Who is Calvary Community Church?
Pastor Tom Brown
In the early 1980s, I attended a pastors' conference at Grace Community Church in Southern California. One of the speakers was the Russian pastor and dissident from the then Leninist Soviet Republic. Georgi Vins was born to Russian parents of Baptist persuasion. He entered the ministry in 1928 and by 1930 was arrested and emprisioned for his faith. Georgi knew ministry under persecution. Pastor Georgi's opening to his message went something like this:
As I travel through the United States, I get the impression that Americans perceive the church according to one of two models: First, the church is a country club where members come to enjoy one another's company, share in fine meals and host great Christian events. Second, the church is a hospital where wounded believers come to heal and recover from the emotional challenges of life. But as I read my Bible, I don't find either of those models. What I find is that the Church of Jesus Chirst is likened to a barracks where troops are equipped to fight the evil forces of darkness with the sword of the Gospel.
There was something challenging about the church Pastor Vins envisioned. Could Calvary Community Church be such a church? Could we be the church that competently trains men and women, boys and girls, to meet the global forces of darkness with the sword of the gospel? This is our vision. But we need help. We need you.
So, who we are? We are a church made up of common ordinary people who desire to see God do extraordinary things through us. We are a vision in progress. We are a growing organism with a desire to be defined, not by our programs, but by the gifted believers among us. These gifted believers are the bricks that build the spiritual house called "Calvary Community Church." This is our vision. This is our ambition and hope. In short, we desire to be defined by our gifted members, all of them, and ever changing with each new gift added.
I love what my first pastor wrote in the days of my Christian beginnings. Listen to this:
When the church was word-conscious, new men and women lived in the sphere of the eternal. Heaven, hell, redemption, sin and the Holy Spirit were real. The preaching of the Word was to save, to comfort, to instruct, and beyond that, it was, and still is, the catalyst of history.
The mission of the church does not begin with the task to be done, but with gifted saints who will do the task. So, as Georgi Vins spoke, the church is a 'barracks'. It is God's barracks designed to build up believers to the end of being, "a praise to the glory of God's grace" (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14). From such a maturing church, missions minded believers reach forward and affectively meet the task of God's mission to the nations. Will you come be a brick in the building of such a church?
Church Office:
3085 Clague Road
North Olmsted, OH 44070
(440) 360-7533
pastor@calvarycommunityohio.com