Ancient Paths Church Update

-Ancient Paths Church
Desi & Rose Starr -Inner City Urban Missionaries

Changes are afoot at APC! First of all, our good friends Dwayne and Aimee Dokes have left our leadership. Over the past few months the Dokes and us have been praying about whether they were a good fit for the ministry at APC. The direction we have been moving in is more non-traditional, flexible, informal and relational. With much prayer and discussion, they felt that God was leading them in another direction and we are fully supportive of them in their moving on. It came down to a difference of philosophy of ministry. They feel called to be a part of a more traditional church that is tied to a particular location while we are feeling God drawing us to be the church in a more informal and flexible way (more details to follow). There are no sin issues and no hard feelings. We are blessed to have them as friends, and excited to see where God leads the Dokes and what He does with and through them. Please pray for them as they go out on their own and seek the ministry He has for them.

It’s interesting how God moves...usually not when we expect it! Most of our leadership has been on vacation or taking kids to camp for the month of July. Desi has been able to spend more time at home to help Rose adjust to Levi, sort of a paternity leave! During the past few months, Desi has been praying a lot about how God would have us “be” the church in such a way that we could best glorify God, live as a community, and reach the lost. This past month he read a book called Organic Church, by Neil Cole and felt a light turn on. It’s about being the church rather than going to church and our worship gatherings being reduced down to their most simple form so that they can be easily reproduced, especially among the lost where they live. Neil Cole puts it this way, “We want to lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple.” When we talk about lowering the bar of how church is done this doesn’t mean compromise in our worship gatherings but going back to the simplicity that we see in the early church’s gatherings (Acts 2:42-47). What does this all mean for Ancient Paths Church? We believe God has been working in us and preparing us to start a network of small, family-like simple churches (vibrant families of Jesus who are following Him together on His mission) all over Denver’s inner city, that are focused on, and believing God in prayer for the transformation of our neighborhoods. These churches are to be beacons of hope to the hopeless and a community of lighthouses shining forth God’s life transforming truth into the night. Many lost people are turned off by traditional church for various reasons but believe in God and want to know who He is. We believe that God is drawing such people to Himself. Jesus told us, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Luke 10:2) We are trying to take Jesus at His word and believe Him that the harvest is plentiful but that urban Denver needs more workers for the harvest. How do we find these workers? Jesus says to pray to the Lord of the harvest and so we are praying daily that He would raise up the workers for His ministry here. Please join us in prayer.

Prayer Requests:
• Wisdom and direction for the Dokes Family
• Laborers for the harvest in N.E. Denver
• Fruitful Gathering Events
• Develop deeper relationships with non-believing friends and neighbors
• Direction for APC
• Meet the needs of those around us
• Regular family & couple devotions
• Home-schooling Hope for 1st grade. We begin Sept. 7th.
• Consistency in raising our children God’s way
• Levi to sleep through the night!
• Consistency for Rose in reading the Bible
• Owen to be totally potty trained!
~Desi & Rose Starr