Tag: Longmont Times-Call

Original Music by Michael Payne: My Times

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Michael Payne, who serves as worship pastor at White Fields Community Church in Longmont, just released an original song called “My Times”. Check it out on YouTube here:

Here’s what Mike wrote about the song:

The story of this song starts back in 1996 when I arrived in Debrecen, Hungary with my backpack and guitar. It comes from Psalms 73 and 31 and encapsulated the start of my journey as a missionary. This song would become a mainstay for our Monday night English language Bible study with the medical students. But then I left the song behind in Debrecen as we moved to Budapest where I felt God call me to invest in Hungarian songwriters and song-writing. Since our move to the States 21 years later, this song has taken on new meaning as my family declares this same endless truth to God again – “My times are in Your hands”, stepping out into a new chapter in life.
Music is not only about the song itself, but who you play it with and it was a great joy to record this with great friends.
I hope the story and the words of this song resonate with you wherever you are in your walk with God.

Mike is going to be featured in the Longmont Times-Call’s 100 People of the St. Vrain Valley feature, in which they highlight notable people from the area.

You can also listen to Mike’s music on Spotify: Michael Payne on Spotify

Easter Weekend Recap

Published on by nickcadyLeave a comment

This past Saturday White Fields had our annual Easter Outreach, an Easter egg hunt and festival that we do in Roosevelt Park, right next to where our church meets at the St. Vrain Memorial Building in downtown Longmont. We had a lot of great volunteers who made the event a success both in terms of hosting a fun event for our community and sharing the message of the hope that we have because Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we can be forgiven and justified, and rose from the dead so we can have everlasting life. We estimate that 1500-1700 people attended this year.

A crowd watches the puppet show at our Easter Outreach which shares the meaning and message of the Resurrection

We want to say thank you to the Longmont Times-Call and Boulder Daily Camera for covering the event once again this year. When we saw the article come out on Saturday night, we were disappointed that it failed to mention that White Fields was the sponsor and host of the event. In past coverage of the event, White Fields has always been mentioned. Several members of our church and others who attended the event wrote the Times-Call about this, and yesterday morning the editor called our church  to let us know the online version of the article had been updated. We were impressed with the quick and gracious way they handled it.

Our daughter made the paper.

Sunday morning we had two services at White Fields. We broke attendance records, we had visitors from the outreach on Saturday, and we had people respond to the gospel for the first time to become Christians.

After lunch our family (minus one who had to work) headed up to Winter Park for a family get-away. Yesterday my son and I snowboarded.

Right next to Winter Park ski area is the western portal of the Moffat Tunnel, a train tunnel built through the Continental Divide in the 1920’s. My family is actually part of this tunnel’s history: my great-grandfather worked in it as a welder during its construction and his brother died in it in a dynamite explosion.

I hope you had a great weekend celebrating Jesus’ resurrection!  He is risen indeed!

Big Shoes

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Starting today, I am now teaching Bible class at Longmont Christian High School.

I took over for Don Monteath, a great godly man who taught history and Bible for many years at LCS; he taught our son for the years that he went to school there. Mr. Monteath didn't only teach the kids, he also loved them very much and they knew it. Mr. Monteath didn't teach at the school because he needed to, he taught there because he loved the kids and he loved teaching.

 

Don Monteath passed away in December. I attended his memorial, and it was packed. There was an open mic and the memorial went on and on with former students, family members and friends sharing their memories.

I heard it said recently that what the church needs most is more great men and women of God, who serve God and take part in His mission simply because they are Christians and that is what Jesus called all of His followers to be about until His return.

I consider it a privilege to get to teach these students the Bible, and to fill Mr. Monteath's shoes in this role.

 

How Safe Is Longmont?

Published on by nickcady8 Comments

Longmont seems to be in the news a lot in Colorado, but often for the wrong reasons. A few weeks ago a man stole a car in Longmont and led police on a high speed chase. This week a meth flop house was raided and shut down. There have been fatal stabbings and shootings. One can easily get the impression that Longmont is not a safe place to live.

One of my favorite features in the Longmont Times-Call is Johnny St Vrain, a column where readers can email in questions and get answers about anything Longmont.

One writer recently wrote in concerned about the question of public safety in Longmont. Check out that article here. The long and short of it?: Despite the bad press, Longmont is one of the safest places to live in the State of Colorado.

Here's a highlight from the article:

Longmont is statistically one of the safest cities in Colorado, a fact the Times-Call has reported. In December 2011, the city was named the second safest city in Colorado, based research by the magazine CQ. Last year, the Times-Call reported that major crime rates in Longmont have dropped 48 percent in the past decade, based on Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation numbers.

I have always felt safe in Longmont. This is a city of 90,000 people where if a bicycle gets stolen they report it in the newspaper! That says a lot about the city right there! In other places I've lived, I've had my house broken into, I've been mugged, robbed, assaulted – I even had a bicycle stolen, but those things didn't count as “news” in those places. Safe to say that Longmont's pretty safe.

How safe do you feel in Longmont?

 

Article in the Longmont Times-Call about Project Greatest Gift

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Article in the Longmont Times-Call about Project Greatest Gift

Last week I wrote a post about an initiative that White Fields Community Church is doing to bless children in foster care at Christmastime. 

The Longmont Times-Call newspaper featured Project Greatest Gift and some other Longmont holiday initiatives in this article.