http://beta.lemontcalvarychurch.org/index.php/site/index/ en pastorjenni@lemontcalvarychurch.org Copyright 2008 2008-07-23T04:08:00-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/baptism_bbq_as_real_as_it_gets/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/baptism_bbq_as_real_as_it_gets/#When:03:08:00Z I’m honestly excited about our upcoming BBQ & Water Baptism on August 10th.  Think about it – the smell of the grill on a summer day, old friends and new friends catching up on life, kids playing in the pool screaming with delight.  At the center of it all – friends and family celebrating what God is doing in people’s lives through one of the oldest traditions of Christianity – water baptism.  Isn’t this the way Jesus intended this life with Him to be lived?  Don’t just come – bring your friends and family – especially those that are skeptical of what the church can be.  This is as real as it gets. Family, Sunday Gatherings 2008-07-23T03:08:00-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/dc_bound/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/dc_bound/#When:03:06:00Z This Saturday 10 student and 4 adults from Calvary’s own Imago Dei youth ministry will be heading to Washington, D.C. for our summer missions project.  While there we will be serving with The Center for Student Missions (CSM).  The folks at CSM will be partnering us with a variety of ministries and service organizations in our nation’s capital.  Each afternoon (Monday – Friday) we will be working with Kid’s Konnection and hosting a sidewalk Sunday school We’re expecting 60 kids from the community to be a part of this.  We will also be working with seniors, shut-ins, & local youth.  Please keep us in your prayers and check out our blog @ http://www.id-youth.com.  We’ll try to post frequent blogs so you can read about our adventures.  Prayer request #1 – pray for Pastor Mark’s sanity as we have a 12 hour road trip on Saturday! Serve, Youth 2008-07-23T03:06:00-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/ways_you_can_value_humanity/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/ways_you_can_value_humanity/#When:03:04:00Z It was great to see so many people here at Calvary this past Sunday morning!  If you missed part 2 of our series “God’s Green Earth” you can listen to it online on our media page.  Here are some of the practical ways you can value humanity in your everyday life – at home, in your community and globally. 1.  Look someone in the eye and say “hello” as you pass. 2.  Sit down and offer a listening ear to a family member or friend who needs it. 3.  Get to know the barista who makes your coffee each morning. 4.  Take time to meet a neighbor or check in on an elderly friend. 5.  Volunteer your time to serve others in the church and in the community. 6.  Buy a little extra at the grocery store and become a regular donor at your local food pantry. 7.  Support local businesses. 8.  Make an effort to buy fair trade products that guarantee strict economic, social and environmental criteria were met in the production and trade of an agricultural product.  Visit http://www.transfairusa.org for a list of products and companies in our area that support fair trade. 9.  Support our missionaries around the world through regular monthly giving. 10.  Give the gift of a goat or chicken and help a family lift themselves out of poverty and pass the gift on to others.  Find out more about this amazingly simple and powerful concept at http://www.heifer.org. 11.  Visit http://www.worldvision.org to sponsor a child touched by the HIV/AIDS crisis and help provide education, food and shelter. 12.  Partner with Project Rescue in places like India and Nepal to help rescue girls out of sexual slavery and human trafficking and into a safe environment for healing, education and wholeness.  Visit http://www.projectrescue.com Family, Sunday Gatherings 2008-07-23T03:04:00-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/gods_green_earth_tips/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/gods_green_earth_tips/#When:05:09:01Z As mentioned on Sunday, here are a few practical ways we can all care for God’s Creation: Lower your thermostat.  Buy a programmable thermostat. Buy a reusable water bottle. Check out your bathroom.  Use low-flow faucets, showerheads, and toilets. Buy compact fluorescent light bulbs.  Turn off lights and electronics when you leave the room.  Unplug your cellphone charger from the wall when not using it.  Turn off energy strips and surge protectors when not in use (especially overnight). Recycle your newspapers. Car pool.  Connect with other commuters. Ride a bike. Get off junk mail lists. Buy products that use recyclable materials whenever possible. Buy locally. Find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food near you. Consider buying a fuel-efficient car or hybrid. Go paperless.  Consider reading your newspaper and magazine subscriptions online.  Switch to electronic banking and credit card payment too. Teach kids about the environment. Take your batteries to a recycling center.  Earth 911 gives you the scoop. Turn your car off if you’re going to be idle for more than one minute. Do full loads of laundry and set the rinse cycle to “cold”. Recycle.  If you’re not at home, take extra steps, (literally), to find that recycling can. Recycle your technology.  Dell, Hewlett Packard, Apple and IBM, among others, offer recycling programs. Sunday Gatherings 2008-07-15T05:09:01-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/worship_desicions/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/worship_desicions/#When:00:05:00Z I've had a few people ask me about the videos from Sunday's message of our daughter Blinn making some crucial "worship decisions". We have posted them on our family blog and now here as well. (The first video is only 37 seconds long, and then there’s 3 min. of a black screen on the end for some reason. So don’t sit through that. The second video is the full length.) Sunday Gatherings, Worship 2008-07-10T00:05:00-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/ask_pastor_jim/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/ask_pastor_jim/#When:19:58:00Z I’ve heard a lot of great feedback about the Ask Pastor Jim series.  It was certainly quite something to hear the wide range of questions that everyone had.  The other week I took my three nieces to the movies and it just so happens that I was wearing my “Ask Pastor Jim.com” shirt that day.  The lady at the counter asked me if I was Pastor Jim.  My reply was that I wasn’t but that I work with him.  This thought occurred to me, how many people are searching for answers about the deeper things of life?  And how many of us know what direction to point them in?  It seems to me that there are people all around us that are longing for answers to life’s mysteries.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if there was something so unique about the Church, something that really stood out, and said – ask me!?  Compassion, love, & truth have always been hallmarks of the Christian message.  If only we could wear them – just like a t-shirt. Ask Pastor Jim, Sunday Gatherings 2008-07-03T19:58:00-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/gifts_of_the_holy_spirit/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/gifts_of_the_holy_spirit/#When:19:18:01Z At the Jewish Feast of Pentecost five weeks after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and just a few days after His ascension to Heaven, there were 120 followers of Jesus, including the Apostles (Acts 1: 12-15), gathered as Jesus had instructed them (Luke 24:49) to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to send. They had been gathered in prayer for several days. Acts 2: 1-4 describes the amazing coming of the Holy Spirit when they were “all filled with the Holy Spirit”. Likewise, every follower of Jesus is urged to seek God for the infilling of the Spirit (Acts 2: 38; Ephesians 5: 18). The Feast of Pentecost was a festival celebrating the bringing in of the harvest, and was most fitting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, since His purpose in coming was to empower the church for the mission of bringing in the harvest of people from all nations of the world until Jesus comes again. The infilling of the Spirit is also called the “gift of the Spirit” in Acts 2: 38. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to the church. And, the Spirit, having been given to the church as God’s Gift, has also brought His own inexhaustible number of gifts to distribute among followers of Jesus. These gifts are a wide variety of abilities spread out among members of the church for the purpose of witness, ministry and mission (Acts 1: 8). These gifts include very practical abilities such as teaching, serving, mercy, hospitality, administration, leadership, giving, encouraging, serving-behind-the scenes, ministry callings, (Romans 12: 6-8; Ephesians 4: 11; I Corinthians 12: 28). In fact, every unique ministry skill is a gift of the Spirit such as working with children, youth, worship leader, nursing home worker, jail ministry, counseling, etc. But there are also gifts of the Spirit that are very miraculous in nature. The Apostle Paul lists nine extraordinary, miraculous gifts of the Spirit in I Corinthians 12: 7-11. These nine gifts have one common feature: they are spontaneously expressed through individuals only as the Holy Spirit wills in order to meet a particular need at a particular time. A believer cannot at just any time express these gifts, but only when there is inward clarity and certainty given by the Spirit to a believer at the very instant He desires to express one of these gifts. The nine gifts listed by Paul can be defined with biblical examples in the following ways… Message of wisdom: the Holy Spirit imparts a sudden flash of insight beyond human wisdom in order to resolve an issue or dilemma or give immediate guidance in a situation (I Kings 3: 16-28; John 8: 7; Acts 15: 22; Acts 6: 9-10). Message of knowledge: the Holy Spirit imparts a sudden awareness of facts or information about a person or situation apart from what could be otherwise known in order to meet the need of the moment (II Kings 6: 9-12; Luke 2: 26; John 4: 17, 18, 29; Acts 5: 1-6; Acts 27: 10). Distinguishing of spirits: sudden insight given by the Holy Spirit to perceive the type of spirit or motivation behind a person’s words or actions whether good or bad, godly or demonic (Acts 8: 23; Acts 13: 8-11; Acts 16: 16-18). Gift of faith: sudden infusion by the Holy Spirit of special faith to believe God to meet a specific need; this is a faith beyond the “daily faith” in a Christian’s life (Acts 3: 1-3, 16; Acts 14: 8-10; I Samuel 17: 34-51; Hebrews 11: 33-35). Gifts of healings: sudden imparting by the Holy Spirit of a miracle of healing; stated in the plural as gifts of healings to indicate that the Holy Spirit has power to heal any kind of disease (Acts 3: 1-6; Acts 5: 15; Acts 8: 6-7; Acts 14: 8-10; Acts 28: 6; Matthew 4: 23-24). Miraculous powers: sudden infusion by the Holy Spirit of power to supersede natural processes and do a miracle in order to meet the need of the moment (Matthew 14: 13-21; John 2: 1-11; Acts 5: 12; Acts 8: 6; Acts 13: 91--; Acts 9: 40; Acts 20: 12). Gift of prophecy: a sudden word or statement of insight, encouragement or guidance given by the Holy Spirit to meet the need of others (Acts 21: 9; Acts 21: 10; Acts 11: 27-28; Acts 15: 32). Different kinds of tongues (languages) & Interpretation of tongues (languages): the Spirit-led ability to speak prayerfully or worshipfully in a language unlearned and previously unknown (I Corinthians 14: 2-5) which must always in a worship gathering be connected to the gift of interpretation of languages according to the Apostle Paul’s instructions (I Corinthians 14: 1-4, 18-19) so that what is expressed miraculously in the unknown language may be interpreted so all may understand the message the Holy Spirit is conveying. So, among the many more natural, practical ministry gifts the Holy Spirit has given are also some miraculous gifts. In I Corinthians 12: 12-31 Paul uses the analogy of a body to show that the more spectacular gifts are not be valued above the less spectacular because the Holy Spirit distributes and expresses His gifts according to His will. This also teach us that the Spirit does not always meet all needs, or always carry out the work of God by miraculous gifts, but by a blend of the natural with the miraculous. In fact, church history, including the first century period of the Book of Acts, shows that the majority of the Lord’s mission is carried out by day to day faithfulness of believers doing their practical ministries, and that the miraculous works of the Spirit are occasional extraordinary events that break in as the Spirit so desires. We create a climate for all of the “gifts of the Spirit” to be freely expressed when we as a church live together in the “unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4: 3). Ask Pastor Jim 2008-06-10T19:18:01-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/ants_chocolate/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/ants_chocolate/#When:19:17:01Z Over the last few weeks my kitchen has been invaded by ants.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an infestation but nevertheless it’s been a nuisance.  This has frustrated Kim to the point of reorganizing our pantry and insisting that I apply an organic-based ant powder to the kitchen and pantry floor.  I didn’t know they had such a thing but apparently they do.  One of the ingredients in this bug spray is cloves.  The powdered spray seems to have worked.  The only tricky part is not breathing in the powder as it smells so good.  I’m sure it can’t be that healthy if we breathe it in.  That’s a lot like temptation.  Often sin looks (or smells) good but in the end it’s deadly.  Did I mention I’ve also been trying to fight the temptation of breaking into the pantry and eating some late night snacks?  The chips, chocolate, and nuts seem to be calling my name.  Thus far I continue to avoid the pitfall of snacking late at night.  Oh, and I think the ants are gone too. Random, Youth 2008-06-10T19:17:01-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/jesus_in_the_family/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/jesus_in_the_family/#When:18:00:00Z During this week’s Mother’s Day sermon, I referred to Erik Erikson, a developmental psychologist, whose study of the developmental stages of human life is widely recognized. Erikson viewed a person’s life span as passing through eight stages, with each stage having a major “developmental task” to be successfully learned. The developmental task to be learned at each stage prepares the person for learning the next stage successfully. Failing to learn the developmental task at any stage will hinder a person’s ability to progress on to the future stages in a healthy way. Here are the 8 developmental stages… Infancy: Birth to 18 Months --- Trust vs. Mistrust. Depending upon the people and care in the environment a baby’s first life-lesson is either to trust or mistrust. Early Childhood: 18 Months to 3 Years --- Autonomy vs. Shame. If the child’s environment is positive as he/she learns to walk, talk, feed himself/herself, toilet training, etc., then a healthy sense of esteem and confidence is learned. If the environment is negative and non-affirming, the child will leave this stage with a sense of personal shame. Play Age: 3 to 5 Years --- Initiative v. Guilt. Initiative continues to develop in this stage in playing, experimenting, discovering the world, and asking “why” questions. If this is encouraged and affirmed, the child’s creativity, curiosity, and desire to learn blossoms, but if the child is neglected, or put down, a sense of guilt is imbedded deep inside that will color the view of himself/herself for the future and will affect his/her desire for learning and socializing. School Age: 6 to 12 Years --- Industry vs. Inferiority. The child’s world expands to school and more social interactions. If the environment in which the child has grown has been affirming, he/she will learn new knowledge and skills, and will have confidence to form relationships with other kids. If affirmation has been lacking, he/she will lack confidence to learn new skills and will isolate from others because of a growing sense of inferiority. Adolescence: 12 to 18 Years --- Identity Formation vs. Identity Confusion. A healthy environment prepares a teenager to develop a positive view of who they are as a person. If the environment leading up to the teen-age years has been unhealthy, he/she will be ill-prepared to pull together the different pieces of their personality, will struggle with a poor self-image, and will lack confidence and ability to form healthy relationships. Young Adulthood: 18 to 25 Years --- Intimacy vs. Isolation. This is the stage for companionship and love, as well as getting launched in career and life. If the past stages have been positive, a person is ready to form healthy relationships, and has confidence to move into career. If the previous stages have been negative, this person will enter young adulthood feeling isolated and finding it very difficult to form lasting relationships. There will be lack of confidence in career development. Middle Adulthood: 35 to 55 or 65 --- Generativity vs. Stagnation. A person whose previous life stages from childhood and forward have been positive will enter this stage of life being proactive, energetic and productive in relationships, approach to work, and to life in general. If previous developmental tasks have been not been successfully experienced, middle age will be a time of isolation (even if married), self-absorption, and a loss of purpose. Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death --- Integrity vs. Despair. If previous developmental tasks have been positive a senior adult will have a sense of contentment, fulfillment, purpose, and of a legacy to leave behind. If those stages reaching back to childhood have been negative, a person’s closing years will be a time of despair. Things to note: That these stages are cumulative in either a positive or negative pattern of preparing a person for the stages to come. A positive or negative environment in infancy sets the stage for the future all the way down to late adulthood. A positive home in infancy in the first 18 months of life has huge impact for who a person will be in senior adulthood! That the first 5 stages that shape a person’s whole life during occur during childhood and adolescence. The first 18 years of life in the home set the pace for the next 50, 60, or 70 years. The implications of this for parenting and for providing a healthy family environment are huge. That the correlation between Erikson’s Life Stages and what God says about parenting and family environment in our text from this Sunday’s sermon in Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 is amazing. In one sense, Erikson simply fills in the details of what the Lord said centuries ago in the scriptures about family environment! That though a person’s past life stage experiences may have been damaged due to an unhealthy or destructive environment or family life, there is power in Jesus Christ to break the patterns of the past, heal the damage, and bring a new beginning to a person’s life. If you would like to explore this further go to www.learningplaceonline.com and click of “stages of life”. **Update - The Learning Place Online link has been updated to the correct place.  Family, Sunday Gatherings 2008-05-11T18:00:00-06:00 http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/jesus_in_my_office/ http://www.lemontcalvarychurch.org/site/jesus_in_my_office/#When:18:50:00Z A few years back I was in a transition period of life.  That interim time between ministry positions led me to a job at a local high school.  Although I enjoy working with students, this job was different.  I was working with student who had been separated from regular classes due to behavioral problems.  Needless to say, the classroom environment was hostile.  With a week of being their I found myself hating the job and feeling stuck!  Have you ever been in that position before?  My source of strength & solitude was 1 Peter 5:7 which says we can, “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Praying that and other Scriptures, over and over, on a daily basis helped me keep my sanity.  It also helped me remember that Christ had me there for a reason – to glorify Him.  Despite being a difficult period in my life, that year at the high school helped me grow in my faith.  I suppose you could say, Jesus was in the classroom – my office! Family, Sunday Gatherings 2008-05-02T18:50:00-06:00