Sunday, July 4, 2010

It was just one month ago that Jared Ransom completed his internship through Calvary (Drake) and moved into his part-time role as Minister of Worship and Community Life at Calvary East. Nevertheless, last weekend gave us a great indication of what God can do through Jared’s efforts.

Last Saturday (June 26), Jared led the way in helping us get involved with the Comstock DazeFestival. Some volunteers helped with the children’s fishing derby, while others helped run children’s games.  This allowed well over 100 families from our community to begin to get acquainted with Calvary East.

Then on Sunday (June 27), Jared organized our first outdoor worship service. This experiment went so well, that we’re planning to give it another try on Sunday, July 25.

When someone begins a ministry role as Jared has, it’s common to hold some kind of formal installation service. We are planning to an installation service for Jared on Sunday morning, July 18.

Jared’s father, Phil Ransom, will take part in the service. Phil serves as associate pastor at Calvary Memorial Church in Gering, Nebraska. His responsibilities there include leading the worship and discipleship ministries of the church.

We will also examine the powerful example of worship recorded in Isaiah 6. This is our opportunity to encourage Jared to stay true to the unique call of God in his life.

– Bryan Craddock

Sunday, June 20, 2010

What would you say about a father who committed adultery and later fathered a son through the same woman after arranging for her husband’s murder? What hope could there be for such a man to leave a spiritual legacy for his son? Through the grace of God, anything is possible.

The son was Solomon and his father was none other than David, King of Israel and writer of many of the Psalms.  Since we’ve been reading through several of David’s Psalms this week in our Bible reading schedule, I thought it might be worthwhile this Father’s Day to take a moment and reflect on what David imparted to his son.

The Example of Repentance and Forgiveness

The 51st Psalm was David’s expression of repentance after he committed the sins mentioned above. Imagine the powerful impact it must have had on Solomon, to hear his father’s humility and brokenness expressed in this psalm.  Some of us struggle with admitting to small mistakes. David proclaimed his repentance openly.

The Example of Passionate Worship

Many men find it easy to be excited about their favorite sport, but difficult to show more than passing curiosity in God. David, on the other hand, was called a man after God’s heart (Acts 13:22). He was known as “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Sam 23:1). He was passionate about worshiping God.

The Legacy of a Mission

Early on in David’s reign he was captured by a vision of building a temple for the worship of the Lord. God, however, did not allow David to complete this work. This great task was to be Solomon’s undertaking. Nevertheless, David did everything he could to help. According to 1 Chronicles 28, he made plans and gathered supplies and then gave them to his son to complete the task. Are we on mission for God? And if so, are we doing it in such a way that our children feel included and prepared to serve God?

David made some terrible mistakes, but by God’s grace he was still able to impart these great blessings to his son—blessings that we still enjoy today. Regardless of what failures lay in our past, God can still work in and through us to bless our children. May God help us by His grace to rise above our sins.

- Bryan Craddock

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Last fall in one of our Sunday School discussions, the idea came up that Calvary East might be able to reach out to people and serve our community through making our church building available for weddings. This week our Church Council adopted a wedding policy in support of this idea.

In exchange for using the building at a minimal fee, couples must complete six marriage preparation sessions. The wedding must also be performed by a Calvary East minister or pastor.

We believe this ministry will give couples with no connection to a church an opportunity to learn God’s design for a healthy, long-lasting marriage. Pray that God would use us to bless people in our community.

If you have questions, or would like to be involved in this ministry in some way, contact us.

- Bryan Craddock

Sunday, June 6, 2010

For over a century, missionaries have aspired to establish assemblies of believers that are self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating.  Typically, church planters in North America aim to accomplish these goals within two to three years of launching a church plant.

This was not our original intent when we launched the East Main Campus in January 2007. Nevertheless, that is where God has brought us. As of  June 1, Calvary Bible Church East became completely self-governing and self-supporting with the transfer of ownership of the church campus on East Main Street.

Self-Governing

The process of becoming self-governing began with the establishment of a group of godly elders and deacons last June. This group of leaders led the way in a plethora of other details, such things as: welcoming charter members, drafting organizational documents, and establishing a budget. More importantly, these men provide mature leadership to keep the church family on course spiritually.

Self-Supporting

At this point last year, Calvary East showed potential for being self-supporting, but just barely. Thankfully, God has blessed to such a degree that giving for the fiscal year was $30,000 (21%) over budget.  This is one indication of the deepening commitment of the body of believers who call Calvary East their church home.  Calvary (Drake) invested significant funds over the past three years to make major capital improvements that will help sustain Calvary East for the long term, including new carpet, a new expanded parking lot, and a new roof.

Self-Propagating

All churches have a tendency to turn inward, failing to reproduce, failing to fulfill Christ’s commission (Matt 28:18-20). This will be the true test of Calvary East. Over the last year, 30 new people have become part of the Calvary East Church family bringing it to just over 200 people and making our building comfortably full on most Sunday mornings. Most people at Calvary East desire to maintain a small church atmosphere, so in May the leaders challenged the congregation to begin giving serious consideration to how we will reproduce.

Praise God for what He has done, and pray that Calvary East will find ways to reproduce itself to the end that the light of Christ would shine brighter and brighter through us.

– Bryan Craddock

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Our Lord gave every believer this primary command: “You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8b).  First, we are to witness personally to others about salvation through Jesus Christ, and then we are to send witnesses in our stead to people elsewhere.  Missionaries are extensions of ourselves, witnessing outside our community as we are doing within our web of relationships.

A close tie with our missionaries mutually encourages us all to stay on task as witnesses. That is why we have chosen to start afresh with a missions program instead of continuing to contribute to the Calvary Bible Church Missionary roster.  We can easily become so absorbed in ourselves that we lose sight of our greater calling.  We need to be very intentional about involvement with our missionaries to spur ourselves to an outward mindset.

Ideally, we should all pray for our missionaries, keep current with their ministries, support them financially, and provide personal encouragement by communicating with them.  But we often fall far short of that ideal simply because of our very busy lives and because many of us aren’t very good communicators.  Thus, we can lapse into a low awareness of our own calling as witnesses and of the work of our missionaries.

A team of people from our congregation could help us keep our missionaries, their ministries, and their needs in mind.  In many extended families, there is one person who keeps in touch with all the clan members, and we’re so grateful for that one relative who goes to considerable trouble to draw the rest of us together.  That would be the role of the missionary support team of Calvary East.

It’s very helpful to have things in common, some point of connection between members of the congregation and missionaries.  So when possible, we would look for missionaries our children could know.   To remember our goal of being witnesses, we want at least a balance of missionaries directly involved in evangelism and those in support. Furthermore, we want to allow for short-term missions projects to encourage those in our congregation to explore that possibility for themselves.

If you would like to be part of a team to support our future missionaries, please let Bryan know of your interest.

– George Malley