Speaking Engagement Audio: Watch the Video:
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Dear Flatirons Family, Just typing those words, “Flatirons Family” seems surreal...almost too good to be true. Robin and I are both honored and overwhelmed that God would see fit to cause our paths to come together in partnership with you, the Flatirons community. From our first visit to Flatirons several months ago, we sensed that this meeting was a “God-thing”. I remember telling Robin on the drive back to the airport, “This feels right.” What a great place. Well, I’m supposed to tell you a bit about myself. The best part about me is my family. I have a wonderful, patient, beautiful wife named Robin. Married 21 years and counting. My daughter, Alison, is a sophomore at Milligan College in Tennessee, the same college that Robin and I attended. My son, Jordan, is finishing up his senior year of high school before heading off to Taylor University in Indiana this fall. Other than that, the other member of our family is a slightly overweight pug named Stella whom I love to talk to in silly voices and wake up by singing special songs to her each morning. I know, it’s embarrassing, but you need to know the truth about me. I’ll share my story in greater detail with you when I get there, but short story, my dad is a pastor (so is my grandpa). I never wanted to be a preacher. My dad got burned by some mean Christian people when I was a kid so I spent some years being mad at God for how his people had acted. That’s not really fair, but it’s where I landed. Through a great girl friend in college (Robin) and some prayerful friends , God and I made peace and before long, I changed my pre-med major to ministry and spent the next 20 years working with high school and college students at two great churches in Kentucky. 3 1⁄2 years ago, I joined the worship and teaching team of Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky, and now, God has given me the privilege of coming to Colorado and joining the awesome team of Flatirons. I love my family. I love teaching and preaching. I love leading and developing young leaders and teams. I’ll always be a youth minister in my heart. I love seeing it click when a person finally gets Jesus. I want to spend my life building a church that loves God’s Word, and loves people who are searching for truth. I love Kentucky basketball. I enjoy running, and I’m training for my second marathon in April. Did I mention that I love little fat dogs named Stella? Well, that’s all for now. Please keep us in your prayers during this time of transition. See you soon family (I like saying that). Love in Christ, Jim
Dear Flatirons Congregation, We have great news! We have a new Lead Pastor! Jim Burgen has accepted the Elder’s offer to be the Lead Pastor of Flatirons Community Church. Jim is a twenty year youth ministry veteran and brings a combined passion for worship and teaching. He has outstanding qualifications, leadership, and experience, and those are the reasons we asked him to lead us into the future. Everywhere Jim has served his ministry has grown. He is currently the Executive and Teaching Pastor of an 8,000 member church. It was last January that we announced that Gil Jones, our former Lead Pastor, was taking a leave from his responsibilities. In April Gil made the decision to resign. The church’s constitution gives the Elders the responsibility for hiring pastoral level staff. We created a larger Search Team to assist us in the search process. From the very beginning, we felt the need to hire two pastors, a Teaching Pastor and a Lead/Teaching Pastor. God led us to Karl Wheeler who became our Teaching Pastor in August. He has been a great gift to Flatirons, providing strong leadership in addition to his outstanding teaching. Jim as Lead Pastor will give overall leadership to the staff and the church, and he and Karl will share teaching responsibilities. Karl will also assume an additional place of key leadership. During the search process, the serious candidates had the opportunity to spend extended time with staff, interact individually with leaders, and speak on a weekend. The Search Team carefully gauged how Flatirons and our staff responded to each candidate. Jim related extremely well individually and with groups, and there was a strong positive response to his teaching the weekend of December 10 & 11. In summary, we are very excited! Jim’s personal spiritual life, his warm engaging personality, his teaching skills, and his leadership ability are all outstanding! We can’t wait for you to get to know him as we have. You are going to love him, and thank God that He has brought him to Flatirons. Jim and his family will be here the weekend of January 28 & 29, and his official start date is February 15. In every way, God has led and met Flatirons’ needs during this past year. Our attendance has grown. Our finances have remained relatively stable during a difficult period. We have expanded our ministries. We have an excellent Teaching Pastor. And we now have an outstanding new Lead Pastor. Praise God! And... thanks to you, Flatirons, for being so responsive and faithful to God! The best is yet to be! Elders, Flatirons Community Church: Robert Davis, Chris Roberts, Keith Swingle, Sam Williams |
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