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April 2008 Calvary Newsletter |
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It is time for my six month check up from the neck up. What I mean is that it is that time when I evaluate myself on how I am doing spiritually and how the congregation is doing overall.
Upon reflection I found I had less pressure than I had six months ago. I feel that God has released me from some of the burdens which kept my mind occupied. I believe my time with the Lord alone has been steady but I feel I need to take another step. This spring I am going to try something I heard another pastor does. He takes one day off a month to do nothing but fast and pray for the church and his ministry. It sounds spiritual, and I think it would have great results.
On a personal note, Priscilla and I have developed a closer relationship with each other over the past six months. Not that we were having any problems or anything like that. For the first year we had been adjusting to the new place where we live, the new church family and the empty nest phase of our lives. The last six months we feel we have finally settled in and have been focusing on each other and the blessings of having the other as a life partner. We celebrated our 26th anniversary this year and truly feel like we are blessed of God to be together.
I also tried to look at the church from an objective point of view. That is a hard thing for me to do. I love my church family and feel loved by them. I have not always felt loved by the church members I have pastored in the past. I am pleased with the spiritual progress the church has made under the leadership of Christ, our head. There is a great spirit of unity in the church. New people who attend our services have said they felt very warmly welcomed. I realize this to be the love of God shining from the members. It does not take a rocket scientist to pick up on the positive atmosphere. The Holy Spirit has been strongly moving in our worship services over the past several months. The music is stellar as the praise team continues to grow. Another sign of the church’s health is that people continue to join on a regular basis. These are only a few of the indicators that God is approving of the fellowship we have at this time.
Over the last six months our Sunday School attendance has grown. In September we were averaging 97 in SS. Last month we averaged 105 with a high week of 123. The morning worship service attendance has also increased but I do not have the average in front of me. I do know that last week we ran over 200 in service. Our offerings were a bit of concern as we went into the hole by 11,000 last year on our budget. This month for the first four Sunday’s we have already collected 31,448.45. I realize this is an unusually large offering for our church, but it is an indicator that God is at work meeting our needs.
Therefore I must say that the check up did my heart good and encouraged me that the church is heading in the correct direction. May all our praise and honor go to the Lord who has truly blessed us beyond what we deserve.
I was just looking at the calendar and it is almost time for school to let out. Well there is still two months left, but when you are looking at planning on the calendar, you know it is summer already. The Truth Project will be ending soon and we will be shifting gears into the ‘Fantastic Four’. These four Sunday evenings will be a time of looking to the future of Calvary Baptist Church. We will go back to the church ministry plan which you developed before I came as pastor. I will be asking you to reassess the objectives and goals you came up with. Then we will develop our strategy for obtaining these goals. This will lead us to the Memorial Day weekend where we shall kick off our summer Sunday evening program, beginning with a camp out and Sunday evening service at Custer State Park. The rest of the summer we will meet at 5pm on for a shortened service and family cook out. I can’t wait to win at horse shoes and cowboy golf.
There will be a huge evangelistic block party held July 26th so everyone needs to set that week/weekend aside in order for us to have enough help to pull it off. If you have never been involved in one of these you will love it! There are many more things coming our way but I need to get some work done here in
the office. One more thing before I forget it. On April 20th we are going to celebrate
God’s gift of life to all of us. There will be a church-
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Calvary Baptist Church |
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calvary@rapidnet.com |
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