Small Groups at Calvary

In Sunday’s Congregational Business Meeting, it was announced that our fall worship services will start at 9:30am beginning on September 12th. And, in place of our Sunday School, an opportunity for small groups or classes will begin at 11:00am.

There were many questions about this change. Let me attempt to answer at least some of those questions from my point of view as your Interim Pastor.

Instead of carrying on the program of a traditional Sunday School for adults, we are going to refocus our efforts on doing what we have been doing on two important ministries. The first is emphasizing small groups for adults instead of traditional educational classes.

Today’s adults, especially younger adults and middle-aged people, learn better if they are able to learn in small groups of 7-17 people where there will be a greater amount of encouragement, prayer, and ability to participate. The larger the group, the less the participation and opportunity for biblical fellowship.

We will attempt to practice the definition of holistic small groups presented by Natural Church Development: “Holistic small groups are disciple-making communities that endeavor to reach the unchurched, meet individual needs, develop each person according to his or her God-given gifts, and raise leaders to sustain the growth of the church. Like healthy body cells, holistic small groups are designed to grow and multiply.”

In these small groups, the unity of our church will be emphasized by each group using the same study questions based on the previous Sunday sermon. A Sunday School class like the Berean class may want to continue to meet in a large class format because this type of learning experience seems to best fit the needs of most people who are in their later 60s, 70s or 80s.

New people to Calvary will best be served by offering the option to form new small groups, but they may also want to join an existing small group if invited and it best meets their needs. Small groups that already exist may continue to meet or they may regroup or multiply in the fall.

Small groups that have parents of small children will be encouraged to provide for their own small group child-care needs. Our church leadership will look into providing funding for small-group child care if possible. But, this will be a small group ministry and not a church ministry. It will be up to the small group to determine its own needs.

Training for small group leaders will be offered and every small group leader will be encouraged to recruit and work with an assistant or apprentice small group leader. Look for a training opportunity before the fall program begins.

The “new” small group ministry is an attempt to increase the outreach and evangelism potential of our church and hopefully will help increase our ability to reach out to people in our church neighborhood. Every small group and class will be encouraged to have an outreach function as a regular part of its ministry.

All small groups and classes will be evaluated this December and again before next summer.

Tags: Calvary, Fellowship, Outreach, Small Groups

It Happened in our Neighborhood

Pastor’s Blog 7-23-10
Last night someone from the church’s neighborhood was killed by a stray bullet fired from a car that was leaving the scene of a fight involving two groups of people. Lisa Marie Melancon, a 40 year old mother and Tacoma city employee, was killed in a tragic act of violence. The family needs our prayers as they grieve their loss.

So what difference does it make to those of us who call Calvary Baptist our church home? How should we respond to such a tragedy – a senseless act of violence just a few blocks from our church building?

Our first response should be to pray. Pray for the family as they walk through the darkness of grief. Grief is exaggerated when a sudden death of a family member is the result of violence. Pray for the peace of God and the comfort of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 1:3f). Pray that God in his infinite love will draw family and friends to Christ. And, pray for an end to violence in our neighborhood.

Our second response should be to take our role seriously as a church family who serves and ministers in our immediate neighborhood. Many years ago God placed us in this location for a purpose and He placed the residents of our neighborhood here for the same purpose:

Acts 17:26-27: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”

God has called his chosen people to help transform communities and neighborhoods because of their presence and ministry. Acts 1:8 says that we are to be his witnesses equipped with His power and authority in Jerusalem first (our immediate social and cultural area). Jesus said we are to be salt and light where we are and live, making a difference when turned on and used (Matt. 5:13-16).

Our third response should be to prayerfully discover ways to reconnect our church to its neighbors. We need to discover what needs exist in our neighborhood that we are capable of meeting with God’s help and our hands-on service. We have limited resources and can’t do everything that needs to be done but we can discover what we can do and then do it with God’s help and power.

Fourth, as the people of God, let’s invade our community as soldiers of Christ armed with the power of the Gospel and fully equipped with the love of Jesus. It is our job to invade enemy territory and take it back for the Lord. With God’s help, we can do it!

(For the newspaper article on the shooting, go to http://bit.ly/9ezX7c)

Tags: neighborhood

Transformation

Pastor Charlie  has asked the leadership of our church to read a book called “Transformational Church.”  As I have begun to read this book, there are a few things that I have read that really get me excited.  The first came on the first page when the authors talked about putting the nouns transformation and church together.  They say, “…put together the actual occurrence of transformation and the community of poeple called the church, the result is powerful.  It’s amazing.  The result is transformation and church the way God designed them to be.”

I am excited that our church can be the kind of church described here.  It is going to take some work, and that will be painful.  But, as we are able to work through these changes, I believe that God is really going to use Calvary in powerful ways.

The second quote that I loved was, “Transformational Churches have a restlessness about them.  They refuse just to sit and soak.  They are restless to look, learn, and live out the gospel.  This holy restlessness is often part of God’s process that leads to more people and places to minister.”

As we as a church start to look, learn, and live out the gospel, our community can be redeemed.  Just last night there was a senseless shooting in our neighborhood.  As I read the details online and saw the comments, I was saddened.  So many people were saying how bad Tacoma is.  But I am trying to look beyond the tragedy to see that there are so many people that are all around us that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.  There is hope, and it is only found in the person of Jesus Christ.  If there was ever a time for Calvary to live out the gospel, it is now.  Let’s all work together to see how we can look, learn, and live out the gospel in our lives.

The Pain of Change

As your new Interim Senior Pastor, one of my jobs at Calvary is to help the church leadership prepare for and walk through some needed changes that will improve the health of the congregation and her ministries. And, let’s face it, change is hard and often painful.

Nobody likes the idea of changing some old ways of doing church and replacing them with new ways. But most people who call Calvary their home know that change and transition is needed.

Over the next few months you will be hearing of changes that your church leadership has agreed to because we need to try to reverse the trend of attendance decline and worker fatigue and loosing effective contact with others who live in our community.

Last night the Deacon Board made some beginning changes in how we do ministry and what ministries we will do or not do. We began by changing Sunday morning meeting times for the fall and the strengthening of small group ministries.

Some may find the change in worship service time from 10:50am to 9:30am to be painful, but we are doing this on a trial basis to allow more people from our church and our community to attend. Younger individuals and families have expressed an interest and even excitement in the new schedule. This change will also allow more opportunities for small group meetings after the worship service and more possibilities for community ministry and service on Sunday mornings. Families may also enjoy having more time following the worship service to enjoy more of the day with family or friends. The new worship service time of 9:30am will begin on September 12th. This will go along with more worship experience improvements.

Another change that may cause some pain is our decision to put the AWANA ministry on hold for now until God directs us to restart this Children’s program or another one in its place. But for now we are not going to hold AWANA this next school year and instead focus the churches energies and resources on developing a dynamic children’s church experience during our worship service. This will also replace our children’s Sunday School for now. Please pray that God directs and leads us to reach out to more of our neighborhood children while we serve our church’s existing children and their families.

Paul Baker has blogged about more of the changes and you will be hearing more about them and others in the days ahead.

Someone once wisely said, we will not change until the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing. Let’s face it, if Calvary doesn’t change, there will be discouragement and more decline in attendance and ministry effectiveness. But, if we seek God and his plan for our church, He “is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in (our) church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Tags: AWANA, Change, Sunday School, Worship Times

Change!

I just came home from the first Deacon meeting with Pastor Charlie.  I am very excited about some of things that we talked about.  It is definitely hard as our church looks at things that are going to be different.  But as we allow God to transform our church, I truly believe that we are going to be blessed.

We are going to be trying some new things as we look to the future and what God has for us.  We are going to be focused on 4 major ministries this fall: our worship service, student ministries, children’s ministry and small groups.  When Rick Weber came with Mike Kellar, they gave us 5 prescriptions.  This focus is just what they asked us to do.  I am excited for us as a church to be able to pour our energy and resources into these four areas and see what God will do!

So, with this new focus, our schedule is going to look a little bit different.  On Sundays, we will have our worship service at 9:30 a.m.  Our main children’s ministry will happen during the service.  Children’s church will be revamped and be our only children’s ministry for the near future.  While our other ministries have been used by God in the past, we do not have enough people to properly staff all of these ministries, so we will focus on one.  We will leave the door open for the Lord to tell us when it is time for us to do these ministries again.

At 11 a.m on Sundays we will have time available for small groups to meet.  Some of these may be the same as the existing Sunday School classes, others might not be.  We have a number of current small groups and they may choose to meet on Sunday mornings or meet at other times during the week.  Pastor Charlie would like them to use his provided study questions as follow up from his sermons.  This will give us the opportunity for deeper study together as a church.

I know that change isn’t easy for us.  But I truly believe that these changes will help us to become the church that God wants us to be.  I pray God will help us all in this time of change.

Evangelism!

Evangelism.  That word causes most Christians (and some non-Christians too) to run and hide.  It is a scary thing to feel like you need to walk up to strangers and “share the Gospel” with them.  But what if it didn’t have to be so scary?  I just finished a book by Jim Henderson called Evangelism without Additives.  This book was so encouraging and it really got me excited.

Let me share with you two of the many things that Henderson had to say. (Read the book to discover more of them!) First, he encourages Christians to change the term that we use for non-Christians.   Many Christians call them the lost, but Henderson says that we need to change our thinking and call the “The missing.”  They should be in God’s family, and God wants them in His family.  So, they aren’t lost, but missing.  When we start to think of those around us as those that should be a part of us, it changes our attitude.  Henderson has a great chapter about this and uses Luke 15 to show how God thinks of those who aren’t in His family as missing instead of lost.

The other thing that really hit me is how we can do such simple things to share the Gospel with others.  We have been taught that we need to go out door to door and give a rehearsed speech and convince people that they should be saved.  Henderson does a great job and showing how we can share the Gospel with the missing by using ordinary things.  Just having a conversation with someone can be sharing the Gospel!  He encourages us to practice the art of listening.  Too many people are desperate for someone to really listen to them and show that they care.

God wants to use us to reach the missing that are all around us.  But it doesn’t have to be scary.  I highly recommend reading Henderson’s book and see how God can change our attitudes, thinking and methods to reach the missing.

Working on Worship

Pastor Charlie

The Pastoral Staff Team is hard at work at Calvary. Last Thursday afternoon I met for our weekly staff meeting with Paul and Lorraine and the main subject of discussion was worship at Calvary. There was a noticeable unity around the priority of worship in our church and the desire to work hard to make the worship experience on Sunday mornings a time of meeting together with God to give him the praise and honor due him. Here are some of the things we talked about and decided to try as we seek to improve our leadership in this important priority ministry.

We are seeking to improve the worship experience on Sunday morning by moving the announcements to the beginning of the service and before we begin corporate worship. A few of the more important announcements will also be projected for all to see both before the worship begin and after the worship time concludes. Announcements will also be found in the bulletin, on our church web site at www.calvarytacoma.org and some on the Facebook and Twitter pages of Calvary @calvarytacoma. Right after the announcements, we will have the usual time of greeting one another which is a change we hope and pray will help you to worship.

I have recommended to Lorraine who is our worship team leader that we also begin to put together a longer worship segment of singing instead of breaking it up so much. We will use Christ-centered variety and creativity but will try to include two more traditional hymns on most Sundays. To try to keep the younger generations participating and involved, these traditional hymns and songs will be sung and played more energetically and with a variety of instruments. You will probably notice more variety and creativity in Calvary’s worship experience in the coming months.

We acknowledged the presence of continual challenges in our use of the sound system. Two or three people are needed to be willing to receive training for this important ministry. It’s not any easy ministry and it requires a high level of commitment. If you are willing, please contact Lorraine for an interview to go over the requirements and opportunities.

To provide for continuity and application of biblical teaching, I am providing small group Bible study questions based on the previous Sunday’s message and Scripture text. The Wednesday night Bible Study and Prayer Meeting is already using these questions and beginning this fall, all small group meetings will also use the study guides. These guides will also be available in the foyer and on the church web site for personal use and study beginning next week.

We agreed as a staff that the entire worship time on Sunday morning is a worship experience and so the sermon is a very important part and aid in worship. Worship is much more than singing songs, choruses and hymns. Our aim is to help you as an individual and the church as a whole experience God and give him the glory due him. My worship messages beginning last Sunday involve a walk through the New Testament book of Ephesians in a verse by verse style where Christ and his work are revealed in a powerful way. We want all in the worship service with us to lift up Jesus as our exalted Savior and Lord.

Please feel free to give us constructive feedback in person, over the phone or by e-mail, and by all means pray for your pastoral staff as we seek to serve God and you as a congregation.

Tags: Calvary Baptist Tacoma, music, Staff, worship

Looking forward

First Day on the Job

Pastor Charlie and Marty Worley

Today is the first day of my new ministry at Calvary as the Intentional Interim Senior Pastor. I have been called by the church leaders to serve as Senior Pastor for a temporary limited term of six months with possible three month extension if needed.

Some may ask just what an intentional interim pastor is. A short answer is a pastor/teacher and leader who helps a church during times of change and transition, usually when a pastor retires or resigns. My job will be to help the church and especially the church leadership transition to greater church health and impact in ministry. I will be doing the usual pastor functions such as preaching, teaching, counseling, leading and helping leaders lead, marrying and burying (If needed during my tenure). But I will also help the church and her leaders evaluate the current health and effectiveness of the church, make necessary changes, simplify and streamline church structure and programs and go through a process of searching for and selecting the new Senior Pastor candidate.

To get a good start today, Paul Baker, Lorraine Goddard and I held a video staff meeting. Included in the agenda were such items as what we have been reading lately that has challenged, encouraged or equipped us; a review of last Sunday’s worship and planning for this Sunday; what one thing we can do this week to increase our ministry effectiveness; what needs I need to address as Senior Pastor; what present or future items need to be on the agenda of the next church Deacons or Board meeting; and others. We will have staff meetings every Thursday and I look forward to getting to know Paul and Lorraine as we build a team.

The last question on our meeting agenda was “If you were leading the meeting, what would you like to discuss?” In this first ministry blog, I ask you, the reader, what your answer to that question would be? Feel free to contribute your thoughts by commenting below.