UPDATE: This post was originally published on May 3, 2014, when 3D Church officially launched their website (www.3dchurch.tv). Because of the popularity of the post, and rising curiosity about this new church coming to town, I went back and added more info. Hope it serves you well!

Hey guys. If you’ve noticed on Facebook that my profile picture looks a little more orange, and round… no, it’s not hypothermia. It’s the logo for 3D Church:

 

3d-church-aurora-co-denver

 

So I think I’m gonna explain this church by asking myself questions in rapid succession. 🙂

What is 3D Church?

3D Church is a new church plant coming to southeast Aurora.

What is 3D Church all about?

If I could summarize their vision statement, I’d say it’s, “To help everyone we can find their place in God’s plan.” So if you’re like me, trying to figure out if God really actually does have a specific, significant purpose for your life, 3D might help you finally answer that question sufficiently.

Okay so why the name?

3D. Yes. There are three D’s to their vision: Delight, Design, and Dream. This is me explaining them in my own words:

Delight — at 3D Church, we believe that we are the very delight of God. Who is “we?” You. Me. Everyone. God takes delight in us, and the Bible even says He rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

Design — God not only made us, and loves who He has made; He made us with a purpose. A unique design! He designed us with unique passions and talents and even weaknesses, so we can live out our purpose. Like a flower or a honeybee, we each will be the most joyful, effective, and beneficial to others when we do what we were designed to do and be who we were designed to be.

Dream — Just as God gave us dreams, and is the very creator of dreams, He has a grand dream for our world. His transformation of our lives extends beyond just individual transformation… and, when we surrender to Him, grows to transform our community, our city, our society, and our world! When we dwell in God’s delight for us and live out His design for us, we will begin to see God’s dream come true.

How’d you find out about 3D Church?

I found out about them through Jared and Vanessa Kruse, who were my youth leaders throughout high school and middle school. They stopped youth pastoring at our awesome previous church after their family started growing, and now Jared’s building up a new career in real estate. But for now, they’re also the family ministry directors at 3D, so we gonna have some kids in good hands up in here.

Why are you going to 3D?

Haha. That’s a complicated question. Simply put, I am utterly convinced that God wants me here.

Complicatedly put… I heard about the church, hopped on board with their mission to reach even further into our community with God’s love… and found myself wondering what exactly God wanted me to do with this new opportunity. After prayer and counsel and sadness and renewed trust in His power over mine, I recently stepped away from some leadership positions at my home church.

After seeing God start to fill in those positions and bring good things in my wake, I felt like He was blessing my transition. My heart is for God’s kingdom, and no matter what church you’re at, if you love Jesus and love people, we’re family, we’re on the same team, and we’re stronger when we work together.

What is unique about 3D?

I’ll start with what isn’t unique 🙂 3D Church is still all about Jesus and bringing the gospel to our city. We want to simply allow God to build and expand upon the work He’s already been doing here through other churches.

Personally, what I’ve found to be unique is that 3D Church really takes seriously not just what you do every Sunday, but empowering you to live out your purpose every day by following God’s calling for your work, school, and every other aspect of your life.

So much so that, when you join, they’ll give you the opportunity to take some assessments and meet with some coaches to find out just how God wired you, where your strengths are, and show you very practically some ways those things might just fit together.

Assessments? Coaches?

Yup. It’s called a “Design Session,” to discover how God designed you uniquely!

When I went through these assessments, it gave me great clarity about how God really does care about my passions and dreams, maybe even more than I do. Realizing his calling on my life also helped me deal with some regrets I had about my career direction. One thing Pastor Keith told me is that God is too economical to give you strengths and passions and to just throw them away.

When I first did my design session, I was honestly feeling, after a recent career opportunity had fallen through, that I had messed up God’s plan for my life, and that now there was no hope. But now that I know God loves me and made me how I am on purpose, I’ve been renewed in my resolve to honor Him by living on purpose and using my talents to reveal Jesus to my city and world. My passion is creative communication, and no matter my career or my day job, I want God to shine through my words!

Who’s behind this?

3D Church was planted by Keith and Julie Boyer, who are following Jesus’ call for them to plant it. They are both seasoned church planters, though Julie says church planting is still very difficult, which leads me even more to believe they’re not doing this for themselves. 🙂 Before planting 3D, Keith and Julie were involved in a group called Doxa Deo in South Africa. (Fun fact: It’s also called 3D Church because this plant is Doxa Deo Denver — three D’s.)

Our launch team is entirely people who are living here in Aurora (or who are in the process of moving here), but we have an amazing network of strategic partners supporting and praying for this little group of people and what it will become because of Jesus.

Wait, really? Another church in Aurora?

90% of people in the Denver Metro Area do not have a church to call home. Even among those who have a church, some of us don’t know Jesus personally (it can be easy to miss him in the hustle and bustle)… and 100% of us could know Him more.

Jesus is the hope of our city. Amid theatre shootings, school shootings, and tragedies just as big happening in the spiritual realms in our families and other institutions, anyone who will step up and make a sacrifice to help Jesus move in our city… is the best news to me. The more churches and more people doing that, the better.

 

Where He leads me, I will follow. Why? Not to please people, not to stay comfortable, and not to escape responsibility. I will follow Him because I love Him, and I’m not going to let anyone (including myself) dictate the direction of my life but Him.

I would like to invite you to pray along with me that God would move in this world.  We don’t have to be intimidated. We are weak, but we can call upon a strong God. There are some places only He can move. So let’s share in His attitude and work.

Let’s seek Him for what we really want: For the world to know His delight in each and every human being. For us all to recognize the significance of our lives and be attentive to His specific calling on our lives. And for His dream to come true in every nook and cranny of the world.

Your prayers are powerful! And it starts with just one.

(P.S. If you’ve stumbled across this post on the interwebs and don’t know me, but would like to talk to me more about 3D Church, please drop me a line at meg.baatz@gmail.com.)