Blog Post No. 28 - Reading Time: 2:45

We had a great time at our annual church picnic yesterday in Harter Park. (View in Gallery: Click Here.)Because of the holiday weekend, several were involved in family activities, but we still had a good turn out of our church people and their friends and family.

One of the things I was asked at the picnic was about those who have attended in the past. It got me to thinking of all those who have passed away at Calvary since I have been here. It’s approaching 50 funerals I have either officiated or been a part of since my time as pastor here at Calvary. Sonny Pettie has done some of them, and a former pastor, Rodger Garland, has done others.

It makes you think, but I realize that without all the new faces, there would be no Calvary today. In that respect, it’s a lot like a family. The faces change, but the family remains. A good illustration of that was Caleb and Sonya Burk, who recently moved to Union City and came to our cookout with their children. I remember Caleb’s mother and father, Mike and Angie Burk, when they were a part of Calvary. Their children were very young then. Now they have kids of their own. The Burk’s served on our worship team and taught our people, before they took one of our churches in Portland.

It’s a weird feeling to still be pastoring through a generational change, but it’s part of what a church does, if it is going to continue to exist. I’ve spoken often of this fact among our leadership and to the congregation as a whole. Sometimes we try to drive this change, but I feel more and more, in God’s plan, it is more of a natural progression as each of us continues to just play our part in the whole. None of us are permanent and none of us are actually in control. It’s a God thing.

Even though it’s hard to let go of some who have made such an impact on our church, it’s a necessary thing if we are to continue to care for and guide the ones who are becoming the new family of Calvary—built on the giving of our previous generations. Some of those in the past have been members for a large portion of their lives. I pray that this new fellowship of believers will adopt the same attitude towards their time at Calvary. It is their church and it will be what they make it to be. No one, not even a pastor, drives this process. Growth is the way of all things, but it also entails change as each new generation defines what their church is like in the community.

“Dear friends, now we are children of God,
 and what we will be has not yet been made known.
 But we know that when Christ appears,
 we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

1st John 3:2 (NIV)

Until next Monday, may the Lord bless you! Pray for us!

Pastor Brian Jenkins

Calvary Assemblies of God

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