“We all know as Seventh-day Adventists, that we are a people of the future. We know where we are going and Jesus is preparing a place for us,” says Ed Barnett, RMC president in his special message to RMC church members.
He continues: “But also, we are a people for today. Those around us need to see in as a people of hope, hope lived out today.”
Denver, Colorado … Like never before, our world is turning to prayer. The crisis at hand causes most of us who are followers of God to take a reflective step back and, like Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:12, say, “We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you!” Responsibly following guidelines to help “flatten the curve,” learning the challenge of “social distancing,” and receiving messages on our phones that give “shelter in place” directives – we didn’t even have those words on our radar a month ago.
But what we did have, and what we do have and what we will have is a mighty God who invites us to “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me,” (Psalm 50:15). We, in the Rocky Mountain Conference, we believe in prayer. We’ve got prayer calls up all over the conference where members gather to pray!
Sabbath, April 4, has been designated as a special Day of Fasting and Prayer to pray for our people, our communities, and our world in light of the COVID-19 crisis. We invite you to plan now to be part of that day! Yes, it will be an unusual Sabbath – we’ll be worshiping at a distance from each other, but our hearts will be closely united in prayer!
A prayer guide, helpful hints for fasting, and other materials for this day based on 2 Chronicles 20, will be uploaded shortly to www.rmcsda.org/prayer. We invite you to join with your families and your church families to pray. We’ll also have a Rocky Mountain Conference prayer time together, Sabbath, April 4, 8-9 a.m., to start the day, and 6:30-7:30 p.m. to end the day with our eyes on God! Plan now to join! Call 605-468-8026 and enter the access code 1010801# RMC – Let’s PRAY!
100 Days of Prayer .Around the world, we thought we’d be praying for 100 days leading up to the General Conference Session in Indianapolis this year. The devotions were written and everything was “all systems, GO!” But…the world changed, and the 100 days of prayer has changed with it! Please join with brothers and sisters around the world to pray for 100 days, Beginning Friday, March 27, and continuing until July 4. You can sign up to receive a devotional thought and prayer prompts for each day at https://www.revivalandreformation.org/100days
RMC- Let’s PRAY!
—DeeAnn Bragaw, RMC Prayer Ministry Coordinator; photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Littleton, Colorado … Coronavirus Covid-19 does not stop church life. In an eerily quiet and nearly-empty sanctuary, Littleton Adventist Church welcomed their new pastoral team on Sabbath morning, March 21.
Seventh-day Adventist churches throughout the Rocky Mountain Conference are closed in compliance with government decisions as the country and world are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, with Sabbath worship conducted via live streaming. But, life of the church continues, though with inconveniences.
Standing at a social distance, Ed Barnett, RMC president, who was the visiting preacher that day, offered a dedication prayer over new lead pastor Andy Nash, new associate pastor, Chris Morris, who will join the team July 1, and current associate pastor Alise Weber, who is hired locally.
In his sermon Pastor Barnett referenced Matthew 24 about the hope in the Second Coming of Jesus and signs of the times. “We can see this happening before our eyes,” Barnett said about the Covid–19. “Brothers and sisters, are we living in perilous times today…everything that He says that will happen at the last days is happening around us today.” He concluded, “Jesus is coming soon…we need to live faithful lives for Jesus at the end of times.”
“It’s definitely an unusual way to begin a pastoral assignment—not seeing anyone,” said Nash. “But I think for all pastors and churches right now, there’s almost an early-church feel to this—a longing to be together as a church family. I feel so blessed to be able to work with Alise and Chris in ministry together.”
Nash has been sharing a verse online: “Brothers and sisters, having been separated from each other for a short time in presence, not in heart, we endeavor more eagerly to see you face to face” (1 Thess 2:17).
Morris is currently a full-time middle school teacher at Mile High Academy, but says he’s truly excited about his return to pastoral ministry. Morris will lead the worship, youth, and visitation ministries at Littleton.
Weber has been children’s pastor at Littleton the past two years. “I have seen God’s hand and leading throughout the past year, and I feel so blessed to be working with both Pastors Andy Nash and Chris Morris,” she said. “In these unique circumstances, where we are required to be apart, I believe it is God’s timing that we join together now to creatively nurture our congregation. ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him’” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
“Great days lie ahead for the Littleton church,” commented Barnett. “They have a tremendous team of pastors. They are very gifted and dedicated,” he added.
—Jon Roberts, text and photo
This Tuesday I began my online Junior Bible class at Mile High Academy by asking my 12 students a simple question: “How are you, really?”
By my tone of voice, the students could tell this wasn’t an ordinary question. I hadn’t seen them for 11 days—the last Friday chapel before spring break. Their life and world had changed dramatically.
One by one, they answered the question with more candor and sobriety than I’d ever heard in their voices.
“To be honest, I’m depressed,” said one student. “It’s just so hard to be away from everyone.”
Several other students shared their own struggle with loneliness.
A few of the students didn’t want to say much, which I understood. I would have been the same way as a junior in high school.
Then one student said: “I just feel like Jesus is about to come back. I don’t know why, but I really feel that way.”
It was interesting. The focus of Junior Bible is Daniel and Revelation. Last semester the students were pretty into Daniel. But this semester they’ve struggled to get into Revelation.
Until now. On Tuesday—even online—they seemed more eager for Revelation than ever.
“Okay,” I said as the final student shared how they were doing. “Let’s turn to Revelation 12.”
“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains…”
So how are you, really?
—Andy Nash is the pastor of the Littleton Adventist Church. He also teaches junior Bible at Mile High Academy.
Denver, Colorado … The church is a beautiful organization, each unique in its location, size and number, yet the phenomenon that occur daily within our churches and that reach outside them represent the hands and feet of Christ at work. Our volunteers are extremely important.
Have you ever stopped to figure out the hourly value of a volunteer? Independent Sector has announced that the estimated value of a volunteer hour in the U.S. reached $25.43 in 2018, up nearly 3 percent from $24.69 in 2017. (See: philanthropynewsdigest.org April 2018)
Are you needed? Are you valuable? The church cannot function without you. Yes, you are needed and you are valuable!
During the pandemic, volunteering in your community is more important than ever. It is good to be reminded that we are the hands and feet of Christ showing His love to the hurting world. It matters not where you live. Local food pantries or other organizations can use your support. Join another local church that is sponsoring a food drive. Help deliver food to those who are shut ins. Walk the dogs at the local animal shelter. Check on your neighbors.
When you volunteer, please think of your community as a pond. The rippling of our community water is amazing. See how it works:
A. The Community of the inner circle: These include church family members who are elderly, who are caretakers, or have health issues such as with the respiratory system or the heart.
1. Make daily phone calls to check on them
2. See if your church could possibly purchase food items to deliver.
3. Hospital/nursing care facility visits are not allowing visitors, but you can call them.
4. Pray.
B. The Community of the larger circle: These include those within this community who are elderly or shut-in, caretakers, those with health issues, parents with children at home from school, restaurant and other such business workers. They could also include members of the church who have not been attending. How can you support these groups?
1. Volunteer to pick up prepaid supplies from stores.
2. Be watchful of all those around you.
3. Pray
C. The Community of the greater circle: These people include the community as a whole.
1. Register with 2-1-1 in your community online or call (Each State has 2-1-1).
2. Register with Spark the Change in Colorado website
3. Organize volunteer groups: Call your local food bank/pantry to find needs.
4. Pray
Please abide by the Order to Shelter in Place in your community. If you are going to volunteer, register before you go so you know when to go. Know what is expected of you when you report to the agency. When you register with an agency, make sure you tell them your age. Please, DO NOT VOLUNTEER if you are over 65 years of age or have a health condition that makes you more susceptible to the COVID-19 virus.
—Cathy Kissner, RMC Adventist Community Services director; photo by Isiah Gibson on Unsplash
Loveland, Colorado … COVID-19, self-quarantine, social-distancing! That’s all we have been hearing lately, not just on the news, but social media, TV, the radio, and basically everywhere. As most people are freaking out about the virus, making sure to be prepared for any situation such as a stay-at-home order, we high school seniors are more devastated than ever. With all the cancellations and closures, the Campion Class of 2020 is struggling.
At first it didn’t seem real, and at times it still doesn’t. With the first email we received, I saw that Music Tour was canceled, and with the emails that kept coming, it kept getting worse. Everything was being canceled, all of my “lasts” you could say, including our senior class trip.
It came expectedly, but it was still devastating to receive the email. It felt like the world around me was crumbling, and although that may sound dramatic: it’s true. For many of us seniors, those final school events have been our world. These last couple of months that were supposed to be spent with our friends, getting together for what may be the last times, is being spent in self-quarantine.
It stinks. There’s no other way to put it. The whole situation is ruining our senior year. Not only has this time been taken away from us, but we’re all worried about graduation being canceled. Finding out that my family who had been planning to fly in from the Philippines can no longer come was devastating. But realizing that we may or may not get a graduation is even more crushing. We have dreamed of the day we would wear a cap and gown, getting ready with all our friends to finally walk and receive our diploma, representing all of our hard work. And now that rite of passage may be ripped away from us.
With everything going on, it’s hard to find the good and to be positive-minded. One day as I was scrolling through Instagram for what seemed like the hundredth time, I saw something that said, “What if God has given you this time to spend with Him, to strengthen your relationship with Him?”
I believe that we are living in the end times, and it made me think that maybe God wants us to use this time to get ready and to help others be ready too. Even though everyone is going through challenging times, we as seniors should take this time to remember what is important.
As hard as it is, I choose to believe that God has something bigger and better planned. God has a way of surprising us when life doesn’t go the way we planned.
—Bela Cinco, Student Editor; photo from Mountain View Studio, used with permission
Denver, Colorado … “As COVID-19 sends the globe into crisis, it also sends us to our knees.” This sentence jumped at me from a page of an article in Christianity Today. An acknowledgement of our current predicament, it matches a call for all Seventh-day Adventists in Rocky Mountain Conference.
Last week, leaders of RMC called for our members to pause on Sabbath, April 4, to fast and pray, wherever we are. The NewsNuggets shared the call by saying: “[the] RMC team is designating April 4 as a day of fasting and prayer throughout the conference. All members are encouraged to consecrate themselves to pray for our conference, churches and communities. … Church leaders are encouraging all members during this critical time of COVID-19 pandemic to ‘take additional time for Bible study and prayer.’”
Ed Barnett, RMC president, commented, “It is my prayer that God will continue to bless you as we move through this trying time! Please use this time to spend more time in God’s Word”
Today, March 23, the officers of Rocky Mountain Conference issued a letter (read letter here) to all church members, which will be sent by regular mail. Relating to the Day of Fasting and Prayer, the leaders wrote, “If you have any extra time under our unique circumstances, please spend quality time in God’s word. It always gives hope and encouragement. We are having a special Sabbath on April 4. We have set this day aside as a Day of Fasting and Prayer for the Church in the Rocky Mountain Conference. I believe this can be a day to draw closer to Jesus and a day to bring our Conference and each member into prayer.”
Being a people of hope, may we always remember to recognize the presence of our Lord in our lives. As the psalmist wrote, “I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” (NRSV)
—Rajmund Dabrowski
Greeley, Colorado … Are worried about your reality? A story of personal experience that brings to life the story of Jesus in a boat with scared disciples, and he calms the storm. It is told by Erik Stenbakken of Stenkakken Media. He is a photographer, videographer, and once a voluntary teacher in Micronesia. This is a story for the time as ours – when fear encroaches on our faith.
He explains, “This is the true story of me and Fred (and 8 others) who were in a sinking boat. Already sunk it once, and the situation was looking just as bad now. It’s a story of how to move from fear to peace. Setting: Ant Atoll off the island of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.
I was reminded of this story from 1988 when I read the story of Jesus calming the storm found in Mark chapter 4. That and the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. I felt it was time to tell the story.”
Watch video here.
Additional information on COVID – 19 pandemic can be found at the following links:
Adventist Review – https://www.adventistreview.org/covid-19-updates
Mid-America Union – https://outlookmag.org/mid-america-union-offers-encouragement-and-resources-for-covid-19/
Union College – https://ucollege.edu/covid-19
Adventist Risk Management – https://adventistrisk.org/en-us/safety-resources/solutions-newsletter/2020/march/information-regarding-coronavirus-covid19-naden
Advent Health – https://www.adventhealth.com/coronavirus-resource-hub/church-resources
CDC – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
Colorado Department of Health – https://covid19.colorado.gov/
Wyoming Department of Health – https://health.wyo.gov/publichealth/infectious-disease-epidemiology-unit/disease/novel-coronavirus/
New Mexico Department of Health – https://cv.nmhealth.org/
Denver Department of Health – https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/environmental-health/news/coronavirus-info.html
Cheyenne Department of Health – https://www.laramiecounty.com/_departments/health/coronavirus_info.aspx
by Chad Stuart, for Adventist Review
“We must guard against creating extremes, guard against encouraging those who would either be in the fire or in the water.”—Ellen G. White.
I will forever remember Sabbath, March 14, 2020. It was the first time I‘d helped to organize and lead an entire worship service in front of empty pews. As a result of the executive order by the governor of the state of Maryland that there were to be no gatherings of 50 persons or more, our worship service at Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church moved from in-person worship to virtual worship. But I’ll also remember this Sabbath because of what took place after the service. We had just finished our prayer of thanks to God for the means to provide worship to so many—more than 350 people had worshipped with us online—and thanking the volunteers for their great efforts in pulling off a near seamless worship experience, when I was confronted by extremism!
Two men I had not met previously were waiting for me as I walked out of the sanctuary. Their purpose was to confront and chastise me.
“Pastor, why would you obey the government over God?” one of the men asked. “How have I not obeyed God?” I responded.
The man then began to recite to me the fourth commandment. I told him I knew the commandment but was not sure how we had broken it. “By not worshipping,” he said.
I told him we did worship. He said, “No, you submitted to the government’s laws over God’s laws.” I asked him to show me in the Bible where I had done that. Again, he began to recite to me the fourth commandment. I interrupted him and asked, “Does the fourth commandment say at what time of day we have to worship on the Sabbath? Does it say how many have to be gathered in order to call it Sabbath worship? Does it say we can’t utilize the modern technology we have? Does it say that families that worshipped at home together this morning or with two or three other families have not honored the fourth commandment?”
This man did not have an answer to these questions. I then said, “Of course, this isn’t the ideal; but we also have a responsibility as Christians to help protect the health of our society.”
The other young man then spoke up: “But you’re showing you don’t trust God by obeying the government. God says He will protect His people.” I smiled at him and kindly asked, “Is that why you’re wearing rubber surgical gloves and didn’t want to shake my hand when I approached you? Because you’re showing your trust in God?”
They both smiled at this. But the first man was not ready to give up the battle and tried to shift the argument again. So I referenced Paul in Romans 13:1: “Everyone must submit to governing authorities” (NLT). He tried to show me how that didn’t apply in this situation. Finally, I said, “Brother, we’re not going to agree, and I have just had a wonderful worship experience, so let’s end this.” His friend agreed and said, “Let’s go.” The brother wanted to push a little more, but at last thanked me and said goodbye.
Maybe you’re rolling your eyes at these two young men. Maybe you agree with them. I’m in the eye-rolling category, until I pause and recognize that we’re all susceptible to extremism. I would define “extremism” as holding any belief that’s not in line with the clear teachings and principles of Scripture and establishing it as not only a rule of my life, but a rule others must live by as well.
From this conversation with these young men I would like us all to consider the following points:
Let’s all guard against extremism in our own lives, and may we do all we can to discourage it in the church as well.
Chad Stuart is senior pastor of the Spencerville Adventist Church in Maryland.
1) Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1923), p. 227.
2) Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
3) Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1 (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publ. Assn., 1868), p. 361, 362. Ellen G. White wrote, “It is our duty in every case to obey the laws of our land, unless they conflict with the higher law which God spoke with an audible voice from Sinai, and afterward engraved on stone with His own finger. . . . Those who love God’s commandments will conform to every good law of the land.”
4) Ellen G. White, Last Day Events (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1992), pp. 138, 139. White again gave counsel on this in regard to the Sunday laws that we foresee in the future when she wrote, “The work there must be done as wisely and carefully as possible, and it must be done in the manner in which Christ would work. The people will soon find out what you believe about Sunday and the Sabbath for they will ask questions. Then you can tell them, but not in such a manner as to attract attention to your work. You need not cut short your work by yourself laboring on Sunday.” Here Ellen White was saying if the government tells you not to work on Sunday, then don’t work on Sunday; obey the law so you can have a longer time to witness. To defy government when it is not a law that forbids our worship of the Lord as we see fit, simply to prove a point of separation of church and state, does far more injury in the long run than simply heeding the law.
“This article was originally published on AdventistReview.org“
