New Schedule and New Series Start This Sunday

This Sunday (5-1-11) Calvary goes to its new Sunday schedule:


09:30 am  Classic Worship Service (Bible Fellowships)
11:00 am  Contemporary Worship Service (Bible Fellowships)
12:30 pm  Spanish Language Worship Service


We are excited about this change and we hope that God will use it to rally us as a church for his mission and vision.


We will also begin a new sermon series called "Radical: An Invitation to Extreme Living."  Taking a cue from David Platt's book "Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream," we will examine Jesus' call in the Gospels to follow him and to participate in his global purpose.  It is my hope that this would help us catch a vision for being authentic disciples who are on mission with God to make other disciples of all nations.


Note that there have been some changes in Adult Bible Fellowship schedules.  A new brochure with this information is available in magazine racks and tables around the church campus.


Please remember the following:

• Pray for the schedule change and the adjustments necessary.
• Pray for the new sermon series.
• Remember to leave the parking lots adjacent to the worship center for the elderly and handicapped.
• If you are in the 11:00 am service, help us fill the front and middle first so that new comers will find a place to sit on the sides and back.
• Remind your groups and teams about the schedule change and encourage them to pray also.
• Bring someone with you this Sunday.

May God be glorified in all we do.

Where are we on vision development?

For several months now, the pastoral staff and leadership at Calvary have been praying and working on vision development.  


Where are we?  Who are we?  Where are we trying to go?  How do we get there?  How do we know we're there when we get there?


These are the kinds of questions we are asking and attempting to answer.


Our starting point is prayer and the Scriptures.


Prayer
In addition to significant times of prayer as pastoral staff and to a weekly Wednesday night prayer group, we have asked the congregation to spend forty days of prayer seeking God's face.  During these forty days of prayer our focus has been on seeking the kingdom of God: the spread of the gospel, and the establishment of righteousness, peace and joy in our lives, city and world.  Not only have we been praying for God's direction but we are praying around the kingdom themes that should help us expand our vision!


Scriptures
There are several Scriptures that help shape our thinking about who we should be.  The two that speak to our purpose for existing are the Great Commandment (Mark 12:30-31) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).  In fact, we are thinking that if we get the Great Commandment right, the Great Commission will be a natural result.  If we learn how to love God with all our being and to love others, God will bring Christ followers to himself through us.  In that sense, we should be about loving God and loving people!  Can you imagine what that would look like?


In terms of vision and strategy, several texts are of special interest: John 20:21-22 (sent as Jesus was sent); Luke 4:18-19 (Jesus' agenda becomes ours); John 15:1-12 (description of an authentic Christ follower); Luke 15:11-32 (the nature of the gospel of grace) and Acts 1:8 (a geographic strategy).  It is noteworthy that the focus in John 15:1-12 is about who we are rather than what we do.  Our essential task is to "remain connected to Christ."  The growth, obedience and multiplication, even the love for one another, are results of that connection.


Summary
Having said that, could we summarize the primary aspects of our church vision as (1) love God, (2) love people and (3) live his mission?


Values
As we ponder on this, there are several values that are important to identify: Biblical authority, Christ-centered teaching, grace gospel, spiritual & relational vitality, holistic ministry, kingdom living and multiplication.


Worship and Families
Furthermore, in terms of what we do as a congregation there are certain essentials.  We feel like congregational worship is key for God's people encountering his presence, having a sense of congregational identity, and receiving the power for being on mission.  (We hope our current change in Sunday worship schedule will help in this way).  We also feel strongly about the importance of families in the church.  That means we encourage the family to attend worship together.  (When parents attend worship only and take their elementary age children and/or students to Bible fellowship at the same hour, they are getting an unbalanced spiritual meal and the family misses the worship experience together).  It also means we want to find ways to do more intergenerational things so that we are not so divided along generational lines.


Bible Fellowships and Small Groups
We believe that disciples grow and multiply best in the context of community.  So Bible Fellowships and small groups remain a vital part of who we are.  The discipleship of our children and students is a great priority.  We do this in part through age-graded Bible Fellowships.  However, the key to it is to disciple parents so they can disciple their children.  How important it is also to identify adults who are willing to mentor children and students, especially in the absence of a believing parent.


Local and Global Impact
As a missional church, we further understand that we have the opportunity and the privilege of ministering to the needs of our community, helping plant churches in the valley, and partnering strategically in global endeavors to minister to the least of these and share the gospel of Jesus.


What's next?
These are the basic things that we have identified thus far.  We need to unpack these things, to grasp God's dream of what our church could look like when these kinds of things are a reality, and to identify the steps necessary to move in that direction.


Our pastoral staff will be having a spring retreat in early May to work on these things.  Shortly after that we hope to have another leadership lab to share and hear from key leaders what God is saying.


In the meantime, here's what I am asking from you as a leader:

• keep praying for God's direction and power;
• reflect on the things discussed above;
• as the Lord confirms some of these things in your heart, pass them on to your respective teams and circles of influence within Calvary;
• give us your feedback and input as to the vision;
• feel free to ask whatever question you may have.

May God get the glory both, now in the process, and when we get to where He is leading us!

Moving Forward with Combining Contemporary Services

The decision has been made, after much prayer, consideration and discussion, to move forward with combining the contemporary services at Calvary.  I sense the excitement in the air already!


Allow me to review the decision making process.


After posting the idea on this blog last week, I received several e-mail replies and read several posted comments on the blog.  Some of these had suggestions.  Others had expressed opinions.  And some had questions.  All of them were affirming of the general idea of combining services.  The e-mail for blog posts goes out to approximately to 160 Calvary leaders.  Approximately 66 have viewed the blog.  About 20 have replied with e-mails or comments.  There are eight posted comments on that blog post.


On Wednesday (3-30-11), I met with the coordinating council which consists of the chairpersons of all committees and the chairman of deacons (Karrie Fogle, Victor Valenzuela, Bobby Byrnes, Steve Ahlenius, Hector Garza and Mark Southwell).  After discussion, the council voted unanimously to move forward with the proposed change.


On Sunday (4-3-11), I met with the deacon body.  Twenty-four of us were present (19 deacons and 5 pastors).  We discussed the proposed change, after a period of prayer, and arrived at a general consensus that this is where we felt God leading us.


On Monday (4-4-11), I met with the pastoral staff to pray and review the feedback received throughout the week.  As a staff we agreed to implement this change which has been agreed to by the leadership of Calvary without opposition.  We have discussed issues of concern and logistical details and are working hard to prepare for this change.


The nature of the concerns which have been expressed in the discussions are how will this impact the Children and Student Bible Fellowships, how will that impact parking lot space, and what will be the plan for when we grow.  There were multiple alternatives to the scheduled times that were submitted, ranging from starting earlier, to flip-flopping classic and contemporary and to placing the Spanish service in the middle of the two English services.  There were various other concerns and suggestions.  These are the most salient ones.  We have discussed each area of concern and considered the options thoroughly.  Although each of these concerns could occupy an entire blog entry, I will give a very summary comment to each of them.


The children and student buildings have sufficient rooms to handle this change.  What may be lacking are teachers.  However, this need exists now.  In other words, whether this change took place or not, we are still needing to communicate to our parents and congregation the value of discipling our children and students and increasing the number of people who invest in this important ministry.  As a staff we will take steps to call out those teachers and potential teachers in our congregation.


One of the aspects which will be lost in the children and student areas is the integration of children and students from the English and Spanish services that was possible at the 11:15 ABF time.  However, this opportunity will now be afforded for children of families who attend the classic service.  It is our desire that this integration continue to happen on Wednesday nights and events of the children and student ministries.


Our church campus counts on sufficient parking space to handle the proposed change.  Since there will be more people on campus at one time, we do encourage our congregation to leave the parking lots closer to the worship center for our guests, the elderly and the handicapped.  That leaves the parking lots on the west end of our property and the one on Daffodil (on the north end of the family life center) for the rest of us.


The pastoral staff will be working almost immediately on the plan for when we grow so that space is provided for further growth.


We considered the schedule time and placement of services suggestions.  There are many advantages and disadvantages to each of them.  The decision is to move forward with the originally proposed schedule:


09:30 am Classic worship (contemporary ABFs)
11:00 am Contemporary worship (classic and Spanish ABFs)
12:30 pm Spanish worship


This new schedule will be effective May 1 in order to give us sufficient time for implementation before the summer begins.


We ask for your prayers and your support as we move forward in the direction that we feel God is leading us.  I am excited about what God is doing at Calvary!


May God be glorified in all that we do!