Sunday Recap #1
Sometimes I felt like this day would never come. It always seemed off in the distance. Yet here I am on the other side of Calvary Spartanburg’s amazing first service. We had a great crowd and “Calvary Kids” (our Children’s ministry) was pretty active. It was a great time that went by in a flash.
It wasn’t without its share of problems however. I found out last week that we would only have 15 minutes before service to setup. That obstacle alone would have made yesterday very challenging but we had 2 families from Calvary Chapel Pickens helping us and we were able to start the service only 5 minutes late. I want to give a big thank you the Hudsons and the Lathrops for all their support and sacrificial service to this new congregation.
We are going through the Gospel of Luke at Calvary Spartanburg and yesterday I started with the first 4 verses of chapter 1. Luke wrote this gospel to Theophilus (which is translated “Lover of God”) so he would be informed and assured of what he believed as a young Christian. I think a lot of people think they know what the message of the Bible is or who Jesus said He was, or how Christians should act. This is often based on experience, tradition or hearsay rather than from carefully reading the Bible to find the truth. The Gospel of Luke is a message to all modern “Lovers of God” so that they can know for sure the answers to those questions. Next Sunday we will be picking up where we left off in verse 5 as we continue in Luke chapter 1. If you plan on attending next week, feel free to read ahead.
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.
Outreach Recap
The outreach yesterday went very well. It was the first of 5 outreaches I’m doing between now and Calvary Spartanburg’s first service on November 8th. I was able to partner with Baptist Collegiate Ministry in order to minister on the campus, and I handed out about 60 cups of free Starbucks Coffee at the student center. I also got several chances to explain about the new church and what it was about to approximately half of those who grabbed coffee. I’ll be doing this outreach every Wednesday this month, so I’ve got 3 more opportunities to talk with the students.
Over all, it was a great outreach, with many people surprised but grateful for the jump-start to their day. Most people’s expression seemed to say “Free?! Starbucks?! Those are my two favorite words!” Others took a few steps away from me before they glanced over with a “Wait, what did he just say?” look. To which I responded, “No really.” But my favorite response came from one girl who said:
“What do I have to do.”
“Pick up a cup.”
“Oh!”
I love this exchange because it shows me that she was focusing more on the “Starbucks” part of the equation than the “Free” part. Life has taught us that things have value (like Starbucks) and are not free. Everything has a cost. College students have this rule reinforced yearly during orientation as companies give away “free” stuff (just sign up for a Credit Card! don’t worry 18% interest is normal.) For me this girl’s response is such a picture of many people’s hesitation in accepting The Gospel. “What do I have to do, it can’t be free!” They would be right that it is not free, it’s just already paid for (just like the coffee). I pray that these outreaches will challenge this mentality, paving the way for an understanding of Christ’s truly free gift of salvation.
Please pray that these coffee outreaches will bear that fruit.
The table
Yummy, yummy coffee
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!
Summertime and the living is… Crazy!
I was doing the dishes the other night (real men do dishes, btw), thinking about how busy this summer is going to be. Then I realized that summers have traditionally been the time when the big things happen in my life. Here are some high points:
-10 years ago this summer, on a dark and stormy night in the forest in SC, I stopped running from God and handed the reins of my life back to Him.
-9 years ago this summer, I went to Panama on a mission trip, met Andrea, my future wife, and moved to Albuquerque to start working with Calvary Albuquerque’s missions department. I had never heard of Calvary Chapel before that.
-8 years ago this summer, while leading a mission trip in Mexico, I realized for the first time what an amazing, godly, and beautiful person this Andrea girl was. Though I didn’t tell her for six months, this was when I fell in love with the women who would be my future wife.
-6 years ago this summer, I said “I do” before my God, my friends, my family, and to the one girl who, to me, is perfect.
-5 years ago this summer, having never been there before, my wife and I moved to Montreal to help Sebastien Frappier start a church. We literally cheered when we crossed the Canadian boarder.
-4 years ago this summer, I found out I would become a father. This was not planned. And, if given the opportunity, I would not change a thing.
-This summer I return to the place of my birth, a place I thought I would never go again, to do something I thought God would never ask me to do, start a church.
Looking back, the last ten years have been the most exciting and rewarding I could have ever imagined. The kicker is that I’ve gotten to do it all in service of the loving God that I spent so many years running from. My life as a Christian has been many things, but there is one thing it has never been. Boring.
