Dear Calvary Family,

August will be a busy but exciting month for us as a family. Many of you have heard that we sold our home by Century High School and are moving closer to Calvary. We loved our home—it is beautiful and has been a great place for our initial two years in Rochester. Nonetheless, because of our desire to downsize and to get closer to church, we decided to sell it about 18 months ago. While this has been a long journey, we have trusted in God’s timing for a move and His will in finding a new home. We found a home across the freeway and north of Sam’s Club that fits our personality and YES…it has additional garage space—arrh…arrh! Once we are settled in, we will look forward to having people over for ministry and fellowship.

 For many of us August is a time for family vacations. I pray you enjoy time away and time with family and friends that is refreshing and rejuvenating. I encourage you to take some of this downtime to think about your ministry and outreach involvement this fall. May I challenge us again to open up 2-4 hours a month for serving people in our community with the love of Jesus? Go to our website as an individual or family and look at the different ministries under our Ministries/ Care & Community page. Pick one and get involved or develop your own service area where you can build relationships with people and earn the right to share the message of salvation in Christ. And during this month take the time to think about a ministry here at Calvary you can serve in and an opportunity you can take for growing and maturing in Christ. Remember, our vision is to be a people who have Passion for Christ and Compassion for People. This doesn’t happen automatically, but only when we trust in Christ, submit our lives to Him, live by the power of His Holy Spirit, and take the initiative to get involved.

We have switched to a new fiscal year at Calvary; this year is a transition year and thus will only consist of nine months for our annual report and direction-casting for the new year. September 30th is the last day of our fiscal year. Our annual meeting will be on Sunday, October 26.

As I reflect on the completion of two years of ministry in Rochester, I am grateful that we have initiated at least three major changes and many other initiatives. First, we added a third service to our Sunday options for worship. Second, we did a $500,000 facilities makeover—the majority of which already has been paid through your generous giving. And third, we initiated a capital campaign to pay off the makeover and the remaining debt on our facility. Eliminating this debt will release resources for more fully investing in people. Please join our Investing in People campaign if you have not yet done so. The exciting part of the campaign for me was that it gently pressed us to clarify our vision that was and is tied with Charting a Higher Course (the ministry assessment and plan we implemented in 2005). We also decided not to relocate, rather to focus our attention on multiplication through additional venues, sites, and church plants.

Having stated this, it now appears to me and our leadership board that we need to do two things. First, restructure our staff to fulfill our vision. And secondly, evaluate all our ministries to see how effective they are and the extent to which they align with our vision. We are currently working on the first of these two initiatives by educating ourselves, interacting as leaders, and communicating with our pastoral and support staff. Toward this end, we will be bringing our findings to the annual meeting for your information and interaction with us. We need to pray about these plans, decisions, and their implementation. Our future is bright, but our continued prayers, humility, and work together are needed to make us a more effective body for the advancement of God’s kingdom purposes.

Warmly in Christ