Trip this week - please pray!

Tomorrow afternoon, we will drive to our old stompin' grounds- the University of Northern Colorado, for Dave to speak at their NavNight (around 120-150 students this year; crazy!) and then for both of us to spend the day friday with a variety of different students. This is something that we hope to do about once a semester, and not just at UNC but at all of the campuses with Navigator ministries along the front range.
He will speaking on the Kingdom of God particularly:
1. What is the Kingdom of God? (or Kingdom of Heaven)
2. Values of the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of this world
3. How does the Kingdom of God move (or "come to earth")

Please pray for the message to really scratch where the students are itching, and for God to draw many of them into deeper consideration of their lives and God's Kingdom, and how the two intersect. Pray that God's Kingdom would advance in the hearts of the students. Pray for good connecting time with the students and staff of the UNC Navigators during the day friday; they we would all be encouraged by one another and that God's Kingdom would move as a result of our interactions friday!

A February to make your head spin!!

The month of February started off with a bit of a freed up schedule, which really only enabled an unbelievably crazy month! 4 days in was Dave's last day at Starbucks. While the closing of this chapter was sad, it freed him up to step in to a full-time roll in Denver instead of that part-time responsibilities that he had been able to accept. Please pray for the relationships with his co-workers, that they will be able to continue even though he's not there. God opened many doors and we want to continue to walk through them!

Potters Wheel

The next highlight of February came in the form of a 5-day intensive training called Potter's Wheel. This is a soul-care training where we, along with 6 others, packed 50 hours of teaching and practicing in to 5 days. Primarily using Larry Crabb's model of soul care counseling, we spent the week examining our patterns of coping with life and connecting the dots back to where we first bought in to whatever lies birth them. In most cases, some experience or series of experiences growing up leads kids to make vows with themselves as a form of protection. An example would be a child who put himself out there as a kid and was rejected and made a vow to never again risk. His god becomes his image and he serves that above the Lord, Jesus Christ. It's a process to identify these things and break that bond. We saw countless freedoms that week both in us and in others. God is constantly calling us in to a deeper intimacy with Him and out of the slavery that we often place ourselves in. What a privelege to be able to be a part of Potter's Wheel. Praise God for clearing our schedule FOR us and unexpectedly providing the money for us to go!!

Weekend in Chicago

Another highlight of the month was the 3 days we spent in Chicago for the new 20's mission staff training conference. This was for all staff who joined the metro mission of The Navigators within the last few years. It was so great to spend time with the urban workers of The Navigators all over the country. A highlight was meeting Jeremy who uses his rap music to bridge the gaps to inner city at-risk youth. Or Larry who ministers to the homeless of Chicago. He says "I don't call them homeless because really we're all homeless right? Atleast that's what Jesus said."

Laborer's Conference

The month wrapped up with the Rocky Mountain Regional Laborer's Conference which is a conference for the leaders and laborers of the collegiate ministries in the region. This is our best chance in the Spring to put ourselves in front of and among the future graduates. We lead some workshops and had some time to speak in front of the 300+ students about what we're in Denver for and inviting them in! The video below is Mike, another memeber of our 20's mission team, explaining "City Life" to future grads. This is essentially the same message we gave students this weekend.

Stay tuned for the launching missional community. We're so excited to create this landing for grads and to see how God might advance His Kingdom in this part of the city. Keep praying!!

Happy New Year!!

For us, a new decade was ushered in with 4 close friends at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and then back at our apartment with fun games and good conversation. (In fact, they are coming back over in an hour for breakfast and to spend the day together) God woke me (Dave) up early this morning to spend some time meditating on His desire for this year which inevitably led to the cliche "new years resolutions." I am drawn to the development of Jesus as recorded in Luke 2:52. It says that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. I like to divide my goals for the year in to 4 similar catagories; intelectual goals, physical goals, goals having to do with my walk with God, and goals having to do with my relationships with others (which usually consists of my non-believing friends and my marriage). Why not take a few minutes to ask God how He wants you to develop in these four areas and set some goals that can be measured periodically. May God bless your new year and give you growth and development in wisdom, stature, your relationship with Him and with others. Happy New Year!!

Missional Community

Community; probably one of the most over used, yet mis-understood words in the church today. Missional; a word that implies that that group of individual has some sort of offensive purpose or objective that they desire to achieve, not passive. Missional Community; a group of believers that decide to form a close (physically, spiritually, and emotionally) relationship with the cooperative goal of seeing the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ advanced AMONG them.

For the last few months, Hannah and I have been increasingly curious about the idea of missional community. Studying the book of Acts recently has accelerated this curiosity to a vision. The Spirit of God has accelerated this vision into a plan. The followers of Jesus in Acts 2 committed themselves to 4 things: the apostles' teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. What would it look like for a group of believers today to join together in a place full of people who don't know Jesus, commit themselves to these four things, and believe/ask God for the hearts of those they are living among? Here's our interpretation of what it would look like:

Within a few months of the new year, Hannah and I will be moving to an apartment community near us called "The Breakers" This community is massive including 5 different "neighborhoods", a lake with boats and a walking path around it, and giant community center with a restaurant/bar where every night of the week, there are events such as karaoke night, poker night, trivia night, etc. where many residents spend time. The complex is primarily filled with two types of people: young professionals and internationals (primarily middle eastern and Indian).

John 1:14 in the message says "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood." In the same way, we, along with the partners God gives us, will "move into the neighborhood" as the Gospel not only to pursue true community, but to believe God to advance His Gospel through us there.

What will this look like? This will look like us surrendering our apartment to the Lord and opening it up for many gatherings throughout the week, and even a place for people to stay, if need be. We will have some specific nights set aside for time in the Word in the group context, some times of simple "hang out times" such as watching a Broncos game with friends and neighbors or having a game night.
Are we starting a church? No. Too much negative baggage goes along with that word in our society, especially to those alienated from God.
Will what we're doing look like a local church? Possibly in some ways, but that is not our goal. Our goal is to see the beautiful Gospel of Jesus flow through relationships and then translate into healthy, mature, reproducing followers of Jesus. We will steer away from the religious forms and order found in a local church. Our strongest asset is our ability to go extremely deep into people's lives through proximity and availability; we don't want to sacrifice that for a structured "service."

Please continue to pray for this endeavor as we are already sending people ahead of us to "pave the way" for us to show up as soon as our current lease is up. Please pray for the few relationships we already have with residents there who don't know Jesus, that those relationships would be a great launching pad. Pray for God's provision to make it possible for us to be there, and in time to be more available there.

Broncos Parties!

Laughter, Cheers, Crunchy chips, High-fives, and oh yeah, the Broncos too. These last few weeks we have been excited about the way God has been connecting new 20s in Denver to us and each other through Broncos parties we have been having in our home. We have been so encouraged seeing new relationsips form and old relationship deepen here!

Team Time

From left to right: Fred and Linda Wevodeau, Dave and Hannah Umphress, Jay and Melisa Cull, Harry and Robyn Durgin and Mark and Trish Johnson. Fred and Linda are the general Metro directors and are very encouraging in our lives. Jay and Melisa Cull just moved to Denver from Pennsylvania and have 3 kids and are such a joy to minister alongside and learn from. Harry and Robyn have spent much of their lives with the Navigators in South America and Mark and Trish are our 20's Mission fearless leaders and are training and helping us in our journey here.

Here is our wonderful team on a staff retreat near Breckenridge! Talk about an incredible time together! God has so blessed us with a wonderful team and community together. Multi-generational and so much fun! Our times together have been challenging, uplifting and have spurred us on in our vision to walk alongside and help sustain college grads and young professionals.