By Jeff Roepke , Vice Chairman, Leadership Board

The holiday season is a time to reflect on God’s goodness.  The facility update, a capital campaign, and day-to-day ministry activities has made for a wild ride!  It has been a blessing to see how the Lord has sustained us through this exciting time.  Even more, I am blessed to see the wonderful resilience of the Calvary church family!  We have endured the challenges posed by the facility update, the start of our new evening worship service, and so many other changes with love, grace, and patience.

Our Facility Update is Complete!

We worshiped for the first time in our new worship center on the Sunday after Thanksgiving!  It was a fitting time to celebrate because we have much to be thankful for – no more hard folding chairs, poor acoustics, and poor lighting!  I’m not sure we realized the full magnitude of what we had undertaken when we started this project.  We thank the Lord for a truly wonderful result!  May it be used to His glory and to bring many into His kingdom.  There were many people who contributed to our facility makeover!  Far too many to name in this short article.  Special thanks to the following individuals for their extraordinary contributions.  Thanks to Bob Braatz and Doug Kelly for their tireless efforts leading the entire makeover project!  Thanks also to Pastor Dan Limkeman for leading the design of the new worship center, to Pastor Darin Brown for leading the makeover of the youth center, to Men’s Ministries for building the garage, and to Trudi Westberg for her work on the new facility-wide signage.

Upcoming Capital Campaign Events

We formally kicked off our capital campaign, "Investing in People - Ready, Set, Grow!", on Sunday, November 18.  Thanks to the campaign presentation team for their excellent work with the kick-off presentation!  The next step in our communication process will occur in the mini-congregations as members of the Leadership Board and communications team present a few more details and answer your questions.

Please plan to attend one of these presentations:

Proverbs 16:9 has been a key verse for our recent vision and planning discussions, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps".  We thank God for His direction thus far and look to Him as He provides for $2.2M over the next two years. What a blessing it will be when He provides.

Our part in the coming weeks is to pray without ceasing!  Pray in your daily quiet time, pray weekly as a family and mini-congregation.  We will come together on Sunday, Jan. 6 for a church-wide Encountering God time of prayer and worship as the final step before Commitment Sunday on January 13th.  Please pray that God clearly show you what your part will be.  Pray that God will continue to clearly guide the steps of the Leadership Board and pastoral staff.  And pray that God would bind our enemy Satan as we know that he opposes everything that advances God’s Kingdom!

The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us…

Take a few moments in the coming weeks to reflect on why we celebrate. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:4).

On behalf of the Leadership Board, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!