As we move from Resurrection Sunday into the month of April, it feels as if the whole earth has been resurrected. April is the month when in Arkansas, it feels as if spring has truly sprung. Our mountains, lakes, and rivers once again become alive with flowers, leaves, birds, wildlife, and beautiful sunny days among many other things. In a sense, it feels as if nature has become alive anew!
This year, we will celebrate an early Easter on March 31. Therefore, this is a very important month to prepare our hearts for the highest holy day of the year – Resurrection Sunday!
This year at Calvary, we will celebrate Easter in a variety of ways:
It’s February, often known as the month of love due to its mid-month celebration called Valentine’s Day. So we at Calvary certainly encourage all of our married couples and dating couples to enjoy romantic celebrations this month. Also, we will certainly focus on the theme of love as we continue our sermon series through the Gospel of John – the Gospel that gives us John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only Son, Jesus.”
Calvary Family,
I love what Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:5, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”
I, like many of you, was blessed to have both a godly mother and godly grandmothers who intentionally poured themselves into my spiritual faith and development. And now, one of the greatest privileges and ministry opportunities that God has given to me and Mona is to follow in their footsteps with our own children and grandchildren. This fall, starting in October, we will have two discipleship equipping events at Calvary that will help us to become better disciple-makers with our children and grandchildren.
Dear Calvary Family,
As summer ends and we move into the fall season, I am looking forward to cooler weather, to football (go Hogs!) and hopefully to fall playoff baseball (go Texas Rangers!). But most of all, I am looking forward to a wonderful season of fruitful ministry at our church (go Calvary!).
Calvary is a very special and unique family of faith. Part of our special uniqueness involves having people with a diversity of views, yet choosing to stay unified in spite of our differences. In short, we agree on the main tenets of our faith and can agree to disagree on lesser issues. I truly believe that this is one of our greatest strengths. I hope that we can apply this strength to the issue of women in ministry. At Calvary, there is space for both egalitarians and moderate complementarians to continue to support our 25 plus year practice of ordaining women.
