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The Advantage of Peace

This morning at church we concluded our "Adventageous!" series with a message entitled " The Advantage of Peace." The peace of God is found under the rule of God, and today we discussed 3 ways to unpack this and experience peace in our lives.

We also did our first drama ever, which the team did a remarkable job on! Alas, it was not recorded, but...

To hear the sermon you can click here to download the podcast from iTunes or click here to download it or listen online from our church website.

Stepping Out in 2009

Calvary Fellowship is planning to step out and reach our community in some big ways in 2009. In order to accomplish some of these things we are asking our church to step up in a big way. Check it out by clicking here.

Why we are cancelling our church service tomorrow

I HATE canceling church services...really. However, I've made the decision to cancel tomorrow's service at Calvary Fellowship due to a snowstorm that is a pile-on of yesterday's storm. It is always a tough call, but this was particularly tough because I think we had a GREAT service prepared!!! So how did we come to the decision? Here were the considerations:

1. Safety -We do not want anyone put in a position where their safety is at risk in order to attend a church service. Being a regional church, we have many people that come from outside of West Hartford, and the further the drive the more potentially dangerous it is. (Even if it is safe in the morning, what if the storm heats up while they're on the way home?)
2. Quality -Many key players for the service tomorrow live far away. There is just too great a possibility that many people we depend on to set-up, break-down, and serve in a multitude of ways will be snowed out. We could, of course, just scale things down, but it would be an injustice to what we have planned, and I don't want to just "throw something else together at the last minute" because people deserve better than that.
3. Alternatives -We are doing a Christmas Eve service this Wednesday so people can still have an option to attend a church meeting this week.
4.  Choices -We are going to do the service that we had planned for tomorrow next Sunday, 12/28 so everyone isn't left with an open loop in their lives because we didn't properly conclude the "Adventageous!" series! :)

It could turn out that the weather shifts, and we could have done the service after all. But based on these considerations and current conditions, this seemed to be the wisest choice.

Books in a sentence (or 2) part 3

Some succinct thoughts on the past few books I read:

"7 Practices of Effective Ministry" -by Andy Stanley. Even as a third-time read, I found this book served as an extremely helpful reminder of some valuable principles for organizing and leading an effective church. A must for any ministry leader!

"The Search to Belong" -by Joseph R. Myers. While I'm not sure I agree with all of the author's thoughts about small groups, this book was well worth the price and time to read for "four spaces of belonging" concept alone. We all belong in 4 relational spheres (public, social, personal & intimate) with different people. Each space is important to maintain relationships in, and the goal is not to unnaturally progress each relationship through the spaces to a final goal of intimacy. If this thought intrigues you, get the book and unpack it some more!

"The Divine Conspiracy" -by Dallas Willard. I'm really glad I got the audiobook on this one. It is very dense and long, but also very good. I was challenged, encouraged, stimulated and am motivated to listen to it again in the future.

"Your Church Can Grow" -C. Peter Wagner. A church-growth movement classic. A lot of people are down on books like this, but I loved it. One of my favorite quotes came near the end: "God's work in the world today will not be accomplished by timid, pessimistic people who rationalize away defeat. It will only be done by those who are sold out for God!" Preach it, Peter!

The Advantage of Joy

Today at Calvary we continued in our Adventageous! series with a message entitled "The Advantage of Joy." To experience abundant, overflowing joy we must give up the pursuit of happiness and engage in the pursuit of Jesus. Today we discussed two ways to do that from John 15.

To hear the sermon you can click here to download the podcast from iTunes or click here to download it or listen online from our church website.

A few pics of the worship team on stage for "Adventageous!"