Dear Calvary Church Family,

One of the biggest obstacles to a biblical Christianity in our contemporary society is our attempts to control outcomes. There’s a lot going on at our church; some truly amazing things as well as some very difficult and challenging things. When all is said and done, what we have is an opportunity to surrender afresh to Jesus—as individuals and as a congregation. This is what we’ve been hearing for the last four weeks in our Sermon on the Mount series, and we’ll continue to hear it as we move through the Beatitudes, into Lent, and then on to Good Friday and then Resurrection Day.

Thank you to those of you who have fasted and prayed for Dave this last week. Please keep at it, praying consistently and also fasting as you feel led. No doubt we will have more corporate prayer and fasting days and weeks in the near future.

Finding Your Fit Class: Discovering God’s Design for You to Live with Purpose and Passion

The last I heard we have 16 people signed-up for the class. We have room for a few more. We will meet from 8:30 until 9:45am for four Sundays starting a week from this Sunday, on February 11th. You can register here. Here’s a bit of an extended overview…

God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives. As I have often told people, “You are the most anointed person in the whole world to do what God has called you to do.” The process of discovering our uniqueness and God’s specific plans for our lives is called VISION. Vision is empowering because it provides us with focus, confidence, and enthusiasm. Vision is also scary because it assigns us a measurable standard to evaluate our progress (or lack thereof).

As I speak to and counsel with people, I find that many are so consumed with the struggle of just getting by that they have little time left to consider their destiny in Christ.

Over the last many years, I have studied the elements of vision and endeavored to compile these elements for the purpose of helping people discover God’s design for them to live with purpose and passion. The following is a list of six elements for building a personal life vision and finding out where you fit:

  1. Spiritual Giftings – There are distinctive types of spiritual giftings cataloged in the New Testament. First, there are the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit identified in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 and are available to all believers as the Holy Spirit chooses, whenever the church is gathered. The purpose of these gifts is to extend the kingdom of God as well as to build up and encourage the church. Second, there are motivational (or functional) gifts. These gifts are grouped together in Romans 12:6-8. These gifts include prophesy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy. Our motivational gifts are divine enablements reflected in our individual personalities. Each one of us has unique, built-in cluster of giftedness to accomplish the will of God for our lives!
  2. Holy Passions – Sometimes we spend so much of our time fighting our un-holy passions that we don’t take the time to get in touch with our holy, God-given passions. A person’s holy, God-given passion often leads them to some compelling action. It may be a passion for unwed mothers, the poor, unbelievers, youth, politics, etc. This is part of God’s way of directing us to the place where we can best find our fit.
  3. Temperament – Are you a pioneer or a settler, an extrovert or an introvert, a thinker or a feeler? Do you like routine or variety?
  4. Talents – These are areas where you have been trained or schooled; areas of competence and growing confidence such as technology, arts, law, construction, cooking, medicine, electronics, interior design, etc. Our talents can be of great use and service in the fulfillment of God’s plan for our lives.
  5. Maturity – There are four general categories: searching/seeking, new/young, growing/stable, and leading/guiding (see 1 John 2:12-13). When we can identify our current stage of development it will be easier to set a course for where you want to go!
  6. Schedule – Our schedule often reflects the depth of our commitment to be available to serve beyond ourselves. Do you desire to proactively make service a priority in your life?

God is building a spiritual house using living stones (1 Peter 2:5). Before the foundations of the earth, God has designed a place for you to function. Growing a Life Vision means taking your place on the wall and discovering God’s design for you to live with purpose and passion!

See you Sunday!

Pastor Gregg