I’ve been really selfish by thinking what I would do without
Ben being at Calvary Church to help me. I’ve neglected to think of the impact
his move would have on his mother and their daily talks. I’ve not thought long
and hard about how this would affect his sisters (when he came home he usually
went to their room and sat on their bed just to talk). I’ve also not thought
through how this would change his relationship with his brother who was just a
short drive away. And I’ve certainly not contemplated too much on the youth at
Calvary. Yes, I’ve been extremely selfish. His life must go on; he must follow
the Lord’s leading in his life just like the rest of us. I am both sad and
enthralled at the same time.
We all must move on, one day at a time. There is much
serious work to do for our great God here in Boiling Springs. I cannot forget
that…I will not forget that. I have wallowed in my self-pity long enough. We
will all be just fine, and moving on will not diminish the effect Ben has had,
it will only enhance it. The greatest injustice we can do to his, or anybody’s,
ministry is to curl up in a ball and suck our thumb. It’s time to move on, it’s
time to make changes, it’s time to take risks and step out by faith. Are you
ready? I am. I am so excited about the future of Calvary Church. I am just
thrilled that He allows me a consistent, weekly ministry with people I love
deeply. I am so thankful and humbled to exalt and adore our heavenly Father
with YOU!
Let’s put our selfish interests aside, roll up our sleeves,
pour our hearts out to God in prayer, and serve Him together like we’ve never
done before. This will take sacrifice of our time, energies and money. We will
need to look deep into our selves and repent of pride, we will need to
sincerely strive to honor God in everything, and we will need to follow hard
after God.
Grace & Peace,
Scott
Last week’s annual tax free weekend reminded me that it’s
about time for school to start. I talked to kids who went school shopping and
they told me about their school bags and new clothes. For some that is the only
reason they look forward to this time of year! What has been cool about the
last 12 months at Calvary Church is that as God has expanded His church we now have
new kids from all over. It is so exciting to have homeschoolers, public
schoolers and Christian schoolers. This adds variety and diversity to our
church, and it gives us the privilege of having different views and opinions.
It also gives us the chance to expand our outlook on parenting and it
challenges our thinking. Finally I believe it stretches us to strive for unity
in the midst of diversity.
Soon we will post the names, schools and grades of our
students. We are taking a different approach to our students this year. I
honestly think we missed the boat in the past because we turned the focus of
praying for our students into buying gifts for them. I don’t want us to get
into a competition of who gets the best gifts and in turn teach our children
the greed of consumerism – I think the culture has that one handled. The focus
of listing our students is so that we can more effectively pray for them.
Consistent prayer is the best gift we can give the children at Calvary.
On that note I want to encourage everyone to come for our
annual Back-to-School Pizza Bash. The
evening will start with a pizza party at 5:30 and then at 6 pm we will have a
worship service of music, special prayer for our students and preaching by Ben
Linnerud. This is one of those nights you won’t want to miss.
Grace & Peace,
Scott
It was an amazing week at Vacation Bible School. It was so
wonderful to have kids running around getting messy, wet and exhausted. We had a total of 54 kids enrolled with
49 volunteers. What those numbers mean is that we could easily take care of 300
kids at Bible School. We were able to touch base with a few families who are
looking for a church, and confirm to others that we love children and want to
help them raise them for the kingdom.
VBS Trivia: As near as we can tell the last VBS Calvary
Church did was back in 1997 or 1998. Nikki Paxton was a kid back then who
attended and this year she was one of the VBS Crew!
I want to personally and publically thank all the
volunteers. Many of those who came to make it a successful week have jobs. This
means they would work eight or more hours in the day and then rush over to VBS
and volunteer another five hours. Some of the VBS Crew worked 12 to 15 hour days,
which amounts to around a 60 or 70-hour workweek! Now aren’t you glad you don’t
have to do that every week? A special thank you goes out to Donna Paxton and
Lucretia Ridings. They were our VBS directors who put all the pieces of the
puzzle together. I believe God will (and has) richly blessed all because they
“suffered the little children to go to Jesus.”
Overall VBS was a hit with kids and a win for Calvary
Church! We will make a couple of adjustments for next year, but rest assured
that Vacation Bible School is here to stay. If you didn’t make it out this year
here’s what you do: stop kicking yourself because you missed such a fun week
and then plan on being a part of a fantastically fruitful children’s week next
year.
Grace & Peace,
Scott
I want to welcome aboard Ben Linnerud as our Summer Intern!
His main focus will be working with the youth, but his duties will also include
planning a couple of activities for the children. Yes, I’m pretty excited about
working with Ben for the next several weeks. It will be good for son and dad to
spend time together in this particular setting. It is a joy to be able to offer
him his “first” job as a pastor, and it is an honor to sharpen iron together
with him. Do your best to make him feel at home. If you need him for anything
don’t hesitate to call (237-4870); he is here to serve you.
Vacation Bible School begins Monday! Beat the bushes and get
as many kiddos as you can out to Calvary Church each night. Every night we will
be offering a free snack supper at 5:30 with Bible school starting at 6:15. The
kids will enjoy relevant Bible teaching, nail biting games, funtastic crafts,
and scrumptious snacks. On Friday night we are going to have a family fun
carnival! The kids will sing some of the songs they learned, parents will get
to meet and mingle with the VBS CREW, and then we will play on the inflatable
rides, eat popcorn and devour shaved ice! How awesome is that?! I can’t imagine
a kid (or adult) that wouldn’t want to be a part of VBS week. However, due to
space limitations we can only offer VBS to the kids, but everyone can come on
Friday!
I am starting a new series this week on The Lazy Man from Proverbs 26:13-16. I want to challenge you to
memorize those four verses by the end of the series. This will be a
refreshingly short four-week series that I believe has the potential to
transform our lives in a powerful way as we seek to obey Christ.
Grace & Peace,
Scott
All of our students have been adopted for the coming year, but I fear that we have lost sight of the vision I originally had for this ministry. The main purpose behind our "adopt-a-student ministry" was to have people praying consistently for them during the school year. What brought me to begin this at Calvary were Paul's Letters. One of the repeated themes in his letters is consistency in praying, both through his example and his instruction. Praying must be a priority in our relationships.
On a practical level I believe all of our students need prayer. They all face pressure and temptations, and I believe it is our spiritual obligation to take each of them to the throne of grace. On more than one occasion Blake told Barb that he knew people were praying for him during exam week.
However, I think the train has derailed a little and, therefore, next year we will have a major overhaul to this ministry. I sense that we have focused more on gifts than prayer. This practice is destructive to the kids for two reasons: first, it makes them more selfish because they get used to looking for a gift when they see their adoptive family on Sunday; second, it takes away from the main focus of prayer. I daresay that some have even hesitated in adopting a student to pray for because it means more buying.
I'll lay the burden of derailing the train on myself, but from here on let's keep the focus on praying. To encourage you to remember here are some tips that may help:
- Place reminders in your life to pray (i.e., pictures on refrigerators, names on a sticky note in the car, etc.).
- Ask you student (or parent) to give you a class schedule.
- Be sensitive to pressure cooker times in your student's life (i.e., exams).
I think without too much trouble we'll get back on track, and as we grow our students will know that we've got them covered in prayer!
Grace & Peace,
Scott
I want to take this opportunity to welcome two new "little additions" to our Calvary Family: Michael James Thomas (born September 14, parents: Amber & Zach) and Mattie Rae Bayliff (born October 19, parents: Megan & Matthew)! Congratulations, I love you and am so proud of you. This is awesome news for everyone and I am hoping you will do your part in helping these parents train, love and nurture these precious babies. God has greatly gifted them with healthy children. I know it took a great effort to bring them into the world, but now their work really begins...
Parents have one opportunity to raise their children, and we all know children don't train themselves. I greatly admire young couples, like these two, who are willing, by God's design and grace to bring children into this world. We live in difficult times, but God is greater than the age in which we live. We have before us two, innocent, beautiful, sweet babies. Right now their lives consist of sleeping, eating, crying, "dirtying" their diapers, being carried, and keeping their parents up at night. But, they will grow and they will learn. The weight of responsibility for training them is upon the backs of their parents; they are accountable to God for the direction of their children. Just as it is a heavy burden it is also an inexplicable joy! To both I say, "Enjoy your babies...they are your heritage from Almighty God. He has entrusted you with a wonderful gift!"
As a church what do we do? The one thing we must do well as the days, weeks and years pass is to pray. Don't take for granted the power of a praying church for its children. If you can't sleep one night take it as a hint from the Holy Spirit to pray for Mattie and Michael (Megan and Amber probably aren't sleeping either!). Think of all the children at Calvary, write their names on a card, and pray throughout the day for each of them. Pray for their salvation, pray for their safety and health, and pray for mom and dad. Pray without ceasing. Don't give up praying. And on their wedding day you can go up to them and say, "I've been praying for you since the day you were born, and I'm going to keep praying."
BTW...ask Angie and Len what their big news is!
Grace & Peace,
Scott
