Merry Christmas!

Join us for our annual Christmas Eve Service, this Thursday night at 6:00 P.M. The service will be an hour long to get you home early, and will include a short message and some very special “unplugged” christmas songs; we’ll also have a guest singer. The music, the message, the imagery and the merriment will make this a night to remember, as we worship and thank God for sending the Christ child to give us new life!

Then, this coming Sunday, we’ll celebrate “another trip around the sun” as we consider a fresh new year ahead. How can we make this one better than 2009? Come out to find out! 9:15 and 11:00 A.M.

One of our folks who will have family in town has requested to be baptized at the end of the 11:00 service… So we’re filling the Baptistry! If you would like to be baptized to ring in the new year, reply to this email with any contact info so that we can set it up.

Cheers!

Mark

http://calvarycommunitychurch.com

http://c3tvchannel.com

Christmas in Ruins

“So this is Christmas.” Great song, filled with peace and hope. But there’s more to the story that needs to be told.  Friends, family, loved ones and casual acquaintances: This message won’t be for the fluffy faint of heart. We’re talking reality, not to beat us up, but to wake us up and shake us up.

Fact: Here in the U.S., a child is born into poverty every 35 seconds. There are 1.4 million homeless humans here. Some of them live within a few miles of us.

Then there’s the rest of the globe—you know, that “whole world” Jesus told us to go into. Here’s the truth; be rattled:  This Christmas, let’s imitate the Servant-Jesus of Scripture. Instead of a stress-filled, shop-till-you-drop marathon, let’s turn Christmas into a time of open-handed reaching, stretching, giving, and sharing to total strangers – perhaps angels unaware — but to Jesus himself for sure. These biblical truths will radically change you, but only if you let them. And this isn’t my promise; it’s God’s. Merry Christmas.

See the “Christmas in Ruins” and “The Thanksgiving Chair” at http://c3tvchannel.com Click “Latest Messages.”

The Thanksgiving Chair

What is the “Thanksgiving Chair”? To get the full picture you’ll have to come out to find out. But know this much: It’s a hard chair yet the most precious chair ever. It’s a chair that doesn’t always make a whole lot of sense. But it’s the right chair. Just right. Learn why you should sit in it as often as possible, this Sunday morning at either of two services 9:15 or 11:00.

Honestly, you won’t regret this special pre-Thanksgiving message. The only regret you might have is not bringing a friend because the Thanksgiving Chair will rip your heart out and hand it back to you in the best, most loving way ever.

Find your chair: http://calvarycommunitychurch.com

And in case you missed it live, catch “Stretched Too Thin”
Parts 1 and 2 at http://c3tvchannel.com

C3 Community Groups

Community Groups have four basic goals:

1. Spiritual Growth. While corporate gathering is important, the small group setting is best for growth and creative community service projects.
2. A Network of Care. Community Groups should be THE place of support for people going through hardship.
3. Relational Development. Since you can only get so friendly at church, Community Groups are where real relationships are developed.
4. Just Plain Fun. Community Groups are a place of refuge and fun.

All Community Groups are autonomous and choose their own studies. All prospective leaders of Community Groups must be vetted by C3 leaders. Community Groups may either be “open” which means they welcome new people; or “closed” due to the sensitivity of topics covered.

If you are interested in starting a new Group, call to set up a meeting with a pastor. If you qualify, then Julie Brown (jabnut@verizon.net)will publish your group (if “open”).

If you feel under-qualified to lead, facilitator training is available. If you aren’t interested inleading but just want to join one, see the Welcome Center.

Stretched Too Thin, II

This Sunday, in Week Two of “Stretched Too Thin” we’ll consider the discipline of narrowing the focus. Usually we stretch ourselves too thin because we think our needs won’t be met otherwise. So we work more hours, sign our kids up for more extra-curricular opportunities, buy more things, and somewhere along the line, God gets relegated to the back burner or forgotten altogether. So “narrowing the focus” starts with “seeking the Kingdom” And we’ll see what Jesus meant by putting that first.

So the discipline is to resist the A.D.D. smorgasbord approach to life and work towards simplicity. It’s natural to get sucked into complexity. And this gravitational pull is usually subtle and almost never intentional. Simplicity means proactively and constantlyguarding against the pull of complexity, and getting tenacious about simply living simply. We can either do one or a few things very well, or we can do it all poorly or at best, in mediocrity.

There is soooooo much more to this, so please join us this Sunday morning at either of two services, 9:15 or 11:00.

Missed last week? Catch “Stretched To Thin” Part 1 at http://c3tvchannel.com Click Latest Messages.

Find us: http://calvarycommunitychurch.com

New Series: Stretched Too Thin

It seems like almost everyone I talk to these days isstretched. Busy with work, tough relationships, family responsibilities, and financial issues. And sometimes you can see the toll it takes on people; you can see it in their eyes. Nonstop busyness comes at a cost that none of us can afford: stress, premature aging, anxiety and depression.

This is why, from the very beginning, God built restinto the design for human life. God even commandsus to rest for our own good.

So we’re going to take a little break from our study through Acts for a four-part series called Stretched Too Thin. We’ll see how much the Bible has to say about this and how we can alleviate all the negative affects of the hurried harried life, and how to find balance so that we can be freed and released to do the most important things in life. Don’t miss out, Sunday mornings, 9:15 and 11:00.

Find us: http://calvarycommunitychurch.com

And catch “Available Single Women” athttp://c3tvchannel.com Click “Latest Messages.”

Impromptu Baptisms and So Much More

Okay, our next scheduled baptism wasn’t slated until November. But we have some folks that the military is shipping off and they don’t want to leave here until they get baptized. So what are we going to say, no? That means we’re filling up the baptistery as we speak and if YOU want to be baptized this Sunday (at the end of the 11:00 service) then either email me: pastormark@calvarycommunitychurch.com or call me at the church office: 410-381-5200. Bring shorts, a towel and a dark tee shirt (we have all of these things available in case you leave the house without them).

But that’s not all! Since I’m doing a wedding Saturday and then speaking on Monday to a bunch school officials, elected officials, dads, and the news media about being positive male role models in our public schools, Mike Webb has offered to help me out… THANKS MIKE! He’s going to be teaching us from Acts this Sunday with a message entitled, Finding Peace in a Culture War. I’ve read the draft; you don’t want to miss it! 9:15 and 11:00.

Also, remember that the Alpha Course (Christianity 101) starts this Sunday morning during the 9:15 service in “The Living Room.” It’s not too late to sign up! And then stay for the 11:00 service! The C3 Band is warming up and getting ready for another great Sunday; we can’t wait to see you here!

Cheers!
Mark

Find us: http://calvarycommunitychurch.com

Is God Talking?

I was at a huge music conference in Nashville a couple years ago and the radio station that brought me along was interviewing Rebecca St. James. She was beautiful, talented, and single. She said, “I can’t tell you how many times guys come up to me and say, “God told me to marry you.” And she’s like, “That’s funny, why hasn’t God told me that?”

I think people need to be real careful about throwing around the “God told me” thing, because if God didn’t really tell you this or that, then you are (either knowingly or unknowingly) lying on behalf of God. And that’s just dumb and dangerous.

I think we should earnestly seek to know and understand what God may be trying to convey to us, but we also need to go about this with great care. That’s what we’ll learn from the text in Acts this week! I’d like offer several tests that may help us discern God’s “voice” this Sunday morning, 9:15 and 11:00.

Cheers!
Mark

Find us at http://calvarycommunitychurch.com