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You've Lost that Loving Feeling

This morning at Calvary we continued in the Book of Revelation (2:1-7) with a message entitled "You've Lost that Loving Feeling."

Sometimes we can go through the motions with God but miss the emotions. We can be consumed by duty and miss the beauty. We can give God our hands but hold back out hearts. Today we talked about what Jesus says to do when we discover that, just like the Ephesian church, we've left our first love.

Click here to download or listen online to the message.

Revelation Rants Pt. 2: What's Up with Seven?

In part 2 of Revelation Rants we take a look at the number 7. What's up with 7? Why does it keep coming up in Revelation? What does it mean? Check it out:

Picturing Jesus

This morning at Calvary we continued through the Book of Revelation with a message entitled "Picturing Jesus." If we have the wrong image of God it will negatively effect how we relate to God and establish the wrong model to fashion ourselves after. Today we looked at the only New Testament description of Jesus (Revelation 1:9-20) to see what Jesus really looks like and what that means for us.

Click here to download or listen online to the message.

The Pillars of a Healthy Church

Bob Franquiz will be in West Hartford next month to host a seminar called "The Pillars of a Healthy Church." Bob is pastor, author, speaker and most importantly, a good friend of mine! :)

His church is growing and thriving and he has a lot of wisdom to share. So if you are a pastor or a church leader in the New England area you should click here to register now. I hope to see you there!

On being portable part 2: Perspective and vision

In my last post on being a portable church, I discussed on of our biggest challenges. There are other challenges including, but not limited, to:

• Not having a facility always at disposal throughout the week for classes, meetings, etc.
• The lack of brick & mortar visibility to the community 
• The perceived lack of credibility to the community and occasionally to the church body

These are all very real challenges that need to be worked through, but there are also some great advantages such as:

• There is no facility sitting mostly empty every day of the week except for Sunday
• The need to get out into your community in order to be visible (as opposed to just expecting them to come to you)
• The constant reminder of what church is really all about

Just a couple thoughts about the last point. Clearly there is nothing wrong with owning a church building (and if you offered us one we would probably accept it without much arm-twisting), however there is a danger with the identity of the church being wrapped up in a building. This is where perspective and the vision that influences it matter greatly. As a portable church pastor, I constantly have to weave into messages, conversations, blog posts (like this), the biblical principle that the church is the body not a building, and that our identity is wrapped up in Christ not construction. Our church is wherever go.

This ethos frees us up to embrace a pioneer versus a settler spirit. We are not settling in and trying to maintain the homestead, we are out exploring and blazing new trails. We aren't inviting the community to a building we own and they find strange, we are going to buildings they own and are comfortable in. We can move into a new facility as soon as we outgrow the old one. We change our context as frequently as needed while maintaining and even embodying the identity, mission and purpose of our church.

Next time: Thoughts on being portable by choice...

The 25 Most Influential Pastors of the Past 25 Years

Interesting article about the 25 most influential pastors in the past 25 years. Many were right on in my estimation.

I was very surprised about the inclusion of a few; no I won't mention them! I was also surprised about the exclusion of a few like Chuck Smith, Greg Laurie, Bob Coy (no Calvary Chapel love there!).

What do you think of the list?

The pilot episode of Revelation Rants

We're experimenting with a new weekly teaching supplement at Calvary Fellowship. The hope is to briefly expound on concepts/ideas/questions/application/etc. that weren't addressed or developed during the Sunday message.

Is this a good idea? A bad idea? An unnecessary idea? Check out the pilot episode and let me know what you think:

On being portable part 1: Our greatest challenge

Yesterday I got a call at 7:15 AM from Chip (one of our staff guys), and he asked me if I was afraid of heights. He then proceeded to to describe to me the stage set-up that awaited. As you can see from the photos, the stage-extension had been mounted on top of the actual stage for some drama the high school students were doing. The result was that EVERYTHING had to be set-up differently, including the placement of the podium, which had me perched up about 15 feet from the ground peering down at everyone. It looked really weird, so last-minute I decided to move the podium to the floor where I was closer to everyone.

It's a funny situation, but it is an example of one of the most critical challenges we face meeting in rented facilities: consistent inconsistency. This has manifested for us in a variety of ways over the years with challenges like the custodian not showing up on time, the temperature being too hot or too cold, the facility not being cleaned, conflicts with others who assumed they could use the space during our rental time, and the stage being rearranged, cluttered and/or dismantled! That's not even mentioning our first facility that challenged us with dogs, jazzercise and a charismatic church that met above us! Our portable situation reminds me of a Chuck Smith axiom; "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be easily broken."

Tomorrow, I'll talk about some of the pros and cons of being portable, and why I think being portable is right for us for now despite the challenges. For today, I just want to say that I am so proud of our team; both staff and volunteers. If consistent inconsistency is our greatest challenge with being portable, then consistent commitment is our greatest asset. Regardless of the curve-balls and inconveniences that challenge our systems, our team consistently figures out a way to make things work and pulls everything off with excellence. I am so thankful to work with people caring, creative, competent and committed enough to make things happen!

Back to the Future

This morning at Calvary we kicked off "The Book of Revelation" series with a message entitled "Back to the Future." Revelation is a book from the past about the future that helps us live in the present. Today we looked at the first 8 verses and answered 4 basic questions to help us lay the groundwork and chart the course for the months ahead.

Click here to download or listen online to the message.

The Book of Revelation begins on Sunday...can't wait!

This Sunday Calvary Fellowship will embark  upon an epic journey through “The Book of Revelation.” Revelation is a book of the Bible that is curious to many and confusing to most! You probably haven’t seen it taught in too many churches. So perhaps you’ve attempted to go through it before alone and gave up in frustration, or maybe you felt too intimidated to even begin. Fear not!

Calvary Fellowship’s in-depth study of Revelation is the perfect opportunity to unlock its mystery and experience its riches. We will spend a long time working through this unique book (4-5 months) to mine its riches. We will discover the immensely valuable theological insights that Revelation has to teach us about Jesus, the church, prophecy, end times, the rapture, the Great Tribulation, the devil, Heaven, Hell and much more! We will also discuss some practical application that can equip us to better live out our Christian walk here and now.

In addition to revealing our future, this study will also deepen our faith and enrich our lives in the present. One of the great things about Revelation is that it promises a blessing just for reading or hearing it! So if you're in the area, come out this Sunday and prepare to be blessed as we kick off “The Book of Revelation” with a message entitled “Back to the Future.”