get involved in the community

In The Community

Jesus, who said that he is the light of the world, also described us, his friends and followers, as the light of the world. He goes on to tell us to let our light shine so that people will see our good works and glorify God. In another place in the Bible, Paul writes,

"For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10)

Jesus talked a lot about His love for those who are poor, hurting, broken and forgotten. Because Flatirons exists to bring the awesome life of Christ to a lost and broken world we choose to serve and love those in our community simply because God loves them.

Listed below are a few of our friends and partnerships that exist in our local community. If you would like to know more about opportunities to serve in our community as they develop please contact Andy Wineman.

Andy Wineman | Local Community Connections
Office | 303-664-5524
Email | andy_wineman@flatironschurch.com

Neighboring Challenges

Neighboring challenges are different than challenging neighbors, if you know what I mean. A challenging neighbor is someone who lets their dog bark all night long. Neighboring challenges are the obstacles we face in trying to be the kind of neighbors that Jesus talked about. My good friend Dave Runyon (an expert on “neighboring”) suggests that the two greatest obstacles to being good neighbors for most of us are margin and fear.

Our lives and schedules tend to feel so full that creating a little margin can seem impossible. I often feel that way, but then I realize that is not how I want to live and when I think about what is important I find ways to make things happen. Being a good neighbor means being present and available for opportunities to develop to meet people and interact with them. One simple application for me has been to say hello or stop to talk for a minute when I see a neighbor as I go to get in my car or arrive back home before going inside.

Fear is another issue and we all have them. Whatever fears come to your mind when you think about getting to know your neighbors, like other fears, probably won’t materialize in reality, but do form a serious obstacle to overcome. Fortunately, in this case overcoming fear isn’t that hard and can start with a step as simple as saying hello and learning your neighbor’s name.

Margin and fear are two formidable obstacles, but both can be overcome by asking for God’s help and taking small steps in the direction of moving from stranger to acquaintance and beginning to get to know those who live around us. I am finding that those steps are usually met with encouraging results (meaning I enjoy talking to my neighbors) and opportunities to take more steps. Particularly encouraging is the thought that in doing so we are walking by faith and doing what Jesus told us to in his “great command” (Matthew 22:34-40).

Resources:

• The Art of Neighboring, http://www.artofneighboring.com [continue reading]

Posted on 30 May 2013 | 4:43 pm

Sister Carmen Community Center

Flatirons has a very close relationship with the Sister Carmen Community Center in Lafayette as they assist people in East Boulder County with food, utilities, rent/mortgage, transportation, clothing, case management and programs for helping to break the cycles of poverty.

For more information about the Sister Carmen Community Center and a list of their current needs visit sistercarmen.org or call 303-665-4342.

Friends of Sister Carmen Team
Flatirons Friends of Sister Carmen, exists to connect Flatirons folks with opportunities to serve and with each other. We enjoy getting together about every other month to enjoy a meal, share stories, celebrate our work together at Sister Carmen and hear about new service opportunities. There's always room for new friends interested in serving our community through Sister Carmen. For more information about current volunteer opportunities and our next gathering contact Tawnya Mitchell and see more on facebook.

Open Door Ministries

Open Door Ministries is an outreach of Open Door Fellowship Church in Denver. They embrace needy and broken people in urban Denver with the heart and hands of Jesus. ODM provides hope through a host of programs and residential facilities. They have transitional homes for young mothers and their children, as well as for single women. Open Door reaches out to people with disabilities through their TRYAD program and Cornerstone Home.

Flatirons Community Church is working with ODM to develop a job readiness training program with a support strategy that will enable participants to be successful in finding and maintaining meaningful employment.

Work for the Door is a two-pronged program providing classroom instruction for eight weeks covering important life and job related skills.

The second prong of WFD gives participants an opportunity to put the principles they are learning in the classroom into practice as they gain work experience in specific jobs throughout the Open Door Ministries organization .

Volunteer Opportunities

If you would like to help with this program there are several ways that you can engage:

Instructors – help teach and facilitate the Jobs for Life Curriculum in a caring way that sets the stage for learning in an atmosphere for student interaction and participation.

Mentors – walk beside students throughout the training course to model life principles and to track progress.

Potential Employers - men and women that are willing to invest in the lives of Work for the Door graduates by helping to train, provide internships or hire program graduates.

For more information about Open Door Ministries visit odmdenver.org.

iEmpathize

iEmpathize is an Arts and Advocacy organization that creates opportunities for people to explore and engage in issues of injustice. iEmpathize is a pathway to connect people and resources to needs around the world. Their initial efforts are focused on ending child sex slavery.

flatirons has been involved with iEmpathize from their early days and through a growing cooperative effort among Boulder County churches working with partners in Mexico City to help end human trafficking there.

For information about iEmpathize and how to help, visit iempathize.org.

Sister Carmen Food Drive

Way to go Flatirons! Your generosity and care for our community is amazing. You brought in 243,870 pounds of food last weekend. That is 12 semi-trucks full of food that will help countless families in our community in the coming months. God is so good and he is using all of us together to help our neighbors and people in our community that are hurting, broken and needing hope. Thank you.

Flatirons’ relationship with the Sister Carmen Community Center (sistercarmen.org) began when our student ministries decided that they wanted to make a difference in our community and launched our annual food drive. This is our seventh year of collecting food for Sister Carmen to help our neighbors in East Boulder County. Sister Carmen is one of our closest community partners and together we are working to break cycles of poverty and transform our community.

Perspectives

What is your perspective? Depending on where you stand, things look different. Part of the reason art is so compelling is that artists are gifted with the ability to present things from unique perspectives, often leading to new insights.

In addition to visual perspectives, we also have other perspectives, or ways we look at and understand the world we live in. As Believers, our relationship with Christ shapes our perspective. Other things that also shape our perspective are our families, our culture and our education. All of these things contribute to how we “see” or understand the world we live in. Here at Flatirons, we are also in the business of perspective. If you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you have surely heard that God loves us and does not hate us. For some that is a new perspective or way of understanding how God sees us.

In our ongoing effort to understand God better and live the lives He designed us for, we will be hosting a course called Perspectives. It is a 15 week course that examines the big picture of what God has been doing over the past thousands of years. But it is much more than that. The course is also designed to help us find our place in the Story God has been writing – really to help us get closer to seeing things from God’s perspective and joining with Him where He is at work.

Will you join us?

FAQ

What is the class format each week?
Each week will feature a different key speaker, worship, insightful articles, group and individual activities and snacks. The instructor list and class schedule is online here.
What are the homework expectations?
The class is offered at 3 levels: Key Readings, Certificate or Credit. We recommend taking the class for Certificate level or higher in order to get the most out of this opportunity.
Certificate Level: 30+ pages of readings, 15 written reviews, 5 personal responses, 1 project
What if I need to miss a week?
If you need to miss 1 or 2 classes, you can download the audio of the lesson and submit your homework electronically. In order to earn a certificate you cannot miss more than 2 classes.

Date	Thursdays August 15 – December 12 (not meeting October 24, 31 and November 28)
Time	6:00-9:00pm
Location	West End Auditorium
Childcare	Not Provided
Cost	$250 for Audit/Certificate $475 for Undergrad or Graduate Credit
Register	Register here.

Questions?
Email missions@flatironschurch.com or call the church office at 303-664-5524.

Outside the Walls

You have heard about flatirons people serving in our community and around the world and maybe you wondered why we do that or how to get involved? Jim Burgen explains why we move outside the walls of flatirons, Ron Barnes shares about our involvement with international partners and Andy Wineman details our involvement with local community partners. Watch Jim's video above.

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