Denver Pres Faith+Life Audio

In this seminar, Will Berry, a paramedic and Denver Pres member, will share what God has been teaching him in his work as a first responder. He’s had to deeply reflect on death and the world’s brokenness since he’s face to face with it every day. He wants to help us apply our faith in a world where the effects of the fall simply can’t be managed. Whether you are grieving the world’s brokenness, or you’ve been sent into chaos by death and loss in your own life, you will hopefully walk away with an expanded and more realistic view of sin and death, and an even more powerful view of Jesus and what he’s doing in the world, and in your life.

As we journey in the Christian faith, life inevitably changes: our consistency of spiritual practices can wane (like prayer and scripture reading), or we encounter times of doubt, rebellion, and discouragement. Even in these different passages of time, Flo Sares wants to help us treasure our story from beginning to end, embracing the long-term relationship dynamics of our life-long journey with Christ. She’ll help us curate some tools to help us get ‘unstuck’ in following Jesus in our every-day life and will encourage us to keep ‘carrying on’ through our various seasons of life.

You might have heard that our church is part of the ‘reformed tradition.’ This term can be thrown around. But what actually is reformed theology? Though Denver Pres associates first and foremost with all followers of Jesus around the globe, it’s also valuable to have an understanding of this tradition we're in. Come hear Jason Walch explain more about it! We'll learn about church history and, most importantly, explore the ways reformed theology affects our walk with Jesus in the everyday.

We all have limited, finite space in our homes which naturally fills up with our things. Even when it comes time to “spring clean,” why is it so difficult to face down the excess that fills up our homes? Denver Pres member Tana Padilla is a professional home manager and personal organizer who takes a therapeutic approach to helping people work through their connections to their things and to understand what they should keep and why. She will share her thoughts on how you can begin changing your relationship with your possessions, to ultimately work toward more freedom in your life.

Speculative Fiction, sometimes called fantasy and science fiction, is often thought to be the more frivolous genres of storytelling. But their seemingly far-fetched characters and settings provide a great space for the imagination to wrestle with intense issues. Jason Walch will lead a discussion of speculative fiction and share his own experience and ‘best practices’ when enjoying stories of long, long ago in galaxies far, far away.

Many Christian parents strongly desire for their children to follow Jesus now, and into adulthood. But knowing how to foster their relationship with God can sometimes be a confusing and intimidating prospect: How do we engage with the gospel on a daily basis with our kids? On top of that, we sense our own limitations and failings, which can be discouraging. Tally Flint will draw wisdom from her own experience (and the experience of others) on how to view the privilege of nurturing your kids toward Jesus, as well as provide some practical ideas and resources for how to do this intentionally.

With the mountains in reach and always in sight, outdoor recreation is nearly synonymous with Colorado lifestyle. LindsayHunt, an avid cyclist and skier, has spent time reflecting on the God-given desire to recreate and be active. Noticing the reasons why we recreate and the restoration it brings to our lives, will inform how we pursue it and integrate it with the rest of our many callings (work, relationships, family, worship, and more).

Some of us at Denver Pres have had experiences in the past with church or ministry cultures that were unhealthy or oppressive. Many of these cultures were deeply affected by a lack of understanding of the good news of Jesus. Mark Miller and Christian Swan examine some of these experiences for us, helping us to see what makes a church culture healthy, what patterns are potentially unhealthy, and give guidance on how we can all journey on a path toward healing with those in our community who are hurting.

When God created humans to live on his good earth, he didn’t just provide the basic necessities for us to survive, he heaped countless layers of beauty for us to enjoy. From the glories of landscape, sky, patterns, and color in nature, to the creative powers latent in each human being, we are creatures wired to reflect God by creating and participating in beauty. Steeping ourselves in beauty is not just a luxury, but a core need we share with the rest of humanity. Chris Mancuso is an architect and wants to help us notice the ways that beauty (or lack thereof) profoundly impacts our lives, whether we know it or not. In what ways can Christians participate in art and beauty to promote the flourishing of our own lives and in the world, especially where we see fragmentation and dysfunction?

Whether you've experienced trauma in your childhood or not (45% of us have) , we all have a tremendous opportunity to stop cycles of trauma and provide healing for both adults and kids. Christine Beck (RN, BSN) showed us how ACEs ("adverse childhood experiences" which are traumatic events) can have negative, lasting effects on physical and mental health far into adulthood. One part of growing in empathy and compassion for each other (in any circle we’re in) is to understand how each other’s childhoods affect our current lives. For those who have experienced more than one ACE, there is hope and a solution: stable, safe relationships. And we can all participate in the work of relationships.

God made humans to not merely interact with creation, but to add to it. Architects dream and design the structures and spaces we inhabit, and when we pay attention to the built environment around us, we recognize how every space we interact with shapes us at a very deep level. Our culture often places beauty in an optional, “aesthetics” category rather than seeing it as a functional, necessary part of both our civic and our internal life. In this conversation, led by architect Will LoPatriello, we discussed how to become aware of the spaces we inhabit and how we can practice observing and interacting with the built environment around us.

For those who are married, it’s no secret that desiring spiritual growth in yourspouse, though a good desire, can create tremendous tension in a marriage!How do you communicate your desire to see your spouse grow in maturity,without nagging? How do you encourage your spouse in spiritual disciplinesand practices, without projecting your own areas of growth onto them? Jasonand Nina Walch led us in this discussion about what it looks like to followJesus together as a couple - wanting better for your spouse, while also helpingyour spouse thrive and settle into the unique person that God has created themto be.

Shame has recently become a popular topic of conversation in our culture. But why do we talk about shame? What IS it exactly? Shame can be difficult to define. Distinguished from other emotions (like guilt, or embarrassment), shame is the belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with us, at a base identity level. The experience of shame is universal to every human, by virtue of living life in a broken world, and can show up in every life context - friendship, vocation, marriage, work, parenting, sexuality. Shame scrambles the signals in our brain and body in a way that disrupts our thinking and feeling, and this disruption teaches us to isolate ourselves. A small, but stacked, panel of Denver Pres people in mental health professions (headed up by Nina Walch) guided us through this conversation, giving us vocabulary to process shame, and helping us maintain hope as we move forward on a path of growth and healing.

Are the facts surrounding Jesus' life and death actually true? How can we know Jesus rose from the dead, as a real moment in history? It's certainly a wild claim to hinge our entire Christian faith on. This conversation will help us to solidify not only our own belief about the resurrection but also help us know how to communicate the reality of it to others. Led by Pastor Bill Connors.

Screens, messaging, social media… the benefits of increasing technologies come with costs. Some costs (data plans) are apparent; other costs are not. We considered the wisdom we need and practical steps we can take to help our children grow wise in a technologically savvy world. From strategies for screen time and filtering, to coaching our older children on how to be engaged without being controlled by our devices.

Jesus gave the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as powerful gifts to his people, indispensable to Christian spirituality. Yet most Christians would struggle to articulate what Sacraments are, what they do, how they work, and why they are so important to our walk with Christ. This seminar will inform the mind, but more importantly deepen and enrich our celebration of these physical practices that Jesus gave to strengthen our spiritual life. Lead Pastor Bill Connors will guide this conversation about sacraments and spirituality.

If you’ve been around Denver for more than a few years, you may have noticed that the city is rapidly changing. Have you ever wondered who and what created your neighborhood? Did you know that, for many residents, there is currently a housing crisis, as property costs have grown, while income has not? What does the Bible have to say about land, housing, and cities? Housing issues are inextricably related to education, race, and socioeconomics, and if we don’t understand the history of where we live, it’s difficult to love our neighbors well. This conversation led by DPC member Meghen Brown provided education to participants about the racial history of Northeast Denver, as well as look at the people and events that have shaped Denver, particularly northeast Denver, over the past 50 years. The conversation explored how housing policy and market forces have shaped our community, including segregation, discrimination, and gentrification. She also critiqued the two opposite extremes of the “free market” approach and the “social justice” approach to housing, and present a new way of addressing problems: through a more nuanced, hopeful, gospel-informed grid. Meghan Brown is a Tax Credit Officer at Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) who grew up in the area and has worked with various urban ministries, nonprofits, and local and state governments. Meghan will be co-presenting with her CHFA colleague Kim Martin, First Lady of Zion Temple Church, a NE Denver native, and active with the National Organization for African-Americans in Housing and Metro Denver Fair Housing Task Force.

Conversation with Josh Messer and Mark Miller

A conversation led by Christie Thurstone

A seminar led by trauma therapist Christian Swan

The Experiential Divide Between White and Black Americans

A conversation with Dr. Chris Thurstone