Turn Your Radio On

Starting this week Calvary Spartanburg will be running a new spot on 2 radio stations here in the upstate. 93.3 the Planet (hard rock) and B93.7 (top 40) will be playing the spot for the next 2 weeks, and after a short break for Valentines day week, for 2 more weeks.

These 2 stations have a combined reach of 700,000+ people. That’s a lot of people! The figure that I’ve heard is that more than 80% of Spartanburg county is un-churched. I’ve never claimed to be a math nut but my back-of-the-napkin figure says… well, lets just say 80% of 700,000 is big number.

Luke 19:10 says that Jesus came “…to seek and to save that which was lost.” I think Jesus is still doing this today through His church. This spot is in line with that purpose. To seek out those who are lost so that we can tell and show them the live saving and changing message of Jesus.

Join me in praying that God would lead people to hear this spot and respond. That they would come to call on Jesus as Savior and Lord.

You can hear the spot by clicking here or by visiting www.calvaryspartanburg.com

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Jason Mills, January 27th 2010 | Posted in Ministries, Technology, website

Web 2.something

I made some changes to the church website. I’ve tweaked with the design, added an “About” page with a statement of faith, and started a new twitter feed to make church announcements. If you haven’t visited Calvaryspartanburg.com recently take a second and check it out.

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Jason Mills, October 22nd 2009 | Posted in Starting, Technology, website

Year One

This week marks one year of blogging for me. A lot has happened since I started this blog to “track the spiritual and logistical journey of planting Calvary Spartanburg”. I thought a year in review was in order.

October 08:

-First blog post about God’s call in my life to plant a church in Spartanburg.

-Bought CalvarySpartanburg.com (and .org). This was the first time I officially declared Spartanburg as the planting site for the church.

-Confirmed there was not a Calvary Chapel work going on in Spartanburg.

-Invited my friends Cesar and Aliza to come plant with us. (Though God eventually showed them that they should stay where He has them, for now.)

November 08:

-Set June 22, 2009 as our date to move back to South Carolina, and bought tickets.

-I got the first staph infection in the family that made its rounds through the four of us until it was finally eradicated in June 09 over 8 months later.

December 08:

-Celebrated our last Christmas in Montreal, and our first one as just the four of us with no family.

-Began to pray for God’s provision for the church, and financially for us. I made a commitment to not to stress or strive when it came to God’s church or God’s provision. (It’s working out pretty good so far.)

January 09:

-Went live with www.calvaryspartanburg.com (with very little info).

-Started looking passively at who would take over my responsibilities at Calvary Montreal.

-Recorded 3 songs with my friend and fellow worship leader Andy Dibiaso. You can see them again here 1 2 3.

-Started to talk with a few pastors and supporters about our move and the about the church plant.

February 09:

-Updated www.CalvarySpartanburg.com with a new design and contact info.

-Announced on Sunday the 15th that we would be leaving Calvary Montreal. Everyone seemed to be sad to see us go, but many were excited for the adventure God was taking us on.

-Made the Blog live that night (it had been restricted access before that), and changed my contact info on Facebook. 83 people visited that first day.

-Started to actively look for people to take over my responsibilities.

March 09:

-Andrea had to go to the ER for a bad staph infection on her stomach. For the next six weeks we had to go back every two days to get the wound redressed (including Easter morning).

-I was invited to Regeneration in Oakland for a visit in August to teach.

-My mom came up for Jakes 3rd and Andrea’s [redacted] birthday.

April 09:

-Went to the Calvary Chapel Deep South Conference and wrote to recaps of all three days (I will not recap the recaps). I met several people that I now consider good friends there such as Scott Hunt and Jay Lathrop.

May 09:

-Kicked everything into high gear for our international move.

-Visited my good friend Andy Falleur (for the last time “sniff”) at Calvary Ottawa, and taught at their morning service.

June 09:

-Sophie got what would be the last of the staph infections that had plagued us for months. It came only 10 days before we where to move, and we had to make alternate traveling plans.

-5 days later, after a family visit to the head of Infectious Diseases at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, the doctors told us that Sophie was healing so well we would not need to postpone our move to the USA. We were also given rounds of tons of medication and treatments so we could eradicate these infections for good. God hears the prayers of His people.

-June 18th my brother Michael and his wife Donna arrived to help us pack and move. This was the first time they had been to Montreal, and Donna’s first time out of the USA.

-June 22 my two brothers and I crossed the US/Canada border in record time. After driving 24 hours straight, we made it to my mom’s place in SC.

July 09:

-After weeks of looking for a place to live in the Spartanburg area, God used a “chance” meeting on the 4th of July to provide us with a awesome house to rent in our price range. I still have a hard time believing we get to live in it, despite having been here several months.

-Left SC for a month-long trip to Albuquerque to visit Andrea’s family, and our supporters and friends.

-Calvary Spartanburg was incorporated as a church.

August 09:

-Taught at Regeneration in Oakland for both Sunday services.

-Moved into the new house.

-My friends Eric and Isaac sent a week with us as a part of their summer-long, international, vintage-VW-van-powered road trip.

-Finally felt led to pick Calvary Spartanburg’s starting date. November 8.

-Found a place to meet at the YMCA, which was about 1/3 the price of my next best option.

September 09:

-Made a Facebook group and added a link to the website.

-Held my first Board meeting. Resulted in a lot of god ideas like…

-Planning our first series of outreaches at Converse College in partnership with BCM.

It’s been a crazy year and the church hasn’t even started yet. I fully expect that this coming year will be much like the last– full of excitement, changes, and pain. But one thing will not change. Christ will continue to be the Anchor that I hold. He is with me and He has called me here.

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Jason Mills, October 18th 2009 | Posted in Reflections, Starting, The road to SC, Travel, website

Sorry About That

It’s just come to my attention that the “donate” link on the Ministry Needs page was not functioning. I just fixed it and I want to apologize to everyone who has tried to use it to financially help my family and I, and Calvary Spartanburg.

Thanks to everyone who have already helped us meet some of our start-up needs. Thank you for being such cheerful givers!

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Jason Mills, September 19th 2009 | Posted in Reflections, Starting, Technology, website

Getting with the Times

Calvary Spartanburg is now on Facebook! Follow this link or the link at the bottom left of Calvaryspartanburg.com to go straight the new FB group. If you’ve ever visited this blog or the main website and wondered how to connect, this is a great way to do it.  I hope to see you there!

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Jason Mills, September 14th 2009 | Posted in Starting, Technology, website

Catch 22

Tomorrow my family and I return to Spartanburg after a 4 week long trip to Albuquerque. So much has happened in the last month that I’ve wanted to talk about but it’s kind of a catch 22 because its those same events that have left me very little time to blog about them. There is a lot I want to cover, so with out further adieu I present the “Albuquerque Trip Recap”:

-The biggest piece of news happened the day after we arrived in ABQ. Calvary Spartanburg was officially incorporated. I used a great site called Leagalzoom.com that was very easy, inexpensive, and fast. The time between when I filed the paper work to the time I received the notice back from the Great state of South Carolina was only 20 days!

-August 1-3 I had been invited out to Re:generation in Oakland CA. I’ve talked about Pastor Albert and the Regen crew before but I just can’t pass up an opportunity to reiterate that this is an awesome church and I love how they reach out so effectively to such a unique and diverse community. I got to meet several people who were excited about the church plant in Spartanburg and even got to meet a few fellow South Carolinians (Nico and Betsy, you are awesome!). Most importantly I got to share with this sweet church from the Scriptures at both thier morning and evening service. This reminds me that teachings are now available at CalvarySpartanburg.com including that evening’s message from Luke 14.

-Calvary Albuquerque’s missionary weekend allowed me to reconnect with a lot of my friends, co-workers and supporters. Some of my goals during this trip were to retain some of our supporter and to share face to face with them the need for churches that teach expositionaly in the South. This missionary weekend allowed me to do just that.

-I got a chance to sit down with fellow southern Calvary church planter Kevin Miller. Kevin and his team are planning a church in Clarksville TN (yes, as in “the last train to…”) called Awaken Church. The start date is in mid September but he’s already doing a mid-week home Bible study and weekly events in area parks giving out free food and Bibles. I’ve known Kevin several years but I’ve never really sat down and talked ministry with him but I’m so glad I did. We picked each others brains for idea’s and I can’t wait to try out some new things. Pray for Kevin, his family, and ministry team if you think of it, would you.

The best/craziest thing about this last month is that it has sparked a few dozen other things I need to do. When I get back to SC tomorrow I need to hit the ground running.

Pray for the job interview I have this week, though I submitted 10+ applications before this trip, this is the only interview I have.

Pray for a meeting space. I have an opportunity to see a really great place this week that feels like God’s provision.

Pray that God would bring workers to the harvest field of Spartanburg!

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Jason Mills, August 17th 2009 | Posted in Events, Teaching, The road to SC, Travel, website

New Year, New Things

Happy New Year! 2009 is going to be a very exciting year for me, with a lot of changes and surprises. On that note I want to announce Calvaryspartanburg.com is now live. It’s still a work in progress, but go check it out. I’ll announce it here when updates are made.

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Jason Mills, January 1st 2009 | Posted in website