"Owning Our Moment" Series

     Starting with the first Sunday of January we will put our Mark series on pause.  From January 7 to February 11 we will be preaching a series called "Owning Our Moment." As a follow up to our 60th anniversary celebration, where we affirmed the generous investment of those who came before us, we want to now own our moment.  We want to receive the baton, running our leg of the race.  We want to own the gospel, own the mission and manage the resources with which God has entrusted us.  Below is the plan for the series.  Notice the dates.  (ABFs begin series on 12-17-17).

    On 2-11-18 our Guest Speaker will preach a message titled "What if God Showed up?" based on Matthew 9:35-38.

     During this series we will explore how as disciple-makers and as extended families on mission we invest our time, energy and money in kingdom ways as part of our fruitfulness.  We will invite every participant in our ABFs, disciple-making groups and worship services to make commitments in regard to the investment of their resources for the kingdom.  We will explore the idea of the "Five Capitals" as presented in the small paperback book Oikonomics: How to Invest In Life's Five Capitals the Way Jesus Did (2014) by Mike Breen and Ben Sternke; although this is not a book study nor is this the only resource that will be referenced.

     As the year 2018 begins we will invite everyone in our congregation to consider their regular and generous giving through the CBC budget which supports local and global ministries.  Beyond our regular support of the church budget, which we call the tithe and which is continuous, we will ask individuals and families to consider special above-and-beyond sacrificial giving toward two causes, which are short-term:

1. A capital campaign to remodel the Student Ministry area; and/or
2. Sponsoring a child through Food for the Hungry in the Philippines (FVR, Bulacán)

While we believe that systematic, proportionate and continuous support of God's work through the church is expected of every believer (Malachi 3:10; Matthew 23:23), we understand that above-and-beyond giving is a free-will offering, for a short-term, where each person needs to be led by God as to where and how much to give (Exodus 35:29; Psalm 54:6; 2 Corinthians 9:7).  The former simply requires faithful obedience.  The second requires prayerful discernment.

     Please pray for yourself, your family and your group that we may all discover the grace, the joy and the blessing of generous giving and that God's mission advances as we invest of ourselves in it.

Writing the Second Third (Christmas Lesson)

Week 18 from Calvary Baptist Church on Vimeo.

      This week we talk about how to formulate questions for the second third of the three-thirds method.  This is the part where you do head, heart and hands leading your group to discover and apply God's truth.

       You'll notice that this week the second third (Looking Up) will be left blank for you to fill in (in Word format so you can edit it).  Also this week we are pausing our Mark series in order to do a Christmas lesson.

        You can view the session outline below in JPEG format or you can download it in Word format (so you can edit it) here.

Writing the First Third

Week 17 from Calvary Baptist Church on Vimeo.

      In this week's blog we share ideas for writing the first third of the session outline ("Looking Back").  You, as the disciplemaker group leader can write this portion.  Remember the first third has five elements:

• Fellowship
• Member care
• Prayer
• Loving accountability
• Vision casting

     You will notice this week's outline will have that portion blank so that you can write it.  The idea is that eventually you'll be able to do this "by heart" and teach others how to do it too.

    Below you can see the session outline in JPEG format or you can download it in PDF format here.

Three-Thirds Overview

3_3 Summary & Challenge 11-21-17 from Calvary Baptist Church on Vimeo.

     This week Pastor Chad does a Three-Thirds overview.  The idea is that each disciple-maker can formulate his/her own Three-Thirds outline from a given Bible passage, and teach others how to do it as well.  This also helps make the disciple-making process easily reproducible.

     This week we provide a complete session outline as we had been doing before.  Next week, we will leave the first-third blank for you to "fill-in."  Each week we will do the same with a different portion until we only provide the Bible passage and you come up with the outline.  Our desire is that eventually you will do this so naturally that you won't even need a paper in front of you.  You will be able to lead a session having nothing else in front of you beside your Bible.

     Below is this week's session outline in JPEG format or you can download it in PDF format here:

Teaching to Fish

Week 16 from Calvary Baptist Church on Vimeo.

     As we have applied the Three-Thirds method, including the head, heart and hands portion, we hopefully have accomplished two things with our disciple-making groups: (1) we have taught participants how to discover God's truth and apply it to their lives, and (2) have trained them so they can use head, heart and hands in disciple-making with their families, neighbors, schoolmates, workmates or any other group they lead.

     In this week's video blog we encourage you to challenge participants to use this method in disciple-making in the contexts mentioned above and we share stories of those who are already doing so.  We hope to continue to see reproduction and multiplication of disciple-making groups.

     Below you can see this week's session outline in JPEG format or you can down load it in PDF format here.

Goals

Week 15 from Calvary Baptist Church on Vimeo.

     This week we model how to do the goal setting portion of the three-thirds methodology.  This is a very important portion of the session.  As disciple-makers we are "teaching to obey" (Matthew 28:18-20).  If we end the session with just Bible knowledge or thoughts but we don't give an opportunity for personal application, we will fall short of our objective.

     The difference between a Bible Study session and a disciple-making session is that a Bible Study will discover knowledge from the Bible and perhaps even discuss possible applications, while a disciple-making session will begin with loving accountability about what was applied last week from God's truth and will end with new "goals" or personal applications for the following week.  These goals should be measurable, specific, and reachable.

     You can view this week's lesson outline below in JPEG format or download it here in PDF format.

     

60 Days of Prayer

     This week we are pausing the video-blog and emphasizing the 60 Days of Prayer.  We are reminded by the allegory of the vine in John 15:1-12 that we can do nothing without remaining in Christ.  There will be no fruit in our disciple-making or in our groups unless we are remaining in Him and He in us.

     As ABFs and disciple-making groups we need to pray that God will bring those who are far away from him to become disciples and disciple-makers.  We will call this praying for the POPULATION.  As we pray for the population our prayer is three-fold.  We pray that God would.

• help us to care for those who are far away from Him;
• work in the hearts of people who are far away from Him;
• set divine appointments for us to share the gospel.

     As God brings people closer to him and raises disciple-makers, the enemy will attack back.  So we pray for PROTECTION from the enemy.

     Finally, when the work of God grows, we need God's PROVISION of finances and workers for the harvest.  Our church is running behind budget and in the process of adopting the 2018 budget.  We want to continue to do the work here and to send others beyond the church to go.  So we pray for that as well.

     As the leader of your disciple-making group there are two ways in which you can lead your group to join in this prayer effort.  First, you can plan to pray during the session in a focused way.  Secondly, you can encourage group participants to pray during the week.

     We are encouraging everyone to pray at the following times for the POPULATION, PROTECTION and PROVISION:

Monday through Friday

7:00 AM--7:30 AM (Parlor open)

11:00 AM--11:30 AM (Parlor open)

3:00 PM--3:30 PM (Parlor open)

7:00 PM--7:30 PM (At home)

Saturday and Sunday

7:00 AM--8:00 AM (Parlor open)

People can come to the church parlor and pray at the designated times above or they can pray from home, work or school.

     During this week's session invite participants to set a goal of the days and times they will join this prayer effort, if they haven't done so already.

     You can view this week's session plan below in JPEG or download the PDF version by clicking here.