FAITH, COMMUNITY, AND JUSTICE

Featuring Pastor Scott Slayback, LifeSpring Covenant Church, Loveland, CO 

Pastor Scott Slayback brings together faith, community, and justice in his messages about the Gospel and about how Christians should engage with the world.  His perspectives and insights come from a life lived on both coasts and a faith development both organically and intentionally. 

Pastor Slayback did most of his growing up in Northern California.  It was a location that taught him much and gave him many experiences.  He studied Religion at the University of California at Davis.  During his time there, he enjoyed cycling through the Napa Valley, backpacking in the Sierras, and working with junior high students.

Later, he studied Hebrew at Denver Seminary. It was there that he met his wife Julie. They later adopted a Vietnamese boy in December of 1998 and another in February 2001.  The family settled for a number of years in New Jersey where Scott and Julie focused on raising their boys and building their ministry. Their cross-cultural experiences helped shape them as a family and as community members that encourage diversity and connection.

They moved to Loveland, Colorado from New Jersey in April of 1999 to join the staff of LifeSpring Covenant Church. In the summer of 2003, Pastor Slayback moved into the role of lead pastor. In that role Pastor Slayback has not only brought leadership to the ministries of LifeSpring but has helped shaped the consciousness of his congregation and awareness of his community on topics of faith, politics, race, and other important aspects of society.  He has also helped extend the work of LifeSpring to other parts of the world, through missions and other global service efforts.

Pastor Slayback has both served at and developed LifeSpring as a church with a great vision for reaching out to our neighborhood, community and world. 

G.L.O.B.A.L. was pleased to feature Pastor Slayback in our CONVERSATIONS video study series.

CONNECTING COMMUNITIES FOR THE LORD

Featuring Rev. David Williams, Founding Pastor Abyssianian Christian Church of Fort Collins

Rev. David Williams has dedicated his life and his work to sharing the Gospel and helping communities connect.  As the son of a pastor, he has gained a lifelong knowledge of faith and theology.  He developed a range of experiences and fresh perspectives from them.  As the current and founding pastor of Abyssinian Christian Church in Fort Collins, CO, he has brought that experience and perspective to connecting communities through his ministry.

Rev. Williams established Abyssinian Christian Church in 1989, as a small congregation on the campus of Colorado State University.  The church soon outgrew the campus facilities and found its current home in Fort Collins in 1998.

The name “Abyssinian” means “diversity of colors,” and comes from historical traditions found in northern Africa in the first century in the country of Ethiopia. In the first century Christian Africans from Ethiopia would return to Jerusalem to celebrate the holy days they were often met with ridicule and verbal abuse because of their different pigment and diverse skin color. The slang name “Abyssinia” was given to them to refer to the “people of many colors.” Rev. Williams and his wife Debbie believed that name would serve their church well.

Rev. Williams also has served on numerous community boards, civic committees and service organizations and currently serves as a board member for Community Equity Initiative and Clergy for a Safe and Just Community in Fort Collins. He also serves as chaplain for the Fort Collins Police Department, Poudre Valley Hospital, and as Director of Black Campus Ministry at CSU.

Rev. also serves as Adjunct Director of Connection and Development for Midwest Conference of the Christian Covenant Church.  In that role, he provides strategic ministry leadership in church planting, church health and missional leadership development.

Rev. Williams’ background stretches beyond Colorado.  He completed his undergraduate study in Religion and Pre-Theology at the University of Evansville and theological study at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH. David was ordained in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and has served under a Ministry License in the ECC since 2010.

Both Rev. Williams and Debbie served for two years in DR Congo as church development and special assistants to the President of the ECC in Congo. Currently, he serves on the ECC’s Citizens Action Committee and Covenant Kids Congo.

With his many experiences of connecting communities in Northern Colorado, around the country, and globe, Rev. Williams demonstrates his belief that the church of the future looks brighter and fuller.