Deacon Nominee Questionnaires (Last Week to Recommend)

A few weeks ago, I announced that deacon recommendations were being received now.  In that blog post, I wrote about the deacon qualifications and listed the current active deacon body.

click here to see previous blog post

As we move close to the October 28 deadline, the deacon screening and nominating committee emphasizes the importance of Bible Fellowships and other ministry teams recommending men for the active deacon body.  Acts 6:3,

"Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom."

reminds us that finding men to serve in the church is not really about individuals "applying" for the job but about the church identifying those who demonstrate the work of the Spirit in their lives.  This has been the intention of the deacon nomination process at Calvary for some time but we desire to emphasize it more so now.

          Thus, we encourage Bible Fellowships and ministry teams to prayerfully consider men in their midst who are already serving and demonstrating the work of God's Spirit in their lives.

         Individuals, Bible Fellowships and Ministry Teams who wish to nominate one or more men for active deacon(s) can use the (very simple) forms below to do so:

Recommendation form (English)

Formulario de Recomendación (Español)

These forms, once filled-in, may be returned to the boxes labeled "deacon recommendations" on the name tag tables in our main building.

         Once it is verified that those whose names are recommended meet the church's constitutional requirements, the prospects are sent the following questionnaires.  This questionnaire has been updated this year.  One of the differences this year is that deacons who have recently served in the active deacon body may use a simpler form.  Both versions can be accessed and downloaded below:

Questionnaire (Regular; English)

Cuestionario (Regular; Español)

For those men who have recently rotated off the simplified forms are these:

Questionnaire (Simplified; English)

Cuestionario (Simplificado; Español)


After questionnaires are received, the deacon screening and nominating committee interviews those who have submitted them.  Men who are found to meet the biblical qualifications and who demonstrate commitment to the Lord and to Calvary Baptist Church will be nominated by the committee for congregational vote.

Mario Cesar Samaniego: Interim Associate for Pastoral Ministries

          As both the Pastor for Pastoral Ministries and Administration and Pastor for Mobilization and Global Impact positions remain vacant at Calvary, I have asked Mario Cesar Samaniego to join our staff.  Mario will be serving as Interim Associate Pastor for Pastoral Ministries.  In this part-time role, Mario will be helping me with pastoral care matters such as hospital visitation, deacon support, and some pastoral counseling.

         Mario is an ordained minister who has been a part of Calvary since 2008.  Mario has been working as a hospice chaplain in the area for over a year.  He currently works part-time as chaplain and bereavement/volunteer coordinator for Only Love Hospice in McAllen.

         Mario graduated from the Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio with a degree in Theological & Biblical Studies/Pastoral Ministry.  He also obtained a Master of Arts in Counseling/Marriage and Family Therapy from Liberty University and is currently doing leveling work in order to pursue a doctoral degree.

         I am grateful for Mario's availability and for his desire to serve our people as we provide pastoral care alongside our Bible Fellowships, deacons and other pastoral staff.

Repairing and Remodeling

          Over the last 6 weeks, a lot of work has occurred on our campus as we recover from the March 29 hailstorm.  The cost to repair the damage is right at $1,000,000.00; all but about $26,000.00 covered by insurance.  We have repaired and varnished the Gym floor and replaced the Gym roof.  We replaced the shingle roof on the Children’s Building and the Main Building roofs, and repainted the Worship Center and pastor offices.  We have repainted six of the Slayton Building classrooms and its exterior.  We have replaced air conditioners - 6 in the Slayton Building, the Gym Floor, the Main Office, the Parlor, two balcony units.  There is some work left to be completed - the metal roof of the Children’s Building, copper gutters and flashing on the Worship Center, exterior lights, fences, ventilation units, and storage shed.

          In conjunction with work inside the Worship Center, we replaced and upgraded the fire alarm system in the Main Building.  We are grateful for the coordinating work of our church administrator, James McGinnis during this enormous undertaking.  We thank the building and grounds committee and the rest of the staff for their support and flexibility.

         The platform and sound system renovation has also been essentially completed.  The platform has new flooring, new modular choir risers, a new acoustic drum enclosure.  The sound, video-projection and lighting operators now share a booth downstairs.  (The cables that dangled from the balcony have been removed and are now hidden).  The space that occupied the former booth in the balcony has been replaced with pews.  New sound amplifiers have been installed and new speaker line arrays have been hung.  Although installation of the new sound system is essentially complete, modifications to speaker positioning and coverage is expected in the coming weeks to insure the best possible performance out of our new equipment.  We appreciate the congregation's patience with this process.  Our commitment in platform and sound design in the worship center is to provide flexibility and optimum performance for both the classic and the contemporary styles of our worship services.  We are very grateful for the leadership and oversight Mark Richardson has given to this renovation project.

         Thanks again to each of our leaders and the committees who have been supportive of all this work.

Congregation Decided on West Ed Removal

          The Calvary family gathered for Church in Conference on Sunday, October 7th and discussed the decision regarding the fate of the West Education building.  After preliminary discussion, a motion and second from the floor, and several who spoke in favor of the motion, the congregation voted by an overwhelming majority to have the West Education building removed.  The motion also included deferring to the building and grounds committee what would replace the space the building occupies now.  Since then the building and grounds committee has voted unanimously to replace the space with a grass area.

          The demolition has been scheduled for the week of November 12.  We are saving certain items from this building in order to commemorate the initial Calvary building (i.e.: corner stone, stained glass, light fixture, etc.).  The moving of pastoral, ministry and ministry assistant offices has begun.  So has the moving of the library.  The library will now be located in G104.

         There will be two office suites as follows:

Children's Building:

1. Susan Sosebee (Pastor for Families with Children)
2. Gary Faris (Pastor for Spiritual Development)
3. Marcus Rodriguez (Pastor for Families with Students)
4. Pastor for Mobilization and Global Impact
5. Kathy Herzberg (Ministry Assistant for Missions)
6. Katrina Menchaca (Ministry Assistant for Adults & Children)
7. Betty Flores (Baskets of Hope)
8. Sonya Hernandez (SLM/EE Volunteer)

Main Building (Front office):

1. Julio Guarneri (Lead Pastor)
2. Rolando Aguirre (Pastor for SLM and Regional Missions)
3. Mark Richardson (Pastor for Music and Worship)
4. James McGinnis (Church Administrator)
5. Benjamin Aguirre (SLM Associate)
6. Elizabeth Zamora (Community Ministries Associate)
7. Kathleen Beecher (Ministry Assistant for Music and Admin.)
8. Carmen Gaytan (Ministry Assistant for Finances)
9. Alma Escobar (Ministry Assistant for SLM and Lead Pastor)
10. Onydia Garza (MinistryAssistant for Student Min. & Graphic)
11. Jared Solis (Interim Media and Contemporary Worship Assoc.)

         We are so grateful to all the volunteers, deacons and staff who are working hard to make this transition.  Although, all of the staff has been very helpful, we are especially grateful to Susan Sosebee for working double-time to make the Children's Building home to new offices and to share much storage space.  We thank Marcus Rodriguez also for the great spirit and extra effort he has given in moving the Student ministry headquarters from the West Ed to the Gym.  The students are slowly making the Family Life Building (Gym) their "temporary" home.  All of these changes and arrangements are designed to be functional for a minimum of one-year until needs can be assessed again and the church can decide what to do next.

         Please continue to pray for our church as we keep our eyes focused on the mission God has given us.

Accepting Deacon Nominations Now

Deacon nominations are being accepted now.  Our church is blessed to have godly men who are committed to Calvary and who have a servant heart.  The word “deacon” is a derivative of the Greek word for “servant.”  That is the role of a deacon at Calvary.  Deacons are servants who work alongside the pastors to minister to the needs of the congregation.  Each year the congregation elects men to the active deacon body for a three-year term.  Currently there are 21 men serving in this capacity with 7 of them rotating off December 31, 2012 (you can see their names below).  Nominations are being accepted now by the Deacon Screening and Nominating Committee.  The biblical qualifications for deacons are listed in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.  According to the Calvary Constitution, all men age 25 or older who have been members of Calvary for a minimum of 1 year are eligible for membership.  (Deacons who are rotating off may not be elected until a year after).  Deacons are expected to be active in Calvary life, support its mission and vision, attend deacon monthly meetings and be in agreement with Calvary’s doctrinal beliefs.  Prayerfully consider the names(s) of men who you would like to nominate.  Forms for this will be made available.  The deadline for nominations is October 28.

For your information, the active deacon list is below.  You do not need to nominate people on this list.

2012 Active Deacon List

Rotating off December 31, 2012

Bobby Byrnes

Hector Garza

Keith Heppner

David de los Santos

David McDaniel

Richard Vaughan

Joel Salinger

Rotating off December 31, 2013

Joe Averill

Bob Canterbury

Brad Price

Tony Worley

Rotating off December 31, 2014

Alfonso Cavazos

Luis Cuellar

Dennis Chang

Javier Gonzales

David Heflin

Brent McBain

Joe Martell

Ken Munn

Marco Murillo

Warren Reed

Worship Center Renovation

If you have been by the worship center recently you have noticed that we are in the midst of a sound and platform renovation in our worship center.  This project has been in the making for sometime.  With extensive worship staff and worship volunteer leadership discussion, and with the approval of the building and grounds and stewardship committees, we have finally moved forward.  The objective of this renovation is to provide more flexibility for our three Sunday worship services in terms of platform space and of quality of sound.

This includes having movable choir risers (flexibility for contemporary worship) and changing the floor surface of the platform (crisper sound environment for classic worship).  It also includes moving our sound, projections and lighting operators to one media booth downstairs (eliminating a wire snake hanging from the balcony).

After this remodeling is done, new speakers and other sound equipment will be installed and tuned.  The result of this effort should be a sound/visual quality that will support our worship experience without being distracting.  Ultimately, our desire is to point people to an encounter with God’s presence for His glory.  Thanks for your support and your patience with this process.  (You will also notice hailstorm repairs in the exterior and interior of all our buildings on campus).