Lead Pastor and Ph D Dissertation Plan

          As promised in the last blog entry, I will be sharing about the current pastoral staff responsibilities in the next couple of posts.
          Although it may seem a bit presumptuous, I will start with me.  Please forgive me for the impropriety. 

           It has been a year-and-a-half since I came on board as Calvary's Lead Pastor.  I thank God for the loving support of my wife, Monica.  We have been blessed with four children.

           Joshua is a DBU graduate, lives in Fort Worth, is the media production manager at DBU and provides part-time media direction to High Pointe Church in Cedar Hill, Texas.

           Rachel is a graduating junior at Sharyland High.  You might have already noticed that Rachel plays the bass in our contemporary service on a regular basis.  She also leads the "Remedy" student band on Wednesday nights.  She has been accepted to both Houston Baptist University and Baylor.  She is considering the possibility of University of Texas at Arlington too.  Her desire is to study nursing (RN and Nurse Practitioner) and, perhaps serve in the mission field.  She has been to the jungle of Panama to minister to the Kuna people on a couple of occasions and has grown to love that.  We are praying to see where God would want her to attend college and where she may be able to get the scholarships she needs.  Her preference is definitely Baylor.  (So let me know if you're in the market for a kidney.  I'm selling one of mine).

          Mia is a freshman at Sharyland High.  Mia is very social and friends are everything to her at this stage of her life.  She loves to attend the student ministry activities at Calvary.  She likes music, art, and, most probably will study cosmetology.  (Somehow I feel like she's already invested much time and effort in this field!).

         Stevan is in 7^th grade at Sharyland North.  Stevan is in the chess team at his school.  He recently qualified at regionals for state competition.  Then he qualified at state for national competition.  He is also in the tennis team and won second place at the regional tournament in tennis doubles.  Stevan loves to read and is also in drama at school, which he really enjoys.

            I have the privilege of giving leadership to the church in general, supervise the pastoral staff and the Church Administrator, work closely with the deacon body, relate to the personnel, stewardship and nominating committees and the coordinating council, preach regularly in the English services, preach occasionally in the Spanish services, provide pastoral care and counseling with the assistance of the pastoral staff.  I love what I do and I'm grateful that I get to do it full time!  I love Calvary and feel very much loved by it.

          I am currently enrolled in a doctoral program at Dallas Baptist University.  It consists of a Ph D in Leadership Studies.  I have completed all my requirements, except for the dissertation.  I have submitted one chapter and have several yet to go.  By agreement with Calvary, by DBU requirements, and by request of my wife, I need to finish this dissertation and graduate this year with God's help.  In order to do so, Calvary's personnel committee has requested that I shift some of my responsibilities within the next few months in order to finish the Ph D dissertation.  This is a commitment I have made to God, my family and Calvary, and with God's help, I want to fulfill it.  I have asked pastoral staff to assist me in pastoral care and hospital visits.  I have developed a preaching rotation schedule which will assist me and also help Pastor Rolando.  (I will explain more about this rotation schedule in another post).  I have also named a global mission trips leadership team consisting of staff and volunteers to ensure that this important area of our church ministry moves forward efficiently.
          I have felt loved, prayed for and supported by many of you and our congregation.  Please know that I am grateful for that and I ask for your continued prayer support in the days ahead.

Church Direction and Pastoral Staff at Calvary

          As you know, Calvary is a diverse congregation that seeks to minister to all generations, various worship-style preferences and in two languages.  That makes our church rich and unique as we proclaim Christ and seek to love people in the McAllen area.  To my knowledge, there are not many other churches our size (perhaps none) that offer a quality "classic" worship experience, a contemporary service in English and a contemporary service in Spanish under the vision and leadership of one pastoral staff that seeks to foster one common bond across worship styles.  Some of the churches our size have decided to specialize in contemporary and do not offer a "classic" or "traditional" option.  There are traditional churches that offer either a traditional or blended style of worship but not a contemporary option (these are often smaller churches).  There are various English language congregations in the area that offer a Spanish language service in their facility but it is often under completely separate leadership.  Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen has the unique privilege of ministering to those who prefer to worship in a classic style, contemporary style or in Spanish while following the same sermon series and leading our people to pursue the same vision.  In other words, while some churches may choose to target specific segments of the population, we want to be a church that ministers to all people, regardless of age, worship-style preference, ethnicity or language preference.  That may be ambitious in an age of specialization but I believe it is biblical and consistent with the nature of the gospel.  To paraphrase a missiological concept, we want to mobilize the whole church to take the holistic gospel to all people.  We are grateful for that opportunity in such a place as the McAllen area and at such a time as this.

          Our congregation has an average worship attendance of almost 200 in our English classic service, almost 400 in our English contemporary service, and almost 400 in our Spanish contemporary service.  As you can see below, total worship attendance for 2011 was the highest it has been in five years and 2012 is off to a great start.  Most of this is due to the phenomenal growth in our Spanish service.  While there is a healthy vitality in our English services, we have not seen significant growth in those services.  We have great potential but it is critical that we continue to pray and work so that our entire congregation enjoys health and vitality.  As Lead Pastor, I am committed to doing what is necessary to develop an ever-growing English language ministry while fostering a spirit of unity with our Spanish language ministry.  I pray that, you as a leader, desire, pray and work toward the same goal.

          With somewhere between 900 and 1000 people each week in total worship attendance, we also minister to about 200 children, 200 students and 500 adults in various group experiences each week.  Furthermore, we seek to mobilize individuals and groups each month in ministering to our community and taking God’s love beyond the Rio Grande Valley to other parts of the world.

          In order to equip and empower our volunteer leaders it is important to have a pastoral staff that is capable, committed to the church-wide vision and assigned the responsibilities consistent with gifting and calling.  Our current pastoral staff consists of Julio Guarneri, Joe Gerault, Rolando Aguirre, Mark Richardson, Gary Faris, Marcus Rodriguez and Susan Sosebee.  We also have one pastoral staff position that is vacant.  The responsibilities of this staff have shifted some within the last year.  They are expected to continue to shift as we look at the ever-growing and often-changing needs of our congregation.

          With the intention of keeping you informed and asking you to pray through these changing times, in the next weeks, I will feature each pastor in this blog so that you can know a little bit about each of them, their family and their current role in our congregation.  As we discuss with the personnel committee how to fill the current vacancy, we are considering what restructuring changes may need to be done to the current staff.  As a Calvary leader, I ask for your prayers in this regard.  I also welcome your input.  The best way to have this dialogue is for you to post your comments on this blog.  You can either sign-in or you can post comments as "anonymous."  Even the "anonymous" option gives you the chance to type your name at the end of your comment.  If you prefer to share your thoughts with me privately, feel free to e-mail me or call me.

          As we think about Calvary's future, there are various questions that we can ask ourselves,

• How are we doing in making disciples of Jesus Christ?
• What is the spiritual health of our congregation?
• How are we doing in ministering to the various generations and language groups in our church?
• How are we making a difference in our community?
• How are we doing in mobilizing our people to be on mission with God locally and globally?
• What are the obstacles that need to be removed for our church to become all that God wants it to become?
• What are the important areas of our church that are being neglected?
• What is the sense of unity in spirit and vision among the Calvary people who attend the classic, contemporary and Spanish services?
• What is it that attracts new comers to our congregation?  What is it that keeps new comers from coming or returning to our congregation?

These are hard questions.  But we must ask them prayerfully and objectively if we are going to allow God to move us forward.

How Are We Doing Financially?

     As everyone is wondering how the economy has affected our region and our churches, we are grateful for God's financial provision through Calvary.

     As a church we minister to people, make a difference in our community and take the good news of Jesus Christ from McAllen to the ends of the world.  This is primarily a spiritual task.  Nevertheless, it is also requires our finances.  Our congregation gave $1,903,479 through Calvary’s budget in 2011.  Of this, Calvary invested $1,789,039 in ministries and missions that touched lives in our church, community and around the world.

     In terms of budget income, 2011 exceeded the annual budget income for 2009 and 2010.  In fact, it is one of three years since 2004 that exceeded the $1.9 million mark in budget giving.  We praise God for this.  In terms of our month to month giving, here is a graph comparison for the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011:

You will notice that, while August 2011 was the lowest giving month of the past four years, all other 2011 months surpassed giving for previous years. There were a few 2011 months where we surpassed all three previous years.  We are grateful to the Lord for this and hopeful about what He desires to do through Calvary.

     In January of this year we started a new church-adopted budget consisting of $2,059,615.  This faith budget increases missions support from 16% to 18%.  Additionally, it provides for the filling of the Pastor for Global Impact vacancy in our staff.  For the first month of this new budget, we received $143,844 which was $4,539.26 over our spending but $47,959 under budget.  As the first months of the year go, this January (2012) exceeded budget giving over 2010 & 2011. In fact, it is one of the top three giving January's since 2005.

     We are grateful for those in our church who are giving generously, and sometimes sacrificially.  Yet, we believe our potential is greater!  We believe that as we seek God and rely on him, He can help us exceed this year's budget.

     We are expecting great things from God this year.  We are increasing our missionary support.  We are developing a community transformation initiative that we are calling "BRIDGE" (see last week's post below).  We are continuing to develop direct partnerships with ministries in Kenya, Saltillo, Chiapas and along the Amazon River.  Some from our church will be traveling to these places this summer.  In the meantime, we look forward to ministering to our growing congregation.  Our children, students, adults, senior adults, worship and our Spanish language ministries all continue to move forward. 

     As we move forward to the rest of 2012, pray that God would allow us to give in such a way that all mission and ministry needs are met for his glory.  Pray that individuals and families would be encouraged to invest in what God is doing at Calvary.  If all of us give generously as God's Spirit directs us, there is no telling what God can do through our church!

BRIDGE: New name for community transformation

     Last fall (2011) we began an initiative that we initially referred to as “community transformation.”  We have involved staff, leaders in our congregation, community leaders (Thelma Garza, John Ingram, Steve Ahlenius, etc., etc.), a consultant from the Baptist General Convention of Texas (Gerald Davis) and a consultant from the national Christian Community Development Association (Noel Castellanos).  We have selected a team that has brainstormed and been instrumental in the development of the vision.  All of us have worked much on developing the vision, identifying needs and launching ministries that support this vision.

     As we move forward with plans, we think it is important that we have a name for this initiative that easily identifies what we are doing.  We have decided on a name, a concept and a logo.  These have been custom prepared for Calvary.  So below is the concept of this community transformation initiative.  This is the new name and the new logo by which we will be referring to it from now on.

     As Calvary people we answer the call to be a bridge that embraces our neighbors.  That means we want to BE and BUILD…

1.  An Individual Bridge:  Each of us as individuals finds ways to be good neighbors to those who live around us because we are called to love our neighbors.  (It’s more about being than about doing.  Nevertheless, it is understood that when we are good neighbors, it will result in actions that give evidence of our love for God and our love for people).

2.  A Bridge over Obstacles:  Identify and help remove the obstacles that prevent us and our neighbors from flourishing in a holistic way.

3.  A Development Bridge:  Offer opportunities and resources that help us and our neighbors develop educationally, emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually.

4.  A Partnership Bridge:  Participate in the flourishing of our community by partnering and collaborating with other organizations and entities.

5.  A Bridge of Hope:  We expect a better future for everyone in our community who desires it.  We hope for a better tomorrow for our neighbors, our children and youth.  We expect community well-being.

We take our cue from Jesus’ agenda in Luke 4:18-19 where He identifies with the expectation announced by Isaiah of good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, release for the oppressed and the arrival of the year of the Lord’s favor.  We become agents with Jesus of holistic ministry, caring for the needy economically, socially, physically and spiritually.  We join God in bringing his “shalom” (comprehensive well-being, flourishing and peace) to our neighborhood, community and city.

     This requires individual hearts that are transformed by God’s love, a congregation with a “BRIDGE” paradigm, a “BRIDGE” team that facilitates our being intentional, creative and strategic in our efforts, and a church-wide mobilization to implement the vision.
     During the next few weeks you will see information about BRIDGE in the weekly bulletin and in other brochures.  We ask that as you read this information, you pray for these initiatives, you find ways to be supportive, and you follow God's leadership as to where you should participate.
     Please also pray for the members of our BRIDGE team (formerly "community transformation" team):

1. Ana Curtis
2. Cindy Shartle
3. Deanna Price
4. Denise Love
5. Jacob Morales
6. Jeanette Ahlenius
7. Ken Munn
8. Laura Heflin
9. Mario Cesar Samaniego
10. Nicolas Pereyra
11. Richard Vaughn
12. Ron Corbett
13. Ruby Martinez
14. Sharon Rueda
15. Sijham Pereyra
16. Tom Boone
17. Tom Centrella

  Also the staff that relates directly to this team is Kathy Herzberg as Missions Ministry Assistant, Elizabeth Zamora as Community Ministries Associate, and Rolando Aguirre as Pastor for Local Missions (and SLM).  Nevertheless, BRIDGE is an initiative in which we expect all staff and the whole church to be engaged.