Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Our treasured past & triumphant future.

One of my favorite Old Testament books is the book of Joshua. After 40 years of wandering in the desert because of their hard hearted rebellion, Joshua records God’s blessing upon the children of Israel to inherit the Promised Land that God had promised to Abraham hundreds of years earlier.  The whole book is God’s encouragement to His people to obey Him with strength and courage and His promises to bless that obedience. In Chapter 3, there is a fascinating test of faith as close to two million people are lined up at the Jordan River to march into the promised land. The Jordan River floods its banks at harvest time and was impassable. Yet God commanded the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant to walk into the Jordan by faith. God promised when their feet touch the water, He’d dry up the river so they could cross and the water would pile up in a heap (Joshua 3:13). It mirrors what God did for the Children of Israel at the Red Sea escaping the pursuit of Pharaoh’s Egyptian army. That previous generation had died so God wanted to demonstrate to this younger, new generation that He would be faithful to them in the same way He had been to their parents and grandparents leaving Egypt. In chapter 4, God commanded that the Children of Israel retrieve 12 stones out of the dry river bed, one for each tribe as they crossed over. He told Joshua to take those stones and stack them up as a memorial to help their children remember what God did. 4:6-7 says when the children ask “What do these stones mean to you?” They were to answer that question: “That the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be a memorial to the Children of Israel forever.” Of course the rest of the story is of their triumphant future in possessing the land God gave them and a record of the battles along the way. Joshua pictures a treasured past and a triumphant future for God’s people.   

Over the last several days, I’ve been intently praying for and preparing for some exciting news to share with you in more detail on Sunday evening June 10th at 4:00 p.m. in a special called Church in Conference. In May/June of 2010, we formed a vision team to pray and seek God’s face related to our future ministry here at Calvary. That team met and prayed faithfully for over a year exploring our ministry needs, our facilities and what God wants to do in and through Calvary. After a year of praying, one of our church members in the construction business introduced us to an architect who has had extensive experience working with churches. After that initial meeting and sensing God’s leadership to work with this man, we began a running dialogue with him, our vision team, the trustees and our church council about developing our property with additional parking and space needs to prepare for the next 25 to 30 years of ministry here at Calvary. There have literally been hundreds of man hours from these church committees over the last two years to develop an updated master site plan on this campus the Lord brought us to and gave this church family back in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s here on Courtland Place in the heart of Bel Air and Harford County. The church has had a master plan to initially construct our sanctuary and fellowship hall that was dedicated on March 19, 1972.  There were even at that time plans to build an education wing which was constructed and dedicated 22 years later in 1994. Here we are 18 years after our education wing was completed examining the next phase of ministry at Calvary.

As I’ve been digging through our church records, reading minutes and history highlights, seeing pictures and reading news accounts of the famous steeple move from Baltimore Pike to our current building, I’m overwhelmed. First I’m overwhelmed by the grace of God to plant a dream in the hearts of several vision minded pastors from our area to see a mission church in the heart of Harford County in the county seat of Bel Air as they met in April 1948. Rev. Walter Burcham and Rev. Finney Bragg played a major leadership role to get the mission work started with services in the Odd Fellows Hall on Sunday afternoons. I am overwhelmed by the grace of God to assemble a group of 66 committed believers who would become charter members of what would become Calvary Baptist Church and for the sacrifices these saints made to make what we enjoy today. The church rapidly outgrew that Odd Fellows Hall and a few weeks before constituting as a church in May of 1949, moved to the Bel Air Theater on Main Street for services. For 63 years, Calvary has been a lighthouse to a lost and dark world around us, sharing the wonderful message that Jesus saves and has been a faithful Gospel preaching and disciple making church family.

As I’ve looked through our archives, I marvel at how the Holy Spirit of God has directed this church to purchase property on Baltimore Pike, erect a fellowship hall basement and construct a worship sanctuary above it in 1952. How they were sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit to move the church to our current location, a move that I’m sure did not make sense to some at the time in the 1960’s but looking back, it’s easy to see the Lord’s hand and how His favor has rested upon their obedience. We truly have a treasured past and every time you see our steeple spire pointing to the Heavens, you should thank God for the faithful labors of those who have gone before us.

In dreaming about the future of Calvary and what lay ahead, I am also overwhelmed and in awe of what the Lord wants to do through us. I believe the Lord desires for us to have a triumphant future as we obey His command to continue to make disciples until He returns or calls us home.  Joshua challenged that next generation of the Children of Israel to be obedient to the Lord and they did so for many generations. The question before us is will we obey? We must if we desire a triumphant future. It is that simple. As Joshua said in 24:14 “Choose you this day whom will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

I want to invite you to come to our Church in Conference on June 10th, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. We need church approval to present a proposal to the Town and County to approve a concept of how we can continue to build on and develop the property God has given us so we can carry out our God-given mission of making disciples. We are not ready to enter a building campaign by any means. The first step is that we’re merely seeking for approval from the community, the town of Bel Air and Harford County that our concept will meet the requirements in place. Much of the requirements and codes have changed since we began phase one and two on this property in 1970 and 1993. Our work with our architect accounts for these new requirements and we’re excited to share with you the big picture concept. This concept was developed from our architect who has spent hours with our leaders from our various ministry teams and committees as we’ve dialogued about current space utilization and future expansion. Let us all continue to prayerfully consider what the Lord would have us to do to secure a triumphant future of obedient ministry for the glory of God and to expand God’s kingdom. Let us be in prayer that God’s hand of favor will rest upon us in seeking the appropriate approvals from the community, town and county assuming the church gives us permission to move forward. I’m treasuring our past and excited about a triumphant future, from my little corner of the world to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com 

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Super Summer of Service...

May 8, 2012

Super Summer of Service…

Summer is rapidly approaching as the warmer temperatures arrive and the school year is winding down, thoughts of summer vacation trips and opportunities to unwind and take a break are on everyone’s mind. Weekend trips to the beach, the lake or the mountains, going to see family and getting a change of scenery are wonderful things for our families to enjoy together. I really hope and pray your time off and away will be a refreshing encouragement to you. As the lead under-shepherd God has placed here at Calvary, I have some encouragement for you as we head into the summer months.

First of all, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the very Son of God, set an example for His followers after seasons of intense ministry, took time off to refresh and spend time by Himself or with His disciples. Jesus understood the rigors of ministry, He understood the reality that serving and investing in others is fulfilling and rewarding but it is exhausting work. Jesus also understood that life and ministry is a marathon and not a sprint. So to keep from burning out, Jesus regularly took time out to rest and to pray. For all of you who faithfully serve and labor for the Lord here at Calvary, let me encourage you that if the Son of God needed to rest and recharge, you and I most certainly do as well. God has built in a Sabbath Day of rest every seven days so I encourage you to rest. When Jesus rested, He didn’t take a break from God, He went places to pray and reconnect with His Father. You should too, go check out that church near where you are vacationing. Bring me a bulletin because I like to see what other churches are up to.

Secondly, I want to encourage you to plan ahead. It is important that if you have a Sunday responsibility and you are going to be out of town, make sure you have your responsibilities covered in your absence. That should be understood but sometimes it is not and when the summer breeze blows, the beach calls and off people go, so excited to go but they forget their responsibilities. On more than one occasion I have walked through our children’s or preschool departments on a Sunday in the summer and the volunteers are scrambling because people who were scheduled to work did not show up or make provision for their absence. Communicate and plan ahead if you are going to be absent.

This brings me to my third encouragement that many people don’t stop to realize. While you take a vacation and head out of town, your church is open 52 Sundays a year except this year we actually have 53 Sundays of ministry. People forget that our expenses continue even through the summer and many churches struggle during the summer months because giving declines. I know people don’t intend for that to happen, but in the hubbub and bustle to get loaded up and get out of Dodge, the tithe and offering is often forgotten. When I’m travelling, I plan my bill paying with my bank and I schedule out the payments that need to be made and I include Calvary in that process so I know my tithe and offering comes to God’s storehouse. Again, it’s a simple matter of planning ahead so let me encourage you make sure you don’t forget your tithes and offerings. I’d also caution you in these tough economic times not to take the money that belongs to the Lord to spend on your vacation. He will not bless that time of recreation if you rob from Him.

Fourth, for too many years, we’ve have slogged it out through the summer with a grueling schedule of activity in the summer that included trying to have services on Wednesday evenings. As a staff we’re challenging our leaders and ministries to have an intentional purpose for all we do. We’ve found that our Summer Wednesday schedule does not have the impact or reach the intended purpose. We made a recommendation at our last church in conference that was approved; that we cancel our Wednesday evening schedule for the summer except that choir and praise team will practice on Wednesday evenings.  What we’re proposing instead is what we are calling “Super Summer of Service”. We’d like to see families and Bible Study classes take on a servant evangelism project during the summer. It doesn’t have to happen on Wednesday or take place every week. We need to move church beyond the walls to engage our community and show God’s love in a practical way. These projects are fun and the only limitations are the extent of your imaginations. Here are some ideas to help stir the creative juices:

·         We’ll have access to a list of people who’ve recently moved to a 3.5 mile radius around Calvary. Put together a “Welcome bag” with an area map, coupons to local restaurants (your favorite places) or things to do, fresh baked goods and deliver this to the new family. Invite them to come to church with you. The church will supply the bags, maps and you all can organize putting the bag together and the delivery team. This is so effective! When we first moved to North Carolina to go to seminary, within a day, we’d met all our neighbors who brought pies or veggies from their garden and at least three of them invited us to their church. We have a mailing going to these homes and the list will be available the week of June 18th.

·         Families with young children can schedule a play night in Shamrock Park behind the church. The church will provide juice boxes, water and wrapped snacks. Your family goes to play and offers others free juice or water and a snack. It opens up conversations and an easy opportunity to invite them to VBS July 16-20. You’ll be shocked at how simple and effective this will be!

·         Bible Study classes could offer a free car wash to show God’s love in a practical way. Be creative to the location it’s hosted and we’ll pay for the water for the business owner and the supplies to wash cars. Talk with people while their car is being washed. They are shocked it’s free and very open to talk about spiritual matters. We’ll provide an invite card or brochure about Calvary.

·         Goodie baskets for our police or fire departments are always a hit. Tell them their neighbors at Calvary appreciate them and we want to care for them and their families.

·         Feed parking meters during the day downtown or at the parking garage and put a card on the windshield telling them Calvary is showing God’s love in a practical way. We’ll provide the cards and the buy the quarters.

These are just a few ideas and there are many more you could do to take the church to the streets. Find a need in our community and fill it. Our plan is to have a big picnic at the end of the summer to give you a chance to share what God did with these simple service projects. The impact of this for the Kingdom of God will be profound and there will be people who go to Heaven because you cared enough to engage in Super Summer of Service! Pastor Mike will be coordinating this effort so let us know what you’re doing so we can help you make your project a successful endeavor. Sure there may be things we try and fail at it, but that’s okay because you never know unless you try!

Finally, be in prayer for these projects that people will see and hear about Jesus in our service and come to trust Him by faith. Pray for our Maine Mission team at the end of June, our youth going to Philadelphia on mission at the end of June, our senior youth headed to Haiti on mission in July, our 4th of July musical and our VBS in mid July. All of these are great opportunities to see people come to Christ, not to mention our weekend worship services that happen every Sunday. Rest, refocus, renew your spirit, but let’s make Summer 2012 a super summer of service that expands God’s kingdom. I’m looking forward to some rest and refocus time, but also a super summer of service from my little corner of the world to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com 

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph