NewsNuggets Page 32

10 Apr

STEWARDSHIP: PART 1 – WHY STEWARDS?

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He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
– Jim Elliot

In all four gospel accounts, we read of Jesus calling and making disciples (see Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11; John 1:40-45). Jesus never spoke of making stewards, yet many of his parables dealt with stewards and their faithfulness or faithlessness. We must examine why Jesus said so much about stewards and stewardship while making disciples, not stewards. Or did he?

Being a disciple (mathētēs) implied a close relationship between the teacher and student. Historically, the disciples chose their teacher; however, Jesus took the initiative and called some of his followers to be his disciples. He emphasized that the condition for discipleship is love: By this all will know that you are My disciples; if you have love for one another (John 13:35). He spoke of the sign of discipleship as obedience when he said, If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed (John 8:31). 

Furthermore, he spoke of the proof of discipleship when he stated, By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples (John 15:8). Ellen G. White expounds: Will every soul consider the fact that Christian discipleship includes self-denial, self-sacrifice, even to the laying down of life itself, if need be, for the sake of Him who has given His life for the life of the world? 1

Every disciple would radiate his teacher’s and master’s character, aspirations, goals, and commitments, denying his autonomy of freedom and competence.2 Stott saw the disciples being under the instructions of their teacher and their lord.3 The student had to submit to all the teacher’s influence, and so had to do the disciples of Jesus. Stott reminds us, since Jesus is Lord we have no right to pick and choose the areas in which we will submit to his authority.4 The language of lordship is tightly related to stewardship since there is no steward without a lord. 

When Jesus called someone to discipleship, he was doing what he was sent to do by his Father. Very early in his life, Jesus stated that he has to be about My Father’s business (Luke 2:49). Later in his ministry, Jesus claimed that all things have been delivered to Me by My Father (Luke 10:22). Jesus’ language of Him being a servant/steward is even more apparent when he says, I have come in My father’s name (John 5:43), and as My Father thought me I speak these things (John 8:28). Furthermore, he exclaimed, I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love (John 15:10).

These, and many other verses, contain the steward language; however, the most apparent one is in John 17:4 when he declares to the Father, I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. Only a steward would speak in this manner to his lord and master.

Hall affirms that our stewardship is exemplified by Jesus,5 making discipleship the entry vedge for stewardship. So Hall concludes, The steward exists not only to serve his or her master, but in doing so to serve as well those whose interests the master has at heart.6 While Jesus called and taught his disciples by his words, he was molding and shaping them to be stewards through his mission, life, relationships, and works because stewardship is an identity and a lifestyle.

In the following parts of this commentary, we will look more profoundly at the steward’s identity, his relation to the master, the setting where stewardship occurs, and the limitless impact of the steward’s lifestyle.

—Anton Kapusi is lead pastor of Pueblo First Seventh-day Adventist Church. Photo by Pexels.

1  White E. G. Counsel on Stewardship. p. 288.
2  Thomson T. K. (1960). Stewardship in Contemporary Theology. Association Press, p. 47.
3  Stott J. (2010). The Radical Disciple. IVP, p. 14.
4  Ibid., p. 16.
5  Hall D. J. (1990). The Steward: a Biblical Symbol Come of Age. William B. Erdmans, p. 44.
6  Ibid., p. 45.

10 Apr

MUSIC FEST BRINGS CROWDS TO CAMPUS

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Ana Segawa – Loveland, Colorado … Campion’s campus was filled, March 31, with new voices as the Rocky Mountain Music Festival began. Middle schoolers from nine different schools came together to form a single choir of 120 students.

Dr. William Chunestudy led the rehearsals in the chapel on Friday morning with students separated into two sections based on their voice parts. The members of Koinonia, Campion’s select choir, were present at all rehearsals to support the students with their pieces. Besides the practices, the participants attended breakout sessions including art projects, games, soccer, and gymnastics.

During Friday night vespers, the high school students from Campion and Mile High Academy came together to perform several pieces. In addition, both schools’ select choirs performed separately. A total of eight pieces were presented on Saturday, April 1, morning and evening. 

Sabbath’s church service took place in the gym, where the combined choir performed two songs. Campion Church Pastor Leandro Bizama was the speaker for the weekend events. After the service, the students took part in an outreach activity planned by Campion Church, including distributing cookies and handing out invitations for the Journey to the Cross Easter program. The choir participants had a chance to showcase their talents and hard work in their final performance on Saturday night. 

Natalie, a student from HMS Richards School and a soloist in the festival, shared, “[I enjoyed] being able to learn new things from Dr. C and making more friends from other schools. It was a lot of singing and my throat was sore, but it was a good learning experience.”

Cecilia Simmons, Campion’s Music Director commented, “Listen, we put over 100 squirrely prepubescent kids into a room and asked one man to teach them eight songs in two days. Either we were crazy or our festival clinician, Dr. Chunestudy, is a miracle worker. What he did with those kids in such a short period of time was phenomenal. The final concert was a celebration of their hard work and belief in everything he taught them. Just like he said, it was a circle of giving between the festival choir, the audience, and the director.”

Click here to view the recorded performances on Campion’s Facebook page. 

—Ana Segawa, Campion Student News Team. Photos supplied.

06 Apr

COMMENTARY: SILLY LAWS AND LOVE – HOW ARE THEY CONNECTED?

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Toby Quillin – Loveland, Colorado … From the beginning of creation, laws have been a part of our life. We need to have most laws to function as a society. There are some, however, that aren’t useful at all. Silly and weird laws are everywhere including right here in Colorado. Let’s explore a few of these strange and seemingly unuseful laws.

The first strange law comes from the city of Pueblo. It says it’s illegal to allow dandelions to grow in city limits. The rule states that no pesky weed can be taller than ten inches. If you forget to pull them or let them grow without cutting them, then you can be fined $100 for the labor costs of removing them. A big fine for just one weed.

There is a very ironic law that says it is illegal to roll or throw boulders in the city of Boulder. This law goes on to say that you can’t even move or stack rocks in any Boulder public property. So just remember the next time you go to Boulder, no matter how big or small the rock is, don’t move it an inch.

The third weird and wacky law comes straight from our state’s capital city. In Denver, it is unlawful to lend your neighbor your vacuum cleaner. This rule came around because of the spread of pests caught up in the vacuum like ticks and bed bugs. A reasonable law, but still a strange one.

These laws don’t seem to have any purpose, but there’s always something we can learn from a seemingly useless thing.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he didn’t respond with one of the 613 laws of the Pharisees. He responded with his own two commandments that should be the basis of every law.

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.’” ( Matthew 22:37-39, NIV).

Jesus didn’t need hundreds of laws to make his point clear, he only needed two. The Pharisees tried to use works to get to salvation by implementing hundreds of laws that had nothing to do with God’s plan for salvation.

In today’s world, there are a lot of rules. Many exist to keep us safe even if they don’t make sense to us. Though we see the many laws in society, it is important to remember the greatest law: the law of love.

Christians are sometimes defined by the many rules they must keep. Let’s not get caught up in all the small stuff that we think will save us like the Pharisees did. Let’s try to change that definition today by focusing on how deep our love for God is and how much we care for our fellow humans.

Toby Quillin is a member of the Campion Student News Team. Photo by Pexels.

06 Apr

CAMPION STUDENTS CONTRIBUTE TO SERVICE PROJECTS

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Ciara Felix – Loveland, Colorado … In place of classes, Campion Academy students spent Friday, March 31, serving the community.

While many students helped with the RMC Music Festival, the rest of the student body dispersed to community projects. Some students went to Glacier View Ranch and Eden Valley where they completed Spring-cleaning projects and built fences. Other students picked up trash on the highway, helped at Habitat for Humanity, or were assigned to various projects on campus.

A few of the students returned to Habitat for Humanity and sorted donations. “I liked that I was able to return to Habitat for Humanity; I found it to be the same positive experience I had last semester: being able to help and talk to people I don’t normally hang out with,” shared Jalen Contreraz, a senior at Campion.

Unfortunately, the windy weather cut a few projects short. Dominic White, a student assigned to the campus maintenance team commented, “We went out to the baseball field and painted the dugouts and put metal sheet roofing on them. Sadly, we couldn’t finish fully because the wind started picking up making it hard to place and hold the sheets. But other than that, it was a lot of fun.”

Principal Don Reeder commented on the value Campion places on service days: “Reaching into our community is staying true to our mission of teaching young people to serve others. One of our goals for Community Service Day is for our students to learn the value of service even without an external reward.”

—Ciara Felix, Campion Student News Team. Photos supplied.

05 Apr

LIFESTYLE MEDICINE PROMOTES “CENTER OF INFLUENCE” AT BRIGHTON

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Eric Aakko – Brighton, Colorado … The first of six lifestyle medicine seminars hosted by the Brighton Adventist Church, March 25, attracted 55 participants. The inaugural seminar was welcomed by the Brighton Church after its annex was severely damaged in a fire nearly two years ago.   

“Our mission is to be a center of influence, a place where the community and families can find health, healing, and hope,” said senior pastor Wayne Morrison. 

The lifestyle medicine program follows an evidence-based curriculum developed by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine which contains 6 pillars: healthy eating, exercise, sleep, avoiding risky substances, stress reduction, and social connections. 

“What is unique about our approach is that, at every session, we will also have a professional plant-based cooking and tasting demonstration, recipes, resources, and expert guest speakers,” said Eric Aakko, lifestyle medicine program director. The March event featured cardiologist Dr. Chris Cannon who spoke about preventing and treating heart disease. The April 22 seminar will feature a cardiac exercise specialist, and the May 13 event will be presented by the director of sleep medicine from the Platte Valley Medical Center. 

Each of the 6 pillars of lifestyle medicine will be featured once per month with interactive activities between sessions to keep people engaged such as using text messaging. For free downloadable factsheets about the 6 pillars, including a schedule of the seminar series, visit www.lifestyle692.com 

—Eric Aakko is the lifestyle medicine program director at Brighton Adventist Church. Photos by Clara Aakko.

05 Apr

DENVER SOUTH CHURCH MINISTERS TO COMMUNITY FOR GLOBAL YOUTH DAY

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Jessie Prince – Denver, Colorado … Fourteen youth and young adults from Denver South Adventist Church Youth ministered to local community with three different outreach events on Sabbath, March 19. 

Three separate groups chose to minister to a greater number of community members in different venues. Some went to a local fire station to deliver donations of snacks and household goods. The firemen and women were very grateful and gave a tour of the fire station, letting us sit in the firetruck and model some of their gear and tools. 

Another group set up in the church parking lot to hand out light refreshments to first responders driving by. We had hot and cold drinks, doughnuts, and other snacks. Several signs lined the roadside, held by enthusiastic young people, advertising the “Free Coffee and Donuts 4 first Responders” and “free Hugs & Prayer.” 

Finally, a group walked from the church to the Denver University campus, toting signs for “free hugs” and “free prayer.” Although the students were on Spring Break for the week, there was a National High School Color Guard competition happening on campus, so the group still found multiple people who were overjoyed to have prayer and hugs.

On returning to the church, having walked four and a half miles, we closed out the Global Youth Day by beginning our Youth Week of Prayer, entitled “Love is a Verb.” 

“Every night for the following week, we gathered to hear six of our youth taking turns sharing messages to us, and we prayed for our church and our community. We hope that the people we ministered to were blessed and able to see God through our actions,” commented a participant.

—Jessie Prince is the administrative assistant at Denver South Adventist Church in Denver, Colorado. Photos Supplied by Nayeli Delgado.

05 Apr

Compassion Ministry Includes Adventist Community Center Quilters

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Ella Jean Albertsen – Loveland, Colorado … Loveland Adventist Community Services (LACS) has been actively involved in helping house local homeless families and provide quilts to these and foster families. You may say that the LACS is a Loveland Church project, but the truth of the matter is that there is only one volunteer from the Loveland church. The rest of the volunteers, both in the efforts to house homeless families and in the quilting area, are from Campion Church. Loveland Church supplies the space and Campion Church supplies the labor!

Five quilts have been shared with a family this month alone who has graduated from the Family Promise homeless program and have moved into their own home. Campion Church donates money to house these homeless families for several weeks a year in motels.

In the last six months, 48 baby quilts were given to Little Willows, an organization that gives a box of clothing to a child taken from a home and put in foster care. This organization gave out 800 boxes in Larimer and Weld counties in 2022.  

A label is sewn on each quilt that says: “A gift from Adventist Community Services, Loveland. Colorado.” While the patterns may not be the fanciest, we do our best to select colors that compliment each other from the fabrics that have been donated. 

One quilt recipient, who recently moved into her new Habitat for Humanity home, shared, “Thank you! [The quilt is] so beautiful! The colors are just right for my new home. “

The project has been a blessing to the volunteer quilters as well. One quilter said, “It’s so nice to know we are doing something that makes a difference for others.” Another shared, “I come because we are accomplishing something for someone else.” And all have shared in fellowship as one quilter said, “I appreciate the friendships I’ve made quilting.”

So, if you can tie a square knot, join the group on Tuesday mornings. Contact Sadie Torrez or Ella Jean Albertsen at [email protected] 

—Ella Jean Albertsen is a layout editor for Campion Connection newsletter. Photos by Ella Jean Albertsen.

The quilting team with the quilts to be given to the family graduating from the Family Promise program for unhoused families. Pictured (left to right): Kathy Aitken, Carol Marino, Ella Jean Albertsen, Eleanor Foley, and Naomi Sigler. Not present Eileen Blood, Mary Mehlenbacher, and Cheri Barber.
Betty Welch holds one of the many baby quilts ready to be donated to Little Willows.
05 Apr

HIGH WINDS IN BOULDER DAMAGE BOULDER ADVENTIST CHURCH FACILITIES

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Debbi Lake – Boulder, Colorado … High winds in Boulder, Colorado, are nothing new. But the winds on Friday, March 31, were stronger than usual and led to two events at the Boulder Adventist Church.

The first event was that one of the big fir trees on the church property fell over onto the fountain in the side yard. Thankfully, the tree did not block the street, sidewalk, or even hit anything other than the fountain.

After noticing the fallen tree, we went inside the sanctuary and discovered that one of the west windows had been broken. Not by the tree but by the wind. By late afternoon, when the wind had finally died down, the staff of Smiley Construction, who rent an office in the church, enclosed the broken window. Now we could meet on Sabbath morning as a church.

Pastor Geoff Patterson says, “We are particularly thankful that the tree and broken window happened on a weekday and not on a Sabbath. Especially this particular Sabbath. Apart from our regular Sabbath services in the morning, the Boulder Chamber Orchestra and Boulder Chamber Chorale were scheduled for a concert in the evening. The glass from the broken window caused at least three gouges in the upholstery of the pew it landed on, and we are so thankful there was not a person sitting there.”

—Debbi Lake is the office manager at Boulder Adventist Church. Photos by Debbi Lake.

30 Mar

REFLECTION FOR EASTER: JESUS _________ FOR ME

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By Douglas Inglish

When you look at the title line, there are several possibilities your mind could fill in where the blank space is. Many words in that blank would be true and have implications worth pondering.

Some would put it in the present tense and say Jesus lives for me. Other present tense forms that would also work, but might not be your first thought, would be intercedes, or cares. You could probably think of a few others.

The most common response is likely one that forms the sentence in the past tense: Jesus died for me. We hear the phrase often enough. It’s repeated in sermon and song, printed in books and articles, shared in Sabbath School classes. It is a thought that elicits many emotional responses from us such as gratitude, unworthiness, determination, rejoicing, and wonder, among others. It is commonly thought of as the foundational event of Christianity.

But is it? Is His death on the cross, clearly done on behalf of me, you, and everyone else, really the foundational event of Christianity?

I say no. For that, I fill in the blank another way. Jesus rose for me.

If Jesus had lived a life worthy of my imitation, left behind a treasure of teachings that enrich my life, and carried out the principles of His life to the point that He willingly died as an example of how much He loves me and how far He would go to teach me how to live a better life, and that’s all there is to the story, then Christianity would be nothing but a manner of living. If it survived into this century, it would only be found in a few volumes in the self-help section of your local bookstore.

The church was founded on the truth that Jesus rose for me, because it is the resurrection that gives meaning to the crucifixion. It would not matter so much if He had died unless “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (I Corinthians 15:20, NIV).

None of this is to say that His substitutionary death is anything less than all that Scripture says it is. It is my pardon, my salvation, and my debt paid. But it is not my hope. Go back and read the verses preceding the text above and see Paul’s argument that our hope of living eternally is entirely based on Jesus having risen after His death.

This is Passover weekend in the Jewish calendar and is observed by many Christians as Easter. The symbolism of Jesus being sacrificed that weekend so that death might pass over us is significant. But unlike the lambs that were a type of what was to come, Christ the Antitype conquered death. That is our hope, that is our future, and that is the foundation of all Christianity.

Yes, Jesus died for me, and yes, He lives for me. But in between those realities lies the event that gives meaning to both. Jesus rose for me.

—Douglas Inglish is RMC vice president for administration. Photo from Rajmund Dabrowski.

30 Mar

J.O.Y. – NOT JUST A SOCIAL CLUB

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Jamey Houghton – Franktown, Colorado … Recently, I was invited to a meeting that I’m not qualified to attend. The meeting was for the newly-organized JOY Club at the Franktown Church. The JOY club, or Just Older Youth, is especially for the members in our church who are 55 years old or better. You see, I’m only 43, so I can’t really be a member of this club even though I’m the pastor. But they made an exception since I was doing the worship thought for this specific meeting.

This group was formed for several reasons. First, the social aspect of getting together is good for the soul. It’s easy to get in a routine of staying home, and this is a great excuse to enjoy the company of church family during the week. The leaders of the group, Earlene Hunt and Selma Wolfswinkle, help organize trips for everyone with plans to visit the Botanical Gardens, Estes Park, Garden of the Gods, dinners out at Acapulco and Olive Garden, game nights, and ice cream socials.

This isn’t just a social club, though. The second element of the JOY Club shows the heart of the leaders and participants who want to be a blessing to others. They are planning ways to help the homeless as well as to minister to people coming to the Franktown Church food bank each month. Plans are in the making to invite them to a meal in the fellowship hall. In addition, the group has a prayer ministry called “Circle of Prayer” and they pray for each other as well as for members who might be struggling.

I had a wonderful time with this group. They have been a blessing to the 26 people who have already signed up and participated in the activities. I’m excited to see what the Franktown JOY Club does in the future.

—Jamey Houghton is the senior pastor at Franktown Seventh-day Adventist Church. Photo supplied.

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