Highlands: Build Community Together

Each fall we take time to recenter around our mission as a church: to make disciples of Jesus for the glory of God and the joy of all people. This year, over the course of three Sundays, we’re going to focus on what it means to follow Jesus together. After 18 months of being scattered and separated in varying degrees, we want to remind ourselves that we weren’t at all meant to follow Jesus in isolation, but together with His people.

 

Downtown: Worship God Together

Each fall we take time to recenter around our mission as a church: to make disciples of Jesus for the glory of God and the joy of all people. This year, over the course of three Sundays, we’re going to focus on what it means to follow Jesus together. After 18 months of being scattered and separated in varying degrees, we want to remind ourselves that we weren’t at all meant to follow Jesus in isolation, but together with His people.

 

Highlands: Worship God Together

Each fall we take time to recenter around our mission as a church: to make disciples of Jesus for the glory of God and the joy of all people. This year, over the course of three Sundays, we’re going to focus on what it means to follow Jesus together. After 18 months of being scattered and separated in varying degrees, we want to remind ourselves that we weren’t at all meant to follow Jesus in isolation, but together with His people.

 

Downtown: Psalm 119, Part 3—God’s Word To Us

This Sunday is week 13 of Christ in the Psalms at Park Church Downtown and we’re in Psalm 119. Instead of taking Psalm 119 section-by-section, we’re addressing it topically over the course of three weeks. In this third and final, week, the topic is “God’s Word To Us.”

 

Psalm 119, Part 3—Artwork

Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: James Stukenberg

James Stukenberg is a photographer based in Denver. Since relocating to Colorado from Wisconsin in 2018 he has freelanced, photographing editorial and commercial assignments. He and his wife, Anne, have a daughter, Henrietta, and are expecting another child in December.

Piece: Photography

Upon first look, Psalm 119 may simply read as a straightforward declaration of the beauty and truth of the Word of God—an unwavering devotion from someone brimming with confidence in their Creator. But these praises aren’t offered lightly by someone who has been handed a life of ease. The psalmist is enveloped in struggle—struggle with his own brokenness and struggle with the brokenness of the world that surrounds him. He senses the threat of succumbing to these forces.

I’m drawn to the tension between the psalmist’s firm belief in God’s goodness towards him and his broken-life experience that causes him to approach God in vulnerability, crying out “Do not utterly forsake me!” I identify with the position of the psalmist as I wade through my own season of struggle—questioning my purpose and identity, feeling isolated and unknown, longing for a sense of home and wholeness. Engaging with the corresponding darker emotions with a raw honesty towards self and God is the first step toward hope and healing.

The process of making these photos was reflective and instinctive—as I read and considered Psalm 119, I let it inform my thinking and seeing, intuitively making images that resonate with this emotional state shared with the psalmist. This short series overlaps with a larger ongoing body of work, visible at the link below.

See complete series

Highlands: Psalm 119, Part 3—God’s Word to Us

This Sunday is week 13 of Christ in the Psalms at Park Church Highlands and we’re in Psalm 119. Instead of taking Psalm 119 section-by-section, we’re addressing it topically over the course of three weeks. In this third and final, week, the topic is “God’s Word to Us.”

 

Downtown: Psalm 119, Part 2—God’s Word in Us

This Sunday is week 11 of Christ in the Psalms at Park Church Downtown and we’re in to Psalm 119. Instead of taking Psalm 119 section-by-section, we’re addressing it topically over the course of three weeks. In this second week, the topic is “God’s Word In Us.”

 

Psalm 119, Part 2—Artwork

Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: Tamara Carey

I am a wife and mama learning with my husband and our children about God and the world He made. I am privileged to walk alongside others as we together seek to know and love Him more, ever aware that we are all sheep in need of our Good Shepherd.

Piece: Mixed Media

Imagine a shepherd beginning to write this song as he watches his sheep, writing the Hebrew alphabet and capturing his love for God’s words, panting for the Word and earnestly desiring to walk in it. His sheep are close by and even wandering across this piece after he sets it down to seek after a lost lamb.

Psalm 119 is beautiful. It is daunting. We see an author’s absolute love for the Word of God and his to walk in God’s commandments with his whole heart,.Yet we also see a keen awareness of his inclination not to do so, requiring complete reliance on his Shepherd.

I wanted to do a rough, raw piece, helping us imagine the potential roots of this psalm.

Sunday Worship Gathering Updates

It has been a gift to gather in-person again after a long and often lonely season. We are so thankful for this, yet we also recognize that this pandemic is not over. We are all working through how to live in that difficult tension.

Given the updated CDC and City of Denver guidelines and in accordance with local school districts, as of Sunday, August 15 we are:

  • Requesting that everyone wear a mask during Sunday worship gatherings
  • Requiring that everyone wear a mask in all Park Kids areas
  • We are not taking temperatures, requiring registration, or enforcing social distancing.

Our mask policy for Sunday worship gatherings is a “request” because, although wearing a mask is a personal choice (and one that we will honor), we want to be a community that sacrificially loves others around us. We see this as an easy and important way to do that, helping prevent further spread of the disease in our area and taking special consideration for those in our community that have weakened immune systems.

Our mask policy for all Park Kids areas is a requirement because children under 12 cannot yet be vaccinated.

We will continue to provide updates if and when guidelines change. We also understand not everyone will agree with these requests, but we pray that, even so, we will all move forward with a spirit of graciousness towards and preference for one another’s interests as we are encouraged in Philippians 2:4.

Highlands: Psalm 119, Part 2—God’s Word In Us

This Sunday is week 11 of Christ in the Psalms at Park Church Highlands and we’re in to Psalm 119. Instead of taking Psalm 119 section-by-section, we’re addressing it topically over the course of three weeks. In this second week, the topic is “God’s Word In Us.”