Dear Calvary Church,
Following Jesus means that we leave the land of “me” and enter the land of “we.”
Because our modern English language uses the same form of “you” for both singular and plural, it can cause us to read the New Testament with an individualistic mindset. But here’s what we can count on, most of the time (more than twice as many times): the word “you” in the New Testament is plural, and addresses the whole community of believers. Last Sunday I spoke on Being a Devoted Community. Fortunately, in our text Dr. Luke used the subject pronoun “they.” Nevertheless, it’s important to keep in mind that we’re called by God to do life together. I would love for you to re-read Acts 2:42-47, keeping in mind that verse 42 is what they did and verses 43–47 contains the fruit of what they did. If we want to experience verses 43–47 as a community of believers, then we would do well to take verse 42 to heart.
Good Gossip
I wanted to keep you up to date with some cool things happening around here:
- There were 10 people (including Linda and me) at the Calvary Membership Experience last Sunday. And Jordan indicated there’s another eight people who want to join the church! Amazing numbers for a church in transition.
- Kristen has reported there’s a lot going on in Calvary Women!
- A growing group of women from Calvary and the surrounding community who find themselves in a transitional space have been getting together for connection and support.
- Additionally, women from the surrounding community as well as moms of CCS students have started to attend the Women’s Bible Study.
- There has been a strong desire for leadership training among the women and they met for the first time this past month.
- There is the largest attendance for Mom Life in the last several years.
- Markel, Brenlie, and Maddie are excited about the response of both the Elementary and Middle School students to learning about worship as well as engaging in enthusiastic worship during their respective chapels.
- In fact, some CCS families who don’t normally attend Calvary came to the (awesome) worship night last week.
- Maddie said she was thrilled with the volunteer response to serve at the Family Harvest Night (which is tonight!).
- Jordan reported that there has been an enthusiastic response to the spiritual practice of fasting in the Calvary Community Groups.
- Finally, I heard both Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson were on campus last Wednesday night to watch their sons play football, along with a YouTuber named Airrack (who has like, 14m subscribers!).
There’s a strong and hopeful sense among our staff that God is up to something new and fresh and good here at Calvary Church. It’s a joy for me to be on campus with our church staff and the CCS staff and students. There’s tons of energy and enthusiasm that pulsates throughout the campus all day long.
See you Sunday,
Pastor Gregg