As we have said before through various means (blog, deacons meeting, personnel, missions, & stewardship committees), we are affirming "Calvary en Español" as an expression of Calvary that will remain with us permanently. That fact is that Calvary en español was not initially intended to be a “mission” or “church start” which would be sent off after reaching a certain size. And, we remain committed to this intention as pastoral staff and leaders.
Calvary en español is a vital expression of who we are as Calvary as much as our children's ministry, youth ministry and worship style services are.
The next big step in affirming this is to move all of the Calvary en español's expenditures, also referred to as SLM (Spanish Language Ministry), from the missions budget to the church's general budget. This includes personnel and ministry expenses. Although this will reflect an increase in Calvary's budget, it must be noted that we are also projecting the revenues from SLM which have been going into a designated fund. The effect is that the revenues will increase by approximately the same amount (according to the present pattern) that the expenses will increase resulting in basically a zero net difference.
There are other steps which need to be taken in the future in order to affirm this which have to do with the publication of documents in English and Spanish, the provision of language accessibility in business sessions and other meetings, and the inclusion of representatives from all four worship services in our committees and leader structure.
This is an exciting development in the life of Calvary as our SLM has doubled in size over the last year and as it has provided an army of volunteers for children's ministry, bread of life, angel food, block parties, worship, evangelism explosion and other areas of the church's ministry.
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