learning how we can live Fully Alive through Jesus!”

Michelle Velbis, SAA principal, reflecting on the week-long event, was grateful for RMC youth department spending time at the school. “Our staff at SAA is so thankful for people who want to partner with us to share God’s love and passion with young people. Kiefer, Jessyka, and John were so generous with their time and talents. They had a lot of energy and sincerity about how God sees us and cares.”

“I learned more about God and how He sees us,” said Darrick Grant, sixth grader. “We had lots of fun and it made everyone happy.”

Velbis added that “the students could talk about God all day. They are hungry to know Him more.”

–RMCNews with Michelle Velbis, principal of Springs Adventist Academy; photos supplied

River is showing Kiefer his “Tony Hawk” sweatshirt because one of the stories talked about famous people and used Tony Hawk as an illustration.

30 Mar

HMS RICHARDS MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE PLANNING THEIR FUTURE

By Jill Harlow – Loveland, Colorado … HMS Richards middle school seventh and eighth graders had an unusual visitor in March—a college recruiter. While it may seem unusual for college recruiters to reach out to students before high school, Jessica Williams, recruiter from Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee, spoke to the students about the ways they can prepare in high school for a successful transition to college.

Casey Jordan, seventh and eighth grade teacher, originally made contact with Williams when she reached out to all the Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities to ask for logo mugs for students to use for hot drinks while they work on writing in the classroom. That connection sparked the idea for Williams to visit with the class when she came to meet with Campion Academy seniors.

Williams emphasized two things in high school that students can do when planning for college.

First, she said, “Do your best right away. Don’t wait until you are a junior and then wish that you hadn’t gotten that low grade because you didn’t care when you were a freshman.” Second, “Get involved, be a well-rounded person, try music, sports, leadership, student association, church involvement and more.”

Jordan reflected, “The students had a lot of questions and enjoyed the conversation with Miss Jessica. It was a great experience as it allowed the kids to see how their futures are affected by the choices they make today.”

–Jill Harlow is Campion Academy’s communication director; photo supplied

29 Mar

STANDING ON ONE’S HEAD

By Rajmund Dabrowski … I liked standing on my head because it made me see old things in a new way. I liked it because it made life seem exciting and unpredictable. —Barbara Brown Taylor, Gospel Medicine, p. 159

It was just about the end of February 2004 when my cardiologist strongly recommended that I should change my lifestyle. If you are to live with no hiccups, you need to slow down and apply breaks to the speed you are living.

I thought I knew what he was saying. Among my initial thoughts was a strange notion—for a person who was engaged in a “healthy religion,” could this mean becoming less religious? How can this be when my church promotes healthy living, yet my heart was not working according to its required tempo? What had to change?

What happened next may not be the prescription for everyone. I, however, needed a radical change.

I went home straight to a filing cabinet. On the way, I grabbed a black Husky drawstring trash bag, the “nothing’s tougher” sort and began emptying sermon files, some of them dating back to 1972. I looked (with nostalgia, I suppose) at the early dates and yellowing sheets of notes, most typewritten, and said goodbye!

I was responding to my need for a radical change, inspired by a haunting admonition: “I am after mercy, not religion.” I needed newness even in the way I approached being a Christian. I reclaimed my Bible study by joining a “discipleship class” with a group of fellow believers from Sligo Church (thank you, Dave Brillhart!). This simple decision was instrumental to reform my thinking and understanding of what it means to walk the talk.

The biblical-times prophets are a group of God’s communicators. They had two challenges—understand the message and know how to deliver it. Take Jonah. He was sent to a city to deliver the message of a needed repentance, but in his view, it was a useless exercise. He was even angry at God, but as it usually happens, the Source of messaging did not budge. God did not mind Jonah’s anger. It was Jonah who was “greatly displeased and became angry” (4:1) and opted to see Ninevah’s destruction rather than its salvation. But God was not the one who gave up. It was Jonah who was ready to die and win the duel with his “Employer.” However, God had a better plan and helped him to see that His missionary had a job to do, by hook or by crook.

Message delivery was a challenge for another prophet, Isaiah. Abraham Joshua Heschel comments about Isaiah’s challenge: He [Isaiah] is told to face his people while standing on his head. Did he not question his own faculties of seeing, hearing, and understanding when perceiving such a message? (Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets, p. 89)

Isaiah’s dilemma was in dealing with the message he is to communicate by framing it by a method of delivery— hearing, but not listening, seeing, but not perceiving. We are continually challenged to tell the truth in a new way.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:19, NIV).

We are also challenged to turn the world upside down, seeing the people but flipping the script, seeing the people but from a different perspective. We are challenged to not do church the same way we have been doing, on and on and on. It forces us to see our mission differently.

Jesus constantly reminded His audience that if you have eyes, look, and if you have ears, listen.

Are you listening to me? Really listening? “How can I account for this generation? The people have been like spoiled children whining to their parents, ‘We wanted to skip rope, and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk, but you were always too busy.’ John came fasting and they called him crazy. I came feasting and they called me a lush, a friend of the riffraff. Opinion polls don’t count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating” (Matthew 11:15-19, MSG).

Change. Could we consider the option of seeing our Christian mission by looking at the world upside down? The world looks funny upside down, but maybe that is just how it looks when you have got your feet planted in heaven,” writes Barbara Brown Taylor. “Jesus did it all the time and seemed to think we could do it too. So blessed are those who stand on their heads, for they shall see the world as God sees it. They shall find themselves in good company, turned upside down by the only one who really knows which way is up (Gospel Medicine, p.163).

It’s worth risking standing on our heads. It’s also radical, and it may just bring the needed change. That’s God’s way forward.

–Rajmund Dabrowski is RMC communication director. Email him at: [email protected]

29 Mar

LOVING BEFORE WITNESSING

By Ron Price … I believe Adventist doctrine appeals to the intellectual mind. Being a member of the Mensa Society, what other church could I possibly consider joining? (Side note: If you do not know what the Mensa Society is, please Google it so you will get my humor, and no, I am not a member.)

Seriously, our message is so grounded in Biblical Truth and makes such rational sense that we sometimes expect people to accept it on that basis alone. But, aye, thars the rub. Especially these days, perhaps, people are not focused solely on rational thought. With the stress and strain of life, other matters typically take precedence. The state of the dead, vital as it may be, simply does not matter to one who is hungry, or grieving, or struggling to stay alive. Nor is it significant to someone who has been hurt or mistreated by a church member, but that is a matter for a separate column.

While I would never suggest we veer away from or somehow cheapen our message—make that God’s message—I do believe we need to be more focused on meeting people’s felt needs before we seek to bring them to a knowledge of “the truth.” Yes, Truth is essential and should always be a component of our mission, ministry, and outreach, but without love, we will come across as a clanging cymbal (see 1 Cor 13:1-4).

For too long now, we have relied on the Truth of our message to win souls for The Kingdom and to fulfill our part of the Great Commission. Maybe that is working at your church, but I doubt it is working everywhere. Some people will respond to a flyer they receive in the mail, but I dare say the vast majority will not. Many more are likely to respond favorably to an invitation from someone they know cares about them and has their welfare in mind.

The planning for an evangelistic series of meetings cannot begin with designing and purchasing a flyer. It must start with building relationships and showing people we genuinely care about them. We could do this through a series of non-religious outreaches. Our church has a plethora (I just love that word) of resources to help people in every area of their lives. Our health message is without comparison. We have programs that any church could deliver to help people meet their relationship needs, financial awareness needs, mental/emotional health needs, dietary needs, etc.

The 20th century English economist John Maynard Keynes said: “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping old ones.” I doubt he said that with our present-day church in mind, but he could have. We have been following a model of evangelism for so long that some might believe it comes straight out of the Book of Acts.

I am a product of the church’s evangelistic outreach, so I dare not be too critical. But that, I have to say, was 40 years ago. I hope I am not the first to tell you that things have changed a bit since then, but our methods not so much. Of course, that is not a universal indictment of our church or our “movement”—I haven’t heard that term in a while. I’m certain many churches have adapted to the times and are reaching out in new ways to reach a new world.

One outreach I recently became aware of is found in The Inviting Church by Mitchell L Williams. In it, Pastor Williams provides a model for loving your neighbor before you witness to them. Or better yet, you witness through your love and service before you witness through your knowledge of the Truth. That sounds like a great idea to me—what say you?

–Ron Price is a member of the RMC Executive Committee and lives in Farmington, New Mexico. Email him at: [email protected]