Calvary Vision and Mission
VISION STATEMENT
Calvary is a devoted family who loves God and loves our neighbors. John 13:34-35.
MISSION STATEMENT
Our mission is to grow together in faith, generosity, and unity by hearing and obeying God’s Word, serving with joy, and sharing Jesus in order to welcome everyone home to multiply the Kingdom of God for His glory.
DEMONSTRATING HOPE (CORE VALUES):
Calvary Baptist Church is committed to love God and love our neighbors. This shared mission forges us as a family, who is growing together. We demonstrate this desire in three ways: intentional relationships, pursuing Jesus and carrying hope.
Intentional Relationships:
In Scripture, we find a normal pattern for believers, being engaged deeply in community with other believers. At Calvary, we desire to encourage one another into deeper relationships with each other in many different ways.
While we celebrate gathering in large groups, we also know that the smaller a group grows the more valuable the relationships can become. Understanding this dual nature of intentional relationships we strive for every member at Calvary to add value to our faith family by being encouraged among the entire congregation living with a common purpose, spending time weekly in groups, mentoring one another in multiplying huddles, and engaging in ongoing intimate accountability.
Obviously, intentional, deep, intimate relationships don’t happen overnight. It takes time for communities to grow into this kind of deep flourishing. At the same time, we don’t want to sit around and assume relationships are being formed, so at Calvary, we rely on a series of markers to help us see community being established. These markers can be as simple as people knowing each other’s name, the easiest step to overcoming awkward conversations or intentionally sharing stories of God’s grace with each other. They can also be as substantial as gathering together outside of our normal worship times encouraging shared experiences of life, or meeting one another’s needs, corporately or individually, whatever those needs may be.
As we see these markers, like checkpoints along the way, we want to celebrate the goodness of God in the way He is knitting us together. So at Calvary, we make a big deal out of celebrating things like increased participation, whether that be increased membership in corporate worship, larger LifeGroups, or other small groups and ministries. We also will stop to celebrate the formation of new groups, whether they be huddles, LifeGroups, or any other small group, more of them means more people are involved, and the more people are involved, the more evident God’s grace is at Calvary. Finally, we celebrate when needs are met. No matter how small, every act of kindness, generosity, or service is a huge step on the road to intentional relationships.
(1 Corinthians 11:1, Acts 2:42, 1 John 1:3-7, 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, Galatians 2:9, Ephesians 2:14-22, 2 Timothy 2:2
Pursuing Jesus
At the conclusion of each worship gathering at Calvary, we confess together that it is Christ who gives us life. Because He has given it to us, we in turn desire to use it to chase after Him. The pursuit of Christ is an exercise of love for the individual believer that is demonstrated in the context of a faith family. As we chase after Him we begin to look like Him, act like Him, and talk like Him. Slowly but surely we become reflections of His grace and character into the world.
There are two areas in which the believer grows in their relationship with Christ, individually and corporately. At Calvary, we encourage many avenues of personal growth as individuals. Things like: engaging with Scripture (2 Tim. 2:15, Heb. 4:12, Josh. 1:8), regular Prayer (James 5:16, 1 John 5:14-15, Phil. 4:6-7, Mt. 6:9-13) exercising spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12, Romans 12:6, 1 Tim. 4:14, Eph. 4:7), making disciples (Mt. 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, Rom. 10:14-15, Eph. 4;16, Titus 2:3. 2 Tim. 2:2), living out the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23, 1 Jn 4:16, 1 Cor. 13:4-8), fasting (Mat. 6:16-18, Daniel 10:3, Joel 2:12, Acts 14:23, Lk 4:2), and regular Sabbath rest (Ex. 20:8-11, Ezekiel 20:19-20, MK 2:23-28, Mt. 12:12, Col. 2:16-17. Heb. 4:9-10).
In the same way, we as a community strive to pursue Jesus as a corporate body. There are also many signs that show we are accomplishing this goal, such as boisterous singing in corporate worship (Ps 150:1-6, Eph. 5:19, James 5:13, Col. 3:16. Heb. 2:12), Actively engaging with the sermon (1 Cor. 2:4-5, 2 Timothy 4:2-5, 1 Cor 1:17-18, 1 Tim. 4:13, Rom. 10:17, 1 Thess. 5:21, Acts 20:7-12), regularly partaking in communion (1 Cor. 11:23-26, Heb. 10:25, Mt. 26:26-29, Acts 20:7, Acts 2:42-46), celebrating baptism (1 cor. 12:13, 1 Peter 3:21, Acts 8:12, Colossians 2:12, Gal. 3:27, Luke 3:21-22. Eph. 2:8-9. Eph. 4:4-6), and humbly confessing sin (1 John 1:9, James 5:16, Prov. 28:13, Acts 3:19, Romans 10:10, James 4:8).
We rightly celebrate when we notice each other pursuing Christ. Whether it is understanding a biblical truth for the first time, memorization of Scripture, consistency in spiritual discipline, genuine repentance. Practicing your giftedness, or routinely tithing. We want to lift people up in celebration as they grow in their pursuit of Christ in these and many other ways. As we do this we hope to encourage each other in our own individual and corporate pursuit of Jesus.
(Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 5:22-26, I Corinthians 12-14, James 4:8, Colossians 3:16, Matthew 6:33 Acts 2:42, 1 Chronicles 16:11, Hebrews 11:6, John 15:7)
Carrying Hope
In response to His goodness, we are invited to participate in the Gospel mission of carrying hope to the world as an everyday missionary with a generous heart and genuine care. To help us identify our neighbor, Jesus told the story of a Good Samaritan in Luke 10. No matter the cost, this man showed genuine care regardless of the inconvenience to demonstrate love and hope to a neighbor he had never even met. We are challenged to go and do likewise. Together we celebrate when the people of God are deployed to love our neighbors.
There are so many great ways to love our neighbor, and at Calvary, we want to encourage every way we can think of. Things like, participating in acts of service, meeting a need in the community, having gospel conversations, exercising generosity with our money, time, and resources, practicing hospitality, taking the gospel to dark places, and supporting missionaries. While this list is long, there is a seemingly infinite number of ways to love our neighbor, we want to be creative!
When Calvary is loving its neighbors well we start to see some things happen that cause us to celebrate, things like regular involvement in missions activities in the city and around the world, new people being introduced to our faith family, members sharing their faith with others, fulfilling missions initiatives, and seeing the Bible translated into new languages.
In all of these things, we want to be what Jesus called a “city set on a hill” unmissable in our passion for the people around us, making Jesus non-ignorable. When we meet needs or help people, we understand that it isn’t just as simple as doing what’s right or just being a good neighbor. We are carrying hope to the world.
(Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 10, Romans 12:13)
