Exciting Summer Events!

We are right in the middle of summer and so many exciting things are happening that it is difficult to mention only one.  All of these things are ways in which we are growing as a church family who loves God and loves people.  The mission of making disciples is being advanced.  At the risk of leaving some important things out, let me briefly mention seven of these as we celebrate and as we continue to pray for God's blessing.


1.  Camp Zephyr:


A record number from Calvary (70 students and adults) participated in the youth camp at Zephyr a couple of weeks ago.  A great number from our group made spiritual decisions (professions of faith, rededication, request for baptism and surrender to ministry).  Interestingly, the theme of the camp was "Love God, Love People"!  We are grateful to God for this and we pray for the continuing discipleship that is taking place on Tuesday nights (Middle School), Wednesday nights (High School) and Thursdays (serving the Sullivan City community).  Thanks Pastor Marcus Rodriguez.  Keep up the good work.




2.  Combined Praise Band (English and Spanish):


At the request of the Hispanic Convention of Texas (BGCT), Calvary formed a combined praise band from those who lead worship in our English and Spanish services.  Benjamin Aguirre, Spanish Ministry Associate, led this team with the support of Pastor Mark Richardson.  This team led worship for the convention's sessions and was received with overwhelming acceptance.  Beyond their blessing the convention attendees for those three days, this effort was significant because it demonstrated one of the ways in which our church can grow in unity across our English and Spanish services.  This past Sunday they led the worship in all three of our services.  While it is important that we maintain the unique aspects of classical (English), contemporary (English) and contemporary (Spanish) worship services, on occasion, it is also important to have a sense that we are ONE family.  We pray that we continue to find ways to celebrate who we are as a Calvary family while maintaining our rich diversity.




3.  Sullivan City Church Restart


Our missions committee recently approved the restart of the church that we sponsor in Sullivan City giving Raul and Alba San Martin a leadership role and a presence in the community.  (They are living in the church parsonage there).  Elizabeth Zamora and Pastor Rolando Aguirre have been charged with being the communication link between that church and Calvary.  Thankfully, many from Calvary have responded recently to clean-up and outreach efforts in that community.  Last week two groups from a church in Tolar, Texas and one in Hueytown, Alabama came to the Sullivan City church property to paint, do construction projects, and lead a Vacation Bible School.  The church building was filled with approximately 80 children from the community and several of them made decisions to trust Christ as Lord and Savior.  We are grateful for people who have travelled so far to help us with our church restart here in the Valley.  While the San Martin's will continue to minister daily in that community, our Calvary students will be doing follow-up work on Thursdays.  We thank God for his blessing on this restart!




4.  Amazon Mission Trip:


In addition to the various mission trips Calvary individuals have been taking this summer to South Asia, East Asia, Panama, Venezuela, Germany, Kenya, Austria and New York, a group of twelve has gone on a Calvary sponsored trip along the Amazon river.  As I post this blog they are working with indigenous groups in villages along the river providing dental check-ups, tooth extractions, construction project assistance, free Bibles, and evangelism.  Many have already trusted Christ as Savior and Lord during this trip.  They will cover places in Colombia, Peru and Brazil.  Their objective is to equip local leaders to disciple indigenous people.  This is very much in line with the strategy we are wanting to follow as a church in a global involvement.  We thank God for this group led by Pastor Rolando and David Love.




5.  Fourth of July Tailgate Party:


Last Saturday, Calvary proved once again that it knows how to throw a party!  Over 1,600 people attended as many of our volunteers served hotdogs, snow cones, drinks, pop corn, nachos and as children enjoyed several rides.  And as it is the tradition, we ended the evening with an outstanding fireworks display put on by the City of McAllen.  We have identified about 125 English-speaking households and 50 Spanish-speaking households who may not have a church home.  Pastor Gary Faris is working in doing a mail out to all those who are our guests, thanking them for coming to the party and asking them for input on how Calvary can continue to serve our community.  He will also be working on assigning follow-up home visits to them in the next week or so.  Look for an opportunity to show up at one of these homes to simply say, "thank you for coming to our tailgate party and please know that our church cares about you."  We are so grateful for Betty Flores, Elizabeth Zamora, the 4th of July team and all of the volunteers that made this mega event possible.




6.  "Radical missions project matching fund"


This week we received a designated donation of a little over $100,000 for a fund which may be called "Radical missions project matching fund."  The purpose of this fund is to encourage groups in our church to take on projects that minister to unreached (or under-reached people groups) or to the poor and the oppressed.  The fund is intended to match dollar-per-dollar of what the group invests on serving the particular target population.  There is a list of criteria that must be met for the group to qualify for matching funds.  The criteria and the process for administering this fund will be presented to the missions committee before any disbursements are to be made.  We will keep you posted as to the progress of this. We are so grateful to the individual (who has asked to remain anonymous) who has taken a "radical" and "sacrificial" step to facilitate our church's advancing mission.  Praise God for this!


(You will note on this next Sunday's bulletin that the "total giving for 7-3-11" is $126,627.28.  This is definitely extraordinary giving to our budget in one week.  It essentially puts us in a "caught up" position on budget giving right in the middle of the year.  Please note that this is only budget giving.  It does not include the designated gift for the "radical missions project matching fund."  The Lord has given us a double huge blessing in one week!)




7.  Camp Tejas


In a couple of days a bus load of children and adults who love them will leave for Camp Tejas in Giddings.  Pastor Susan Sosebee is directing this camp which involves three churches in our state.  Many are praying for the lives of our children to be impacted with the love of God.  As lead pastor, I look forward to the opportunity of speaking each day to this group.  We are convinced that the faith formation of our children is extremely important.  Please pray this week for God's hand to move in this camp.




As all of these exciting things happen, we are undergoing some changes at the staff level.  I will communicate more about these changes on this blog at a later time.  For now, I would like to express gratitude to Pastor Joe Gerault and his ministry.  This month he has transitioned from his full time role as Pastor of Administration and Pastoral Ministries to a part time role as Pastor of Pastoral Ministries.  We have had a smooth transition.  We appreciate all that Pastor Joe has done in his full time role for practically eighteen years.  We trust that God will continue to use him and bless him in this new stage of his ministry.


I am grateful for each staff member, each deacon, each leader and each member in our church.  What a privilege to be here now!


Blessings

Free Lunches at Adventure Week?

            During the “Radical: Invitation to Extreme Living” sermon series, I preached a sermon titled, “How Much is Enough?”  I spoke about how the Scriptures challenge us in regard to financial prosperity and the poor.  In fact, I made a case for the idea that our treatment of the poor and the needy is evidence of our relationship with God.  The more we love God, the more we will care about and minister to the poor and the needy.

            On that same Sunday, at the conclusion of the service, I announced that during Calvary’s Adventure Week we would be offering free breakfast and lunch for the children that attended.  I also mentioned that the McAllen ISD was the provider of such a service.  There has been concern expressed about the appropriateness of our church offering food that has been provided by a government agency.  There was also a question raised about whether or not offering “school meals” to the children of our church contradicted my message to the congregation that we as Christians should help the poor.

            Given that concern, I think it would be important that I explain our decision to allow the McAllen ISD to serve meals at Calvary during Adventure Week.  It is my hope that this explanation would clarify matters for some of you.

As I discussed plans for Adventure Week with Pastor Susan this spring, we decided that we would schedule it during the day in order to reach more children from the community.  We thought that such a schedule would be helpful for children of single moms or other latchkey children who are not in day care or other day summer programs.  (Sound like the history of the beginning of Sunday School in 18^th century London?).  After we had made that determination, we were told about the opportunity of having McAllen ISD serve free breakfast and lunch to the children who attended.  We agreed to this because we thought it would be a ministry to the children in our community who would come.  The qualification of the program is not based on the individual children who come but on the area where the church is located.  In order, not to make the food distribution cumbersome, the meal program does not require that individual children “apply” or “qualify.”  Any child who shows up and desires a meal, can get one.

The food comes from the USDA Summer Food Service Program.  It is designed to “fill the nutrition gap and make sure children can get the nutritious meals they need” (http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/summer/).  This program usually involves the collaboration of schools, non-profits, businesses, volunteers and government to get the food to the children.  In our case, we felt it was a good way to facilitate the delivery of meals to children in our community/church and to show our care for them as we involved them in Adventure Week.  The Summer Food Service Program did not put any restrictions on what we do for Adventure Week or require anything from us.  In other words, there were no strings attached.

            As Baptists, we believe in the separation of church and state.  Calvary is not seeking or counting on government to support its ministries.  However, we understand that community transformation requires partnership and collaboration with non-profits, with business, with the education sector, the medical sector, and sometimes with government, as long as it does not compromise our convictions or limit our freedom.  When we agree on needs to be met with others, we can partner with them to meet those needs.

I know there are diverse views about this subject among our members.  I recognize that there are some who feel that it is not the job of government to feed people but rather the job of the church and non-profits.  I respect that position.

            The conviction that we should, in the name of Christ, minister to the needs of the poor is a biblical one.  We count on the church to provide resources for this purpose.  We also want to help people have access to other existing resources in the community.

            That is the reason behind our decision to serve the meals during Adventure Week.  I apologize if I offended anyone.  It was not my intention.  We are also willing to revisit this action for the future if it is deemed contrary to our church principles.

            May God bless us as we continue to find ways to make his glory and love known in our community, throughout the Valley and around the world.

Restarting Church in Sullivan City (Another way to Love God and Love People)

For several years now, Calvary McAllen has sponsored what came to be known as Primera Iglesia Bautista, Sullivan City.  During the fall of 2010 our pastors tasked with mission mobilization and our missions committee evaluated the work at Primera Sullivan.  At one point, consideration was given to closing down the church and selling the property.  However, as the committee prayed and as a transition plan was put in place, we felt God indicating to us that we should restart this church again.

Mission Committee’s Decision

Under the leadership of Pastor Rolando Aguirre (tasked with oversight of Calvary’s local and Northern Mexico missions) and Victor Valenzuela (missions committee chairman) the missions committee has approved the restarting of a church in Sullivan City with the following provisions:

•                     Raul San Martin will serve at that location as our missionary church planting pastor with the able help of his wife, Alba.  (The official title may be different but this will be the role);

•                     Raul San Martin will receive monthly financial support from our missions budget (funds have already been allocated for this purpose);

•                     The missionary church planting couple will live in the parsonage at Sullivan City.  This provides a housing benefit for them and protection to Calvary’s property, which might otherwise be vacant and subject to vandalism.

•                     Raul with the help of his wife will be taking care of the church and parsonage property, conducting Bible studies during the week in the summer, offering guitar and sewing lessons, visiting in the homes of the community, and participating in monthly outreach events such as Vacation Bible School, Back-to-school party, etc

•                     Raul San Martin will report to Pastor Rolando Aguirre, while Elizabeth Zamora, Community Ministries Associate will also provide support and volunteer mobilization.

•                     Sunday services will be restarted once school starts in August.

•                     We will seek the participation of Calvary people in Sullivan City at various levels, including Sunday attendance, event participation, project support, etc

•                     We will seek to work in collaboration with Buckner’s Community Transformation Center at Peñitas.

We are grateful for this opportunity that the Lord has re-opened for us.  As we have prayed for direction, God has answered.  We now pray that we will respond in obedience as we love God and love people.  As a church that believes in being a multiplying community and in ministering “to the least of these,” this is a great opportunity.

Background of Calvary’s Work in Sullivan City

As the pastors tasked with missions mobilization and the missions committee evaluated Calvary’s investment in Sullivan City, they discovered several things.  Although Calvary was providing the site property for the church building and parsonage, and monthly financial support for several years, the congregation had dwindled to a handful of people.  The missions committee decided to end the financial support by the summer of 2011.  In January of this year, Pastor David Garcia, who had been in charge of the church in Sullivan City, resigned.  It was recommended that the Sunday services cease until a decision was made about what to do next. 

Ron Corbett, member of the missions committee, immediately went out to Sullivan City to assess the condition of the property and to determine options for dealing with the property.  Making several trips and investing much of his time and personal resources, he became instrumental in informing our staff about what administrative matters needed to be taken care of and in mobilizing volunteers to go and clean up the property.

Although the idea of closing down the church and selling the property was considered seriously, Ron, Rolando and the rest of the committee came under the conviction that much more could be done to help a church start succeed in that location.  While Calvary had provided a site, monthly support and the participation of instrumentalists for worship services, we had failed to provide greater participation from our volunteers, prayer and moral support.

During that time Raul and Alba San Martin made themselves available to move into the property so that it would not be vacant and so that it would be cared for.  The missions committee approved this option, allowing them to probe the community for interest in ministry.  Furthermore, the committee asked that an assessment be conducted to determine what should be done at Sullivan City.  The assessment was to be conducted by Pastor Rolando with the assistance of Elizabeth Zamora.

A Transition Plan Bears Fruit

While we continued to pray for God’s direction, the San Martin couple moved in.  Soon the couple began to establish rapport with the children who came to play soccer on the church’s playground.  A Bible study was started that has grown to an average attendance of 22 adults and youth.  Raul has offered guitar lessons and Alba sewing lessons.  They also opened the church for prayer on Monday mornings.  ABF’s and other volunteers from Calvary made several trips to Sullivan City to clean the property, to conduct a medical outreach and to support the “Día del Niño” block party.

Soon, a ministry started to bloom in a community that some were convinced would never respond to a church in that location.   People from the community have come to Mother’s Day celebrations, Easter Sunday, and the other outreaches.  They continue to ask for Sunday services, some of them even showing up on Sundays and knocking on the door hoping there will be services.

The fruit borne by the presence of the San Martin’s, the participation of Calvary volunteers, and the prayers of many at Calvary over the last couple of months have led the committee to the conviction that a greater investment of financial, human and spiritual resources in Sullivan City should be made.  We are believing that God can raise a strong and vibrant church in the midst of that community.

Conclusion

There is much drug and human trafficking that takes place in Sullivan City.  There is much poverty also.  Some demographic statistics can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_City,_Texas.  The need for hope is great!  We are convinced that God loves this place and wants to redeem the lives of children, youth, men and women there.  Let us pray for this church restart to succeed with the power of God’s Spirit.  Let us personally invest in its success.  May we be found faithful in this and may the Lord give us other opportunities to multiply as a church.

We are grateful for the leadership of Rolando Aguirre, Victor Valenzuela and Ron Corbett.  We are blessed by the lives of Raul and Alba San Martin.  We thank all the volunteers who have responded to the needs.  And we are happy that Calvary’s financial investment has not been in vain.

This summer we look forward to commissioning the San Martin’s for this task and enlisting the commitment of volunteers and prayer partners.  Pray about your role in this and that of your Bible Fellowship.  Our student ministry is committing to make this their summer missions project, perhaps spilling over into the fall.  As a missional church, it takes all of us mobilizing to carry out God's mission.

We are loving God and loving people.

Group Life this Summer

It has been a month since our Sunday morning schedule change.  The enthusiasm about the worship services has been high.  I believe God has used this to invigorate our corporate worship experience each Sunday.  We continue to pray that God's Spirit would infill our worship services each Sunday.

In the meantime, we need to remember that a very important piece of our strategy for making disciples is group life.  The Adult Bible Fellowships (ABF), the Student Bible Fellowships (SBF), and the Children Bible Fellowships (CBF) are our primary way to engage people in group life.  We need not neglect this because much of the spiritual and numerical growth of our church is directly related to this.

As we approach summer at Calvary, we have a great opportunity to move forward in our vision of being a church that “loves God and loves people.”  Being part of a group where we experience community and where we reach out in loving ways to others is a very key aspect of living out the Great Commandment (Mark 12:30-31).

Because of the nature of summer in the Valley, we are ceasing our Wednesday activities at the church campus (with a couple of exceptions).  This will free up our Adult Bible Fellowships relating to our three services (classic, contemporary and Spanish) to meet beyond Sunday morning.  (ABF’s will continue to meet on Sunday morning).

The purpose of ABF mid-week experiences is (1) to reach out and serve others, and (2) to build community among group members.  The nature, frequency and time for these mid-week experiences will be determined by each ABF.  (The Spanish ABF’s will meet on campus in June and off-campus in July/August).  It will also be up to each ABF to determine how to best include participation from children and youth that relate to them.  Additionally, there will be a summer home group for Middle School students on Tuesdays and for High School students on Wednesdays.

We are excited about these growth opportunities and hope many will take advantage of them.  This is not meant to provide more activity for the sake of activity or more work for ABF leaders.  It is meant as an opportunity to do things that Bible Fellowships are designed to do.  It is hoped that this will also be an opportunity to empower other individuals in the group to give leadership to outreach, fellowship, hosting, etc.

Please be in prayer for this, encourage leaders and groups to take advantage of it and remember that our staff is ready to help and facilitate this.

Pastor Joe Gerault's Change in Staff Role

As several of you know, Pastor Joe Gerault, who has been on the pastoral staff at Calvary for over seventeen years, has had some serious health challenges in recent years.  His condition is called Ataxia and it is a deteriorating illness.  (I posted on this blog about it on January 19:  Joe Gerault's Medical Update).


This condition has made Joe’s job very difficult over the last several months.  As he and I have discussed the progress of this over the last couple of months, at his request, we have agreed that it is best for him to move from a full time role on staff to a part time role.

This agreement has been approved by the personnel committee and it will be effective July 1st.  Joe’s responsibilities will be primarily in the area of pastoral care and will not include most of the administrative responsibilities he has now.  Much of what Joe took care of in the area of administration will now move to James McGinnis (church business administrator), me (as lead pastor) and the rest of the pastoral staff.  We will be transitioning those roles over the next six weeks or so.

This comes in the midst of some slight staff restructuring that was under way already.  I am still visiting one-on-one with staff members before we finalize this restructuring.  Once it is finalized, we will announce it to all and implement it accordingly.  I am working closely with the personnel committee before moving to any implementation of changes.

Please pray for Pastor Joe.  We are so grateful for the great contribution he has made to our church for many years, for his spirit and example in dealing with such a difficult illness, and for his willingness to continue to serve in a new role.

Given the financial environment in the church and the valley, all of these changes call for each of the current staff members to adapt to our job responsibilities.  I am working hard to make sure these changes are equitable across the board and I hope that we will learn how to be more efficient, but more importantly, more effective in mobilizing the church for God's mission.

Please know that we are praying for each staff member.  We would like to count on your prayers also during this transition.  I am confident that the Lord is leading us forward and will continue to lead us as we trust and depend on him.   ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty  (Zech 4:6).

"Living when dying is gain"

"Living when dying is gain" is the title of the eight chapter in David Platt's book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.  In that chapter, Platt treat "the risk and reward of the radical life."  It explores the implications of Jesus words, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39).

To be on mission with Jesus involves high risk.  His call to the disciples to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons" was not a call to a safe and comfortable church huddle.  It is an invitation to go where the diseased, the dying, the despised and the dangerous are.

As our pastoral staff discussed this chapter earlier this week in our staff retreat, we were reminded of the reason Pastor Rolando Aguirre was not with us.  He came back from an exploratory mission trip to Chiapas having contracted Typhoid Fever and was still not well enough to join our retreat this week.  We are grateful that he is recovering well and he is expected to be back behind the pulpit of the Spanish service this Sunday.  Of course, there are lessons that we learned from this incident that will help us take better precautions for future mission trips. 

As I visited in Rolando’s home yesterday, I asked him about his participation for the trip to the Amazon this summer.  Enthusiastically, he said, "I should be ready to go by then."  The trip to the Amazon will offer very similar conditions to the trip he took to Chiapas.  Why is he not staying away from these places that have the risk of disease?  Should this not be a lesson for us to keep our mission trips to “safer” places?

Matthew 10:39 reminds us that to be in the middle of God’s will sometimes involves risking our very lives, not to mention our comfort and safety.  It does not mean that we will be negligent or that we will not take necessary precautions.  But it also does not mean that we will stop going where He has called us to go.

Jim Elliot who God called to go to the Huaroni people in the jungles of Ecuador said, “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”  He was beheaded by the Huaorani but the tribe eventually came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Last night I booked the plane ticket for my sixteen-year-old daughter Rachel to go to Panama where she will be in the jungle with the Kuna people.  Why would she give up two weeks of her summer to go to an island where there is no electricity and no running water?  Because she loves God and because she loves the Kuna people.  Is it risky? Yes.  Is it uncomfortable? Yes.  But I could not stop her from going because she understands what it means to “find life” by being willing to give it away.

Neither can we keep Rolando from going on future mission trips.  Neither will we stop going where it is risky and dangerous.  We will learn.  We will take precautions.  But we will “find life” by giving ours away as we go where he sends us.

So How Did it Go? and How Are We Doing So Far?

After our first Sunday in the new schedule, people are asking "how did it go?"  Others are wondering "how are we doing in general?"  

When people ask these questions, they generally mean, "what was our attendance?  how much was the offering? and what kind of enthusiasm was felt as we gathered?"  These things matter because they are, to some extent, signs of vitality or lack of it.  Of course numbers do not tell the whole story of a congregation's vitality.  So we must also be willing to ask deeper questions.  In this post I will deal with the first type of question first and then move to the second type.

May 1, 2011

On our first Sunday of the new schedule we had 284 in the classic (9:30) service, 398 in the contemporary (11:00) service, and 322 in the Spanish language (12:30) service for a total attendance of 1004.   It was one of the top five Sundays in attendance for this calendar year, including Easter.  The classic service attendance was much higher than usual.  The combined contemporary attendance was about normal and the Spanish language service continues to go up.

The offering for this Sunday was $47,585.85.  It is the highest offering for the first Sunday of May in four years.  And although it is just one Sunday, it is consistent with what we have received for the first Sundays of February, March and April of 2011.

Many of the comments received is that there was a new sense of excitement in the worship services.  We thank God for that and we pray that it is His presence that we are experiencing together.

It was observed that the attendees to the contemporary service need to do a better job of filling up the front and middle pews in order to give room for guests and late comers.  We have to leave room for growth! 

In terms of the Bible Fellowships, the report was that attendance was lower than usual in all areas (adults, students and children).  The reason for this maybe because families are still trying to figure out where they are going to fall in the new schedule.  It may also bring to light that some students and children were attending Bible Fellowships while their parents were in worship.  Bible Fellowships are a central part of our disciple-making strategy.  We need vibrant congregational worship but not at the expense of group life.  We expect that this will get sorted out in the next couple of weeks and we hope that families are taking advantage of the opportunity of both: Bible Fellowships and Congregational Worship.

Offering and Attendance in the Last Nine Months

While it has been observed that we are struggling to meet our current budget, it is also important to be aware of our income relative to previous years.  The January 2011 offering was the third lowest offering of any month in four years.  However, the February 2011 offering was the highest February offering in four years.  March 2011 was higher than last year but lower than the previous two years.  April 2011 offering was in line with April 2009, which was the highest April offering in four years.

In terms of total (English and Spanish) worship attendance 2011 is overall the highest attendance year in five years, following very similar patterns to the 2009 attendance.  So our church is showing some growth.  However, in terms of the English services, 2011 attendance is following the same pattern as 2010 which was lower than the previous three years.  This means that our primary growth is taking place in the Spanish service.  While we rejoice with this growth, we believe there can be an upward trend for the English services in the near future.

The Deeper Questions

Beyond the statistics of attendance and offerings, there are deeper questions about the health of our church.  This past Sunday night, the pastoral staff met with representative leaders from all of Calvary's ministries to explore some of these questions.

One of the questions that was posed was how is Calvary doing in the areas of spiritual and relational vitality?

By spiritual vitality we mean, how are the individual members of Calvary and the entire congregation giving evidence of "abiding in Christ" as described in John 15.  In other words, how are we giving evidence that we are seeking God's presence, abiding in the Scriptures, listening to God's voice and obeying Him?

By relational vitality we mean, how are the individual members of Calvary and the entire congregation giving evidence of "loving one another" as also described in John 15.  How are we building community with one another in honest and open relationships?  How are we experiencing relationships of truth and grace among us?  How are we confronting, forgiving and restoring each other?  How are we building relationships with those that do not know Christ in healthy ways that could lead them to faith in Him?

Another way to ask this question is, "How are we loving God and loving people?" (The Great Commandment).

I believe that if we focus on these questions, the attendance numbers and the offerings will be "fruits" of that reality.  They will become secondary issues.  Let us ponder on that in a personal way and at a congregational level.

This month we are considering the "radical: invitation to extreme living" aspect of discipleship.  We don't pretend to have it all together.  We don't assume we will arrive at this instantly.  We just want to acknowledge where Jesus has set the bar for us and then seek him to take us up to that extreme level.  This is a walk of faith!  It is an exciting invitation.  I don't know exactly what all it means for me personally.  I don't know exactly what it means for Calvary. But I want to follow Christ wherever he leads us.

If we take this invitation seriously, Calvary's brightest days are ahead of her.