United Methodist Church of Estes Park

Our Mission Statement

The mission of the United Methodist Church of Estes Park is to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to respond to specific spiritual and practical needs of the congregation and the community at large.

We carry out our mission as we test all that we do by our understanding of the five-part core ministry of the church:

Reaching. The church must reach out into the world where people are and invite them into relationship with Jesus Christ. We cannot just wait for them to come to us. We proclaim the Gospel and seek those who will respond to its message.
Receiving. The church must gather persons into the Body of Christ. We are to receive people with genuine hospitality. This means receiving people as they are, not waiting until they fit into the "church mold."
Relating. The church relates people to God through Jesus Christ, and invites people to commit their lives to God through Jesus Christ. Through Christ we relate to one another in new ways.
Renewing. People are renewed (transformed) through their relationship with Christ. The church is to nurture persons in Christian living through worship, baptism, communion, Bible and others studies, prayer, and other means of grace. The church calls and challenges people to become all that they can be through Christ.
Returning. The church sends disciples of Christ into the world to live lovingly and justly as servants of Christ by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, caring for the stranger, and freeing the oppressed; and working to have social structures consistent with the Gospel; and to reach others for Christ. This continues the cycle of seeking, welcoming and gathering persons into the community of the Body of Christ.

As we strive to understand the Christian faith and communicate it to our modern world, we affirm John Wesley’s Four-Way test of faith: Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason:

Scripture. United Methodists share with other Christians the conviction that Scripture is the primary source and criterion for Christian doctrine.
Tradition. Tradition acts as a measure of validity and propriety for a community's faith insofar as it represents a consensus of faith.
Experience. Experience authenticates in our own lives the truths revealed in Scripture and illumined in tradition, enabling us to claim the Christian witness as our own.
Reason. Although we recognize that God's revelation and our experiences of God's grace continually surpass the scope of human language and reason, we also believe that any disciplined theological work calls for the careful use of reason.

Juarez Mexico Mission Trip

March 15 - 22, 2008

Submitted by Kay Rosenthal and Aaron Dorman mission mates.

[View Slide Show]

We're home! Safe and sound thanks to all the people who supported the trip to Juraez to help us build a home for a family in Mexico. Twenty three adults and youth from five churches and the youth group spent spring break working with Amor (Love) Ministries to serve the needy.

We left Saturday, March 15 at 5:00 am and drove to El Paso, Texas. Sunday morning we were off to Mexico after church services. We set up our camp site on Amor property in a wind storm that would match an outright blizzard in Colorado. Monday, we were up bright and early in the chilly morning air off to clear the ground and lay cement for the home's platform. Tuesday, we built the wooden frames for the exterior and interior walls to create a two room home. Before we left we raised the walls and roof and wrapped the structure in bailing wire. Wednesday, we covered the structure in tar paper and chicken wire. Then we started the first coat of cement for our stucco home, while the roofing crew installed a sun light in the living room ceiling and laid the roofing materials. Thursday, we did the final coat of stucco and then passed the keys to the family. We had an authentic Mexican meal provided by the family and ended the day with a soccer game with the local neighborhood children. We lost, but only on the scoreboard. We left the soccer ball behind, along with a sand box for the baby. Full of lots of fun stories, sore muscles and aching backs and/or knees we packed our dusty bags and departed Mexico for Albuquerque. We arrived home Saturday March 22 after 6pm, unloaded at the Fire Station and went home with the sense of a mission accomplished.

Special thanks to Aaron Dorman and Jake Hess, youth pastors at the Christian Church of Estes Park and Mountain View Bible Fellowship, for facilitating the trip. The Mike and Rae Cousineau and Covenant Heights Camp for the use of their van and trailer, the Estes Park United Methodist Church for the use of their van, Doug Baker for the use of his vehicle and to Kim Morrison for coordinating all the food, meal supplies, kitchen duty assignments, etc. Thanks to all the adults and youth who gave their blood, sweat and tears in the construction process (David Ruiz, Scott Dorman, Elya Hess, Kay Rosenthal, Tyler Romo, Collin Eshelman, Zach Schiller, Tim and Andrew Baker, Ben and Austin Morrison, Collin Ruiz, Caitlin Harvilla, Alyssa Weber, Caleb Weber, Josh Brown and Jordan Vick) Thanks also to all the great Estes Park cooks who provided food that was so delicious and fed our hungry bodies. Thanks for the financial support and the prayer support for safe travel and a successful mission. We are grateful for your support.

Our Pastor: Reverend Debra A. Olenyik

The Reverend Deb Olenyik has served as minister of the United Methodist Church of Estes Park since July, 2004. She has pastored for twenty seven years with United Methodist Churches in the Rocky Mountain and North Indiana Conferences. In addition to Estes Park, Pastor Deb has been the minister with churches in Torrington and Newcastle in Wyoming; Montrose, Olathe, Paonia and Colorado Springs in Colorado, and Ft. Wayne and Frankfort in Indiana. She also had beyond church appointments as Chaplain at Colorado School of Mines and Coordinator of the Minocqua, Wisconsin Outdoor Ministry Program.