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What is the vision for your life?

"Where there is no vision, the people perish..." (Proverbs 29:18a NKJV)

Ironically, I shared that verse on "Vision Sunday" on a morning that was so foggy that I had to slow my car to a crawl just to safely drive onto the property where our church meets. I couldn't see a thing, which is sadly a good description of our lives at times. We desperately need a vision for our lives, our families, our church and every other area in life. The reason is fairly simple. Without vision, we just tend to drift through life. And the problem with drifting is that you rarely end up anywhere extraordinary or even anywhere that you would actually want to be. You just end up wherever life happens to take you.

This happens so easily. It takes no effort to get lost in the fog, and to allow life's gravitational pull to just drag you. That is why we need vision. Vision reminds us of WHERE we're going, WHAT we're doing and WHY we're doing it. And that better equips us to do the right thing instead of just the easy thing day to day.

On Sunday, we spoke of the vision for Calvary Fellowship, and if you missed it; I'd encourage you to Check It Out , but I'd also like us to apply these thoughts on a personal level. As we enter a new year and a new decade, I encourage and challenge you to pray, ponder and plan a vision for your life going forward.

What will your life look like in 2010? Your spirituality? Your job? Your education? Your relationships? Your marriage? Your parenting? Your finances? Your health & fitness? Your habits? Your recreation? Your__________? Once you get a mental picture (a vision) write it down in the form of a goal, a budget, or a plan to help you gain clarity and remain focused.

One of the Old Testament names for God is El Roi; "the God who sees." May we look to Him to gain a vision for our lives that we could never see with our own limited sight. My prayer for you is that you will take this time of natural reflection to pray hard, dream big and be intentional so that you can cut through the fog, stop drifting and start seeing and seizing the abundant life that God wants for you!

The Bible Challenge 2010

Want to read through the entire Bible in 2010? Why not do it together with a group?

By joining the Bible Challenge 2010 FaceBook group you will receive a plan to read through the entire Bible in 1 year. You will also receive daily postings of the daily readings, a place to discuss what you are learning, and encouragement to stick it out!

Current posts for discussion include:

• Which Bible should you use?
• Which translation will you use?
• When will you do your daily readings
• MORE TO COME! 
  

By joining this group on FaceBook you will receive the most support in the Bible Challenge. However, if you are not on FaceBook, and still want to take the Bible Challenge,  e-mail me and I will send you a copy of the reading plan.

Digging In: Commitment

This Sunday we begin a new series at Calvary Fellowship called "Digging In." For the month of January, we'll focus on digging in to COMMITMENT.

Vision Sunday: Digging in to 2010

  “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (Proverbs 29:18a NKJV)

This morning at Calvary Fellowship was "Vision Sunday" The Calvary Fellowship staff talked about the theme for 2010 ("Digging In") and the four areas that we want to dig in to: Commitment, Communion, Community & Construction. We explained those things and presented the hopes, dreams, plans, the new ministries,  the new challenges and new opportunities we see in the upcoming year at Calvary.

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

Some details about "Vision Sunday" (12/27/09)

At the end of each year we always spend some time as a staff praying, planning and listening to God in order to discern where He is leading us as a church in the next year. We then try to boil that down to a phrase or a theme that summarizes the focus so that we can gain clarity and remain focused throughout the year.

2009 was the year of “Stepping Out.” This next year (2010) we’re calling the year of “Digging In.” This theme is comprised of four major areas, and will impact some big changes, some new programming, and some fresh opportunities for us to mature as a church. The staff and I would like to share these things with you this week.

We’re calling our service this upcoming weekend (12/27) “Vision Sunday.” We’ll still have worship music, Calvary Kids and we’ll still talk about God. But instead of a regular message, we’ll briefly look back at the year behind us, and spend the rest of the time looking ahead to what we believe God has in story for Calvary in 2010.

I cannot believe that Calvary Fellowship will celebrate our 5-year anniversary next June! As we approach this important benchmark, I believe that it is now time for us to work on strengthening our foundation so that we can be even more effective at accomplishing the revolutionary vision God has given us to reach our community in the years ahead.

So, if Calvary Fellowship is your home church, let me encourage you to mark your calendar, and plan to join us for the last Sunday of 2009 as we “DIG IN” to what’s ahead in 2010.

12/20 Virtual Service

Due to the bad weather our church service has moved to your house today! Check it out:

12/20/09 Christmas Service (LIVE) CANCELLED

Due to the severe weather, our church service for tomorrow has been canceled. A "Virtual Service" will soon be posted...

Vision Sunday

Calvary Fellowship's final service of 2009 will be dedicated to looking forward to what is ahead in 2010. If Calvary is your church home; you don't want to miss service on 12/27/09!

The Sacrifice of Sharing

In this past weekend’s message (“A Humble People”) we focused on the proper response to our humble King –worship! By following the biblical Christmas narrative we examined 7 ways (by no means all of the ways) that we can offer the sacrifice of worship.One of the things we mentioned modeled by the shepherds was the sacrifice of SHARING:

"Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child." (Luke 2:17, NKJV)

As an act of worship they used whatever influence they possessed to tell as many people about Christmas (the birth of Christ) as possible. They did this because they were so enamored with Jesus, that they wanted everyone they cared about to know about Him as well. I would like to encourage each of us to do the same this year.

If you are part of Calvary Fellowship, a very practical and timely way we can offer God the sacrifice of sharing is by inviting the people in our sphere of influence to join us for our Christmas celebration service this Sunday (12/20). The service will include Christmas music, an original Christmas drama and the final part of our “Humble Christmas” series, “The Biggest Barrier to Christmas.”

What I have discovered is that people are more open to visiting a church on Christmas and Easter than at any other time, so it is a perfect opportunity. Here are a couple of practical and easy ways you can do this:

1. Distribute the printed invite cards (for ideas on HOW, Download 10_ways_to_use_your_invitation_cards.doc)

2. Facebook -Click here to get to our Facebook event. Once there you can do the following:

• Add yourself as a guest
• Click the "Share" box under the event and you can post the event on your profile
• Under the "Share" box you can also invite more people

 

Let's offer our King the sacrifice of sharing and invite as many people as possible to hear about His birth and the hope that provides this Christmas!

A Humble People

Today at church was part 2 of our "Humble Christmas" series. Last week we examined our humble King and this week we examined our proper response to Him in a message entitled "A Humble People." A humble people respond to their humble king with worship. Today we followed the biblical Christmas narrative to discuss 7 ways we can humbly offer the response of sacrificial worship to our King.

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.