A new church in Denver
Unstuffy liturgical worship.
Generous orthodoxy.
Pretty decent food and coffee.
Inclusive, warm, and human-sized.
Named after ancient martyrs.
Weird in all the best ways.
Gathering Sunday evenings this fall.
Felix & Regula
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Felix & Regula ~
Join us for Worship
After a late-spring full of Sunday brunch and worship gatherings in a cozy West Wash Park home, we’re on a summer recess.
We’re looking ahead to Sunday evening church come autumn. You’re very welcome!
Reach out for details with the button below.
Pastor
Rev Dr Andy Stager
Andy has 17 years of ordained ministry experience on three continents. He’s pastored in South Carolina, South Korea, Switzerland, and Colorado. He has an MDiv, a PhD in Divinity, and a Doctor of Ministry in “the Sacred Art of Writing.”
A grad school addict, Andy is in the final year of a counselor training program and plans to become a licensed therapist. He is a published poet, an obsessive fly fisher, and an insufferable Cleveland Cavaliers and Guardians fanatic.
What we value
Curiosity
No dumb questions. The Scriptures and Christian traditions are plenty quirky and full of mystery. We bring our inquiries, our push-back, our hot takes. We value kindness, whether we have compelling answers or not. We try to be honest when we’re stumped and generous when insight arrives.
Wholeheartedness
An expansive, practical spirituality. We are constantly considering the ways Christian faith can be metabolized into personal and interpersonal maturation. We look to encourage one another to navigate life’s delights, uncertainties, and disappointments with curiosity, kindness, courage, and flexibility.
Generous Orthodoxy
Jesus-centered spirituality. While we read Scripture alongside varied traditions and hold a curious and hospitable posture to our wider culture, we champion a generous Protestant spirituality of grace and faith centered in Christ, who remains singularly compelling.
Accompaniment
Proximity over convenience. No one can be forced to be close to others. Still, we choose nearness to one another over the anonymity of consumeristic individualism. We prioritize being knowable so that no one in our community has to move through faith and life alone.
Our mission and posture:
Bearing Witness
We’re named for St. Felix & St. Regula, who were martyrs. “Witness” is the English word for the Greek mártys.
“Bearing witness” is much more than dying for our convictions. It’s certainly not a heroic or self-important stance. But it is our posture and purpose as we identify with Jesus.
Here’s what we mean by bearing witness:
Paying Attention
Present and proximate to one another’s unvarnished human lives, we bear witness to the glories and idiosyncrasies of each person in holy silence and sacred listening, honoring the image of God and the unique work of the Spirit in every life.
Carrying what’s Ours
Aware of the historic cost of discipleship, we bear witness by placing ourselves in a yoke of fidelity to Jesus, finding the weight bearable and the burden light as we identify with and participate in the suffering and glory of Christ.
Giving Testimony
In reverence and humility, with joy and zeal, we bear witness by proclaiming the death of Christ till he comes again, and offering one another the hope of resurrection life and the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Who were Felix and Regula?
Glad you asked! Our pastor lived with his family in Zürich, Switzerland, for three years. St. Felix and St. Regula are the city’s patron saints.
Their story is inspiring, if a tad gruesome. The brother and sister ended up with an Egyptian branch of the Roman military in the 300s CE. Their legion became Christians. It was sent to France to violently put down an uprising of fellow Christians. They refused. They were forced to worship the Emperor and the Roman gods. They refused.
The legion was massacred at the Emperor’s orders. Felix and Regula escaped to present-day Zürich, where they were eventually apprehended and martyred for their Christian convictions. According to legend, when they were decapitated, they picked up their heads, walked up the hill from the Limmat River, prayed, and died. The famous Grossmünster church was built on the site in their honor.
Weird, huh? Exactly.
Here’s what we love about Felix and Regula:
They were very reluctant to take up arms.
They found more solidarity with fellow Christ-followers halfway around the world than with the Roman Emperor.
Their names mean “happy” or “blessed,” and “rule” or “principle.” Blessed are those who know who they are and to whom they owe their loyalty: Christ over empire!
They’re brother and sister: a man and woman standing together, choosing to be set apart from their society, to be weird in all the right ways.
Our community is named in honor of these saints of antiquity. We hope to be as joyful and principled as their names suggest; to be so rooted in faith and solidarity that we, like them, can bear witness to God’s love in Christ, regardless of the powers and pressures that impose themselves.
