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Today I am stringing together a group of words that I could not have fathomed doing even a couple of months ago: I have accepted the assignment of project leader and lead pastor of an Urban Church Plant that is being co-sponsored by Cherry Creek Wesleyan Church and the Colorado-Nebraska District of The Wesleyan Church. The project will take place in Aurora and is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2012.
Cherry Creek Wesleyan Church with the help and full support of The Wesleyan Church and the Colorado-Nebraska District will begin a prayerful and thorough search for God’s choice of the next lead pastor of the church. The process of selecting the next pastor will move at a pace that allows everyone in the congregation the opportunity to pray, to hear God’s voice and to express their thoughts about God’s plan for the church and it’s next pastor.
Several years ago CCWC chose to follow God’s clear leading to become “a network of neighborhood churches” by partnering with the District to develop, support and launch new neighborhood churches in the surrounding communities.
- In March 2009, TreasureField was launched with Marty Reiswig serving as the Church Planting Pastor;
- In June 2010, Church Planting Pastor Tyler Hettich led the effort to form Church at the Creek;
- In Summer of 2012, Nate Lamb will initiate the work to start Front Range Church;
- In Fall of 2012, I will assume the lead responsibility to develop and initiate an Urban Church designed to be a replicate-able prototype ministry of The Wesleyan Church.
As I look back on the past few years, I can see that God has been at work in me, preparing me and giving me a heart for the city. In the past few months God’s call has become unmistakably clear and unavoidable. As hard as it is to leave the familiar and the joy-filled relationships and duties of my 27 satisfying years of serving as pastor of Cherry Creek Wesleyan Church, I am incredibly excited about recklessly following Jesus in this new phase of life and ministry.
I will never be able to adequately express my appreciation for the years that God has allowed me to serve along side of you… some of God’s finest. Over the years, we have prayed, sung, served, studied and laughed together… oh, how we have laughed. Because of you, I know God more completely and am able to follow Him more fearlessly.
My family and I have been shaped by this church and have always felt enriched, strengthened and loved. I am incredibly pleased that this assignment does not take me a great distance from the friends and city I love. It will be in a different way, but we will continue to be on the same team working together to help people connect with God.
The precise timing of my transition will be determined by what is best for CCWC. And from our perspective, my decision does not necessarily have to be linked to Joy’s position as Director of the church’s Day Care ministry, but we are happy to place that decision in your hands.
I have a clear sense that this announcement today is the logical and inevitable result of the decision we made in 2007 – to invest some of our best in order to follow God’s leading to become a network of neighborhood churches. Because of God’s goodness and faithfulness in the past, I have complete confidence that His presence and power will continue to be at work in us and through us and will make the days ahead unbelievably satisfying and fruitful for all of us.
Reid Hettich
February 19, 2012
 Jonah was a mess. The Biblical character Jonah was deeply flawed… he ran from God, he followed God. Jonah had great tragedy in his life and experienced God incredible blessing. Jonah was a mess… kind of like us.
As we take a look at the life of Jonah in our 10am Sunday Worship Services in February, we’ll see that God works miracles through those who obey, though often times our nature rebels against Him. Regardless of which path we choose, God is the God of second chances. Join us as we delve into the whale of a story of one man and his journey with God.
Adios, 2011! I’m not sad to see you go – it’s time for the new year, a better year. Yet none of us know what the year 2012 will bring. We are hopeful that some of the pain and hardship of 2011 will be long gone and in this new year we will be prosperous and successful. “Prosperous and successful”, sounds good doesn’t it? Maybe almost too good to be true? Interestingly, “prosperous and successful” is precisely what God promised a group of people as they were entering into a brand new phase in their lives (the Israelites in Joshua 1). Fortunately for us the Bible even reports the fine print, the details, the conditions of that promise.
What if the promise (and the conditions) of prosperity and success were not just for the Israelites in 600BC… what if the promise was still good for us today, as long as the conditions were met. That’s probably worth checking out – and that’s exactly what we will be doing in our 10am Worship Services at Cherry Creek Wesleyan Church during the month of January. Maybe your plan for your life is working out perfectly and you can you afford to miss out on a clear understanding of God’s plan for your prosperity and success… or maybe not.
 Over the years we have worked so hard to create Christmas magic… sometimes in ridiculous ways (come on, really… Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?). There is just something about Christmas and magic that go together. But then, it’s not really that hard to connect the dots – the Biblical account of the first Christmas tells the amazing story of supernatural births, miraculous messages from God and heavenly help to foil a villain.
Christmas seems to be the one time a year when we really do need some magic in our otherwise routine and earth-bound lives. Maybe you do need some magic this year… that’s OK, just don’t settle for the fantasy of a flying reindeer. Join us in our 10am Worship Service each Sunday leading up to and including Christmas day as together we embrace the real supernatural power of God that is especially close and promises to provide us with the magical hope and peace that comes only from understanding and fully engaging the real Magic of Christmas.
Normal isn’t working. We spend a lot of time and energy trying to fit in… trying to be normal. But normal people are stressed, overwhelmed and exhausted. Many of their relationships are strained, hopelessly flawed or broken. Even though we live in one of the most prosperous places on earth, normal is just existing paycheck to paycheck and never getting ahead. In our oversexed world, guilt and shame are far more common than having a healthy married sex life. And when it comes to faith, it’s normal to believe in God, but the teachings of Scripture rarely make it into their everyday lives. Simply put, being normal isn’t working.
Journey with us and author Craig Groeschel (author of Weird) as we examine a Christ-centered philosophy on everything from money to scheduling to purity, that will help you break out of the normal rut and live according to God’s grace and truth. Our four week series begins on October 16, 2011.
September 11, 2001 was one of the worst days in United States history. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives, millions of Americans watched in shock and fear as the unthinkable took place… our lives and our country was forever changed. Even as we observed cowards and murderers, we saw heroes. Heroes emerged, risking their own lives to save others. In dramatic ways average men and women stepped up and became what they never imagined they would be… heroes.
In order to make sometime good come from something so bad, there are at least three things that we must do:
- It’s important for us to remember the tragedy and heroism of that day. We cannot forget the pain, the sacrifice, the honor that was exhibited by the heroes of that day.
- It’s also important to honor the neighborhood heroes that live among us today – men and women who in seldom recognized moments save lives and serve others.
- We must be challenged to live more heroic lives ourselves. We need to let the heroes of the past and the present neighborhood heroes inspire us to allow us to live lives of honor, sacrifice, integrity.
Beginning on September 11, 2011, Cherry Creek Wesleyan Church will be remembering the events and the heroic people of 9/11; we will be honoring some of our neighborhood heroes in person in our 10am Sunday Worship Services; and we will be choosing to live the more heroic lives of honor, sacrifice and selflessness that God desires. Please come and be a part of this important time for our community.
Here is our schedule:
September 11th – Fire Fighters
September 18th – Military
September 25th – Teachers
October 2 – Police, with special guest Dan Oates, Aurora’s Police Chief
October 9 – Public Servants, with special guest US Congressman, Mike Coffman
What we believe matters. Some have said that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you truly believe. That’s silly… our true beliefs drive our thoughts, words and actions. Believing is good… but believing the the right things, the truth, makes all the difference in the world.
The Apostles Creed is the most recognized and accepted statement of beliefs for Christianity. This ancient creed has unified Christians down through the centuries and has been the centerpiece for those believers who have transformed the world. What these great saints believed, mattered… it was their beliefs that molded them into who they were, what they did and all they accomplished.
Modern day Christians often do not focus enough on what we believe. We sometimes rely on preachers and teachers or even pop culture to form our beliefs. Understanding and applying the ancient, unifying, transforming beliefs of Christianity is the foundational piece to becoming the people we should be and in being the change agents that our world needs.
In the coming weeks in our 10am Worship Services at Cherry Creek Wesleyan Church we will be studying the Apostles Creed and it’s implications for our lives and our world. Join us for the important work of knowing what we believe, why we believe it and how those beliefs can and will transform our lives.
 Sometimes we get so caught up in the day-to-day stresses – work, relationships, chores – that it’s easy to get discouraged and lose sight of the bigger picture. This Easter season come renew the spiritual side of your life, at Cherry Creek Wesleyan Church. We think that a little faith can infuse you with hope and bring all the other aspects of life into focus. No matter what your previous spiritual experience, you’re welcome to restart your faith journey here. Come and join us as we knock a little rust off our spiritual lives in our 10am Worship Services.
We all want to better understand the great mysteries of the universe: how we got here, what’s life all about, what happens when we die? Way deep inside, all of us long to understand and connect with the God who has the answers.
One son kept the rules religiously. One son broke them all. One father loved them beyond anything they could ever imagine. “The Prodigal God” is our theme for our 10am Sunday Worship Services during the month of March – it’s a study of Jesus’ best known and least understood parable: the parable of the Prodigal Son. The parable communicates that we do not connect with God through religion nor irreligion, morality nor immorality. Both those who identify with the young brother and those who tend to be more like the older brother will realize that the only way to really connect with God is to recognize and simply accept the lavish, reckless and abundant love of a prodigal God.
By the way, the word “prodigal” is properly defined as: recklessly spendthrift.
 Most really important goals aren’t accomplished by accident, they demand intentional planning. For the most part to achieve something significant, you need both a goal and a plan to reach that goal. Sometimes we have a blueprint for key areas of our lives… health & fitness, education & career, but give little or no attention to our spiritual life and/or our objective of following Jesus. In our 10am Worship Services beginning January 9th we are going to spend some time evaluating our personal spiritual lives, setting some goals and devising plan to reach those goals.
Here’s some of the details:
10am Sunday, January 9 – Keeping Score
10am Sunday, January 16 – Investing Your Resources 9am
Saturday, January 22 – $$ Workshop
10am Sunday, January 23 – Communication With God
6pm Sunday, January 23 – Church Prayer Time
10am Sunday, January 30 – Pursuing the Truth
6pm Sunday, January 30 – Bible Study Workshop
10am Sunday, February 6 – Recommending Your Faith
9am Saturday, February 12 – Recommending Your Faith Workshop
10am Sunday, February 13 – The Power of Us
9am Saturday, February 19 – Church Membership Workshop
10am Sunday, February 20 – Lifestyles of the Rich & Faithful
10am Sunday, February 27 – Living Beyond Myself
11:30am Sunday, February 27 – Volunteer Tour
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