Hello, Women at Park!
Planning an event a year in advance seems a little early, right? However, when you have something that you think is worth your time, it’s usually smart to block out your calendar early.
That’s why we wanted to alert you that registration is now open for our Biblical Theology Workshop for Women with Nancy Guthrie at Park Church on May 2, 2020.
Over three sessions, Nancy Guthrie will help us to get to know our Bibles better as we learn to trace major themes that run from Genesis to Revelation. We won’t simply be sitting and listening. We’ll be interacting with each other and working together to trace particular themes.
The three sessions promise to be energetic and fun. They include:
- Telling the Bible’s Big Story
- Tracing the Bible’s Main Themes
- Making the Bible’s Intended Connections
If you missed hearing Nancy speak at Park two years ago, she is an excellent Bible teacher and her passion for the Word radiates through her communication.
We want to encourage you to grab spots while they’re still available! In June, Nancy will personally email pastors across the city and state to invite their women. I don’t want you to wait and then find it’s sold out! (That happened at our event last year!)
Additionally, we are offering a discount code for women who attend Park Church! You can use the code, PARK10 for $10 off the registration fee of $32.
If you’re interested in volunteering at the event, shoot me an email at kyle@parkchurchdenver.org before you register.
Kyle Nelson
P.S. Still not convinced?! Check this out.
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In March, we commissioned Jefff and Lindsey Rodland and about 75 folks from Park to go and start a new church in south Denver. We’re excited to see what God does through the Rodlands and Redeemer Community Church!
Here are a few photos from their commissioning, taken by Melanie Fenwick.
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Our artwork for Easter and Good Friday this year was done by Bruce Butler of Art /Rhetor. In addition to being a graphic designer and artist, Bruce co-leads a Gospel Community and often plays electric guitar at Park Church (and all around Denver). Most recently, Bruce has also joined the team at Sweet Bloom Coffee as a barista.
Piece
This piece aims to represent all that we celebrate on Easter. The white line coming in from the left represents Jesus entering into the sinful world in purity, as joined by the darker lines made from images signifying death. The left hand illustrates His work on Good Friday: the climax where all the consequences of our rebellion from God met in Jesus, were taken on by Him, and He died under the wrath of God and at the hands of sinful men.
Between the two hands, the darkness and hopelessness of the 3 days Jesus lay in the tomb is illustrated. For his followers, and I imagine for Satan himself, this time must have been a space where sin and death seemed like it had won. Though Jesus had foreshadowed His resurrection (John 2:19, etc.), the visceral reaction of seeing a close friend and leader you believed to be God incarnate viciously beaten and slain must have put the disciples in a state of deep pain and shock.
However, as we know, Jesus rose from the grave on the third day, claiming victory over sin and death. Sin and death’s reign over humanity came to a conclusion at the work of Jesus’ still-pierced hands (John 20:27). Now the life of Jesus, experienced by those who physically met him hundreds of years ago, is a light still continuously shown and refracted, able to be experienced by all who put their faith in Him through the Holy Spirit. This is illustrated by the right hand, where on the other side of Jesus’ death was a radiant joyous life that flows forever.
Click the image below to enlarge.
Last August, we celebrated 10 years as a church.
We gathered at Morse Park to eat, drink, and celebrate God’s kindness to us!
We’re grateful for all that He’s done in and through us, and expectant for his Holy Spirit to move even more in the city of Denver and beyond.
Melanie Fenwick took the above photos of our time, and we wanted to share those with you now. Enjoy!
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The artwork for our Exodus series was illustrated by hand by Christian Robinson of Oklahoma City. If that name sounds familiar, or if the style of the artwork looks familiar, it’s because Christian was our artist for Genesis as well. As such, the artwork for Exodus serves as fitting follow-up to Genesis.
The book of Exodus, in short, is about God’s mission to redeem a people for His kingdom in this world. Christian’s artwork, in three pieces, illustrates the narrative of the book:
Part Two, the central piece, shows the path through the Red Sea: a sort of climax to the story, God’s final crushing of Pharaoh, and the gateway between the first and second half of the narrative.
Part One depicts Egypt and the way out of it. Egypt’s God-rejecting kingdom is symbolized by their man-made glory-mountains (the pyramids) and false gods (represented by the hawk, symbolic for Ra). The stalks of straw speak to Israel’s oppression and the cruelty of their overlords (ch. 5), while the path and the blood over the doorway describe the ultimate trajectory of the story as seen in the Passover and the people’s flight out of Egypt.
Part Three depicts Mount Sinai and Moses. Images on this piece show a direct contrast to the images on the Part One panel—instead of man-made mountains and false gods, Mount Sinai (an actual God-made mountain) looms in unapproachable glory and gloom and fire and smoke and the presence of the only true God. Moses in the foreground represents both God’s leadership and His giving of the Law, His means for His redeemed children to be holy.
By now you may have heard about the women’s seminar we had planned for the first weekend of April. Unfortunately, our speaker has had a family emergency come up, and thus, we’re cancelling the Extravagant Grace Women’s Conference. Please join us in praying for health and God’s nearness for their family.
However, we still have a great event for you! We are coming alongside Grace Community Church in Westminster to learn from Courtney Reissig that same weekend. Courtney is a dynamic speaker with The Gospel Coalition and The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. (In fact, she’s a speaker we have considered bringing to Park!)
The title of the conference is Delighting in God’s Good Design, and explores her book, Accidental Feminist. Not only will this be a great weekend of learning, but as women of Park, we will have the opportunity to sit together and learn together!
For more details, and to sign up, click here.
The conference cost is the same as ours ($30) and includes three meals and conference materials. If you are in need of a scholarship, please email kyle@parkchurchdenver.org.
Thanks!
Kyle Nelson
P.S.—We also learned that Jackie Hill Perry is speaking at the Well Church in Boulder those same dates. The cost is $99, so you’re welcome to check out this event instead! Details here.
The title of the conference is Delighting in God’s Good Design, and explores her book, Accidental Feminist. Not only will this be a great weekend of learning, but as women of Park, we will have the opportunity to sit together and learn together!
For more details, and to sign up, click here.
The conference cost is the same as ours ($30) and includes three meals and conference materials. If you are in need of a scholarship, please email kyle@parkchurchdenver.org.
Thanks!
Kyle Nelson
P.S.—We also learned that Jackie Hill Perry is speaking at the Well Church in Boulder those same dates. The cost is $99, so you’re welcome to check out this event instead! Details here. 
On Ash Wednesday, I quoted an interaction I had with Sarah Dickey over email about the verse we were looking at (Psalm 90:12) and what God has taught her through the loss of her husband last year to an aggressive form of cancer. Many asked me if I could send them what I shared, and Sarah graciously allowed me to share this more broadly. I pray it’s encouraging!
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” -Psalm 90:12 Walking through terminal illness, the dying process, death of my life partner and then continuing to live with the immense grief and pain that followed while raising two little kids has brought me to a mental space I didn’t know existed before. When I think about what it means to “number our days”… I think, those days ultimately aren’t ours to begin with. Keith used his earthly days to exercise and train so he could climb harder. He worked long, physically demanding days as a route setter, to improve his trade. He spent late hours shaping climbing holds, to expand his line. Gave endless energy to house renovation projects, bringing ideas to fruition. Gave afternoons to watching football. Or practicing music. Or serving the church. Or resting. 10 years as a husband. 3 1/2 years as a father. 37 years as a son. 35 years as a brother. 20ish years as a believer August 12, 1980 – February 8, 2018 That’s it. The number of Keith Michael Dickey’s days. That’s not easy to write. Feels harsh and somehow still not true. Yet here we are. What did I learn as I watched what Keith wanted from life and worked for with his days, where a tangle of serving God and himself existed… slip from his desperate grasp? As I waited for his last day on this side of eternity, for his last breath from the wretched body that betrayed him? I learned to hold this life, these days with the most open of hands. I can serve and love God and his Creation with what he has given me. I can ask Jesus for forgiveness and confess when I fail. I can honor brokenness and cling to a deep hope in future glory. But I can’t make the days my own. God holds them, they aren’t mine; they never were. I think this painful yet freeing understanding, reached by way of cancer and death and grief and solo parenting, has given or yielded in me a wise heart… or heart of wisdom as they say.
This year we’re inviting everyone at Park Church who is participating in Lent to engage in three kinds of spiritual practices: fasting, prayer, and generosity. We covered the basics in our “Engaging With Lent 2019” guide that we’ll be handing out on Sunday, but here we’ll take a little bit of time around each practice but also share some practical ways of exploring each. James and I also talked in depth about what Lent is, where it came from, and some ways of exploring it here.
Fasting
Fasting is one of those disciplines that most Christians know they should do, but rarely get around to it. The interesting thing is that it’s one of the disciplines we see Jesus doing (Matthew 4:1-11; 17:21), a discipline He assumes His disciples are doing (Matthew 6:16) and a discipline we see the early church continuing to do (Acts 13:1-3; 14:23). So what is it? David Mathis defines fasting as “voluntarily going without food — or any other regularly enjoyed, good gift from God — for the sake of some spiritual purpose.”
Fasting ultimately is about refraining from one thing that we might engage more intentionally with another, namely God. Sam Storms comments, “The ironic thing about fasting is that it really isn’t about not eating food. It’s about feeding on the fullness of every divine blessing secured for us in Christ. Fasting tenderizes our hearts to experience the presence of God. It expands the capacity of our souls to hear his voice and be assured of his love and be filled with the fullness of his joy. Let me say it again: Fasting is not primarily about not eating food. It is primarily about feasting on God.”
Practically speaking, there are a couple great ways of exploring fasting during Lent:
One is called a whole fast, where you actually skip whole meals with the exception of water, juice, or liquids. This kind of fast can be hard for some people due to particular physical conditions so don’t just jump in without considering how it might affect you. A way of easing your way into this whole fast is simply by skipping breakfast and lunch on a day and eating dinner in the evening. Another way would be to do a 24 hour whole fast where you only drink water, juice, or liquid during that day.
Another way is called a partial fast. This might look like you giving up eating sugar or drinking alcohol. Others choose to give up things like social media, Netflix, etc. The important thing isn’t necessarily what you’re giving up, but what you do in the absence of that item and where it leads your heart. Fasting generally is never a solo discipline, but rather should always be practiced in conjunction with prayer.
Prayer
We believe that prayer is an essential part of what it means to be both a human and a Christian. It’s about communion and communication with the God we were created to know and walk with. As we fast during this season of Lent, we also feast on God through prayer! We encourage everyone to find meaningful ways to pray corporately and personally in this season.
Here are a few ways to explore praying corporately with others:
- Join us for our pre-service prayer on Sundays at 8:15am or 4:15pm in the basement!
- Come to our Sunday services
- Thursdays at 6:30am in the gallery
- Pray with your Gospel Communities
- Intentionally pray daily or weekly with a friend throughout Lent
- Pray prayers of self-examination like David in Psalm 139:23-24.
- Pray the Lord’s Prayer in the mornings and/or evenings
- Pick a different psalm each day to pray and meditate on throughout the day
- Check out the prayer app called “Pray As You Go” which has some great contemplative prayers
- Another app called “Daily Prayer” has Morning Prayers, Evening Prayers, and Night Prayers. Dependent on when you open it up, it takes you there automatically! Easily accessible.
- Where do you find refuge, safety, comfort, and escape? When you are fearful, discouraged, and upset, where do you run? Do you run to God for comfort and safety or to something else? (To food, to others, to work, to solitude?)
- What do you love? Is there something you love more than God or your neighbor?
- What do you want? What do you desire? What do you crave, long for, wish? Whose desires do you obey?
- What do you think about most often? In the morning, to what does your mind drift instinctively? When you are doing a menial task or driving alone in your car, what captures your mind? What is your mindset?
- What do you talk about? What occupies your conversations with others? What subjects do you tend to discuss over and over with your friends? The Bible says it is out of the heart that our mouths speak.
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Our artwork for Teach Us to Pray was done by Bruce Butler of Art /Rhetor. In addition to being a graphic designer and artist, Bruce co-leads a Gospel Community and often plays electric guitar at Park Church (and all around Denver).
Piece
The image includes three rhetorical elements:
First and most prominently, the six wings represent the six appeals in the Lord’s prayer—three “Your” appeals (“hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”) and three “us” appeals (“give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts…, and lead us not into temptation”). Additionally, the four living creatures from Revelation 4 in the throne room of God are described as having six wings and always being in the presence of God, speaking the holiness of His name! As a result of our union with Christ, our prayer is always before our Father in heaven, to whom we are instructed to pray “hallowed be Your name.”
Second, the mountains in the center of the image suggest the loftiness this simple prayer and also remind us of the Sermon of the Mount, from whence we get the Lord’s Prayer.
Lastly, and most subtly, the upside-down triangle speaks to the subversive kingdom of Jesus, wherein the first are last, the greatest is as the slave of all, and the people seek first the kingdom of God, simply asking for their daily bread in return.