The Future Intention of the Lord

The concluding part of the New Year Sermon Series from Isaiah 48.

First: God has a New Word for you: the Lord’s word to you is always fresh and invigorating.

 Second: God has a Unique Word for you: His word to you is specific.

Third: God has a Useful Word for you:  His word to you, while important for you, always benefits his larger kingdom purpose and the greater body of Christ.

Fourth: God has a Timely Word for you:  He is always in-Time and On-Time. His Timing and Opportunity followed by Our Obedience leads to Kingdom Fulfillment 

The Former Involvement of God

In the sermon this past Sunday, I addressed a theme from Isaiah 48 which reminded us that God has been active in our past.  I’m posting here the seven conclusions of the sermon.

1.  A review of our history verifies God has been involved in our journey.

2. The Lord has invested in our past to give us promise for the future.

3.  The incidents of our lives are not coincidental; they are caused by our choices or orchestrated by God.

4. The circumstances we have experienced are not wasted; they contribute to our spiritual character in Christ.

5. The missteps we make do not negate our future.

6. God’s intervention has saved us from unknown results.

7. Thankfully, God is at work in our lives – past, present, and future.

Fifteen Points on Thanksgiving!

Based on the sermon yesterday (11-21-10) here are the fifteen points concerning Thanksgiving.

Why Thanks:

Thanks is an expression of confidence in God – He is in control

Thanks raises your perspective above the circumstance

Thanks changes your focus from the bad to the good

Thanks starts an attitude change process in your heart and mind

Thanks creates hope when desperation seems to prevail

Thanks reminds us of God’s goodness and His provision

Thanks helps us prioritize our wants and desires

Thanks is a command – the Lord is a rewarder of those who are obedient

Thanks is His will – that we should be victorious in all situations

Thanks is the melody of the heart song of gratitude

Thanks is a Victory stand over pervasive Greed

Thanks removes personal satisfaction of prideful accumulation

Thanks results in joy for the smallest things as well as the greatest

Thanks infects others with an attitude of spiritual potential

Thanks promotes a spiritual reaction in the lives of others

Holiday Schedule Notes

This Sunday we’ll start a holiday schedule which will return us to one worship service and one Sunday School for the remainder of the year.  As placed in the bulletin this past Sunday, (and found online in pdf) all the classes have been assigned and provisions have been made for a number of our classes to meet at Providence Christian Academy.  Those groups and classes are: The Youth Department (which will meet in the PCA front building), the Whitefield/Morgan class, the Twenty-Something Class, and the George Class, and the Singles (these groups will meet in the PCA main building).  For the classes meeting at PCA, our Youth Pastor, Mark Smith will be opening the building at approximately 8:30 am.

All Sunday School classes will begin at 9:00 am followed by the thirty minute fellowship time and then 10:30 am worship. 

We look forward to a full and fruitful Sunday.

Mark W. Gregory

Information for the MidTown Building

The Leadership Team has been working consistently to provide the information that we currently have about the MidTown Ministry and the potential of receiving the gift of the church building. We've been able to visit all the Connect Groups, including the Choir, and will be planning on an informational meeting sometime in the next few weeks. In the meantime, there will be new information posted on the Calvary MidTown web page as it becomes available. It is my hope that before the end of the week, we'll have a number of photos, descriptions, and FAQ's on the page. I'll keep you up to date as soon as those hit the website.

As always, feel free to contact me in the church office or by email through our contact page. The email link will be directed to my attention, or you'll find my email address on my personal contact page: Dr. Mark W. Gregory

MidTown Ministry Update

This past Sunday we shared in both worship services the story of the development of the MidTown Ministry. If you were not able to be present, please take time to view the sermon at this link: MidTown Presentation This presentation will provide an excellent overview of how the ministry was initiated and the progress over the last couple of months.

In addition, we will begin spending time in the Connect Groups sharing more details and answering questions. We look forward to hearing from you.

Schedule Offerings for September

I announced this past weekend, and we placed in the bulletin, four new offerings for Wednesday evenings starting September 8th at 6:00 pm.  We will continue to emphasize our Connect Groups (and hopefully launch new ones) but we wanted to provide additional studies that might interest our members and attenders.  The four include:

1. Leadership from the Inside Out: A Leadership Class that I’ll teach based on my latest writing project. 2. Experiencing God 3. Men’s Fraternity 4. A Parenting Class entitled: Shepherding a Child’s Heart

There will be more information to follow on the leaders for the other classes and you’ll find this updated on our website as we solidify the offerings. (Click here to follow link to the correct page.)

Also, the staff has been in discussion for some time about emphasizing the choir ministry by moving the rehearsal time from 7:30 pm to 6:00 pm.  This accomplishes a number of things: 1. It gives the choir more time for rehearsal (from 6:00 to 7:20) and 2.  keeps families with children from being here till almost 8:45 pm.  3. and we hope it will foster interest in the choir since it will be conducted during the normal times of our ministries.  We pray the choir will continue to grow and the ministry will bear great fruit on Sunday morning as a result of the new time.  The new schedule for the choir will include the Praise Band, who will now rehearse in the auditorium beginning at 6:0o also.

Our young adult worship experience, DownPour, will move to a later time, 8:00 pm.  After considering the new schedule and comparing our Collegiate and Young Adult ministry to other churches in town, we believe this will work quite well, even allowing our collegiate and young adult members to be involved in serving our other ministries or be involved in choir.