On Saturday night, mothers in the church enjoyed the opportunity to have a full meal cooked and served for them along with some self-reflection time. Many thanks to Pastor Christine who came up with the idea and did the planning and cooking.
Mother’s Day Dinner Read More »
Our youth group had their first overnight lock-in since the pandemic. It was a great night of a trampoline park, games at the church, and even a short celebration of the 40th birthday of one of the leaders.
Saturday, June 11th
at the Riverfront in Wilmington
Calvary joins this fundraiser every year in support of Friendship House. Please register to walk or donate, and be sure to join/select the Newark Empowerment Center team. This link will take your directly to their registration page: https://bit.ly/Walk0611
Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community Read More »
On Saturday, April 30, a few Calvary members helped spread wood chip mulch in several existing and new areas of the church lawn and garden, as well as doing a little pruning. Using natural mulching is just one small part of our efforts to be a “creation care” congregation. Thanks friends for the helping hands!
Beautifying our grounds Read More »
On Saturday, April 9, about a dozen Calvary members went to Faith and Family Night at a Philadelphia Union Soccer game. After the game, a few players shared their Christian testimony and made themselves available for questions.
Faith & Family Night with Union Soccer Read More »
In the 1970s, “pulpit swaps” became a common practice among Christians who, still in their racially segregated churches, wanted to cross divides and promote healing and unity. It was especially powerful in places like Birmingham and others that played a central role in the civil rights movement. The pastor of a white church and the pastor of a black church would “swap pulpits,” visiting and preaching at each others’ churches. These swaps also sometimes included the churches’ choir or other music group.
Although Calvary has not been racially homogenous for many decades now, some of the leadership of Calvary still finds it beneficial to connect with other congregations in our area that have a different racial makeup, especially those that are historically Black. It is a way to build relationships and partnerships, and continue being reminded of God’s very large and diverse family.
In that vein, this Sunday, March 27, we will be doing a senior pastor pulpit swap with Shiloh Baptist Church of Wilmington. Shiloh, established in 1875, is the oldest African American Baptist Church in Delaware. Rev. Dr. Clifford Johnson will be preaching at Calvary, and I will be preaching at Shiloh.
I became acquainted with Rev. Dr. Johnson when I came onto the Board of Directors of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies. He was the President of the board at the time. Rev. Dr. Johnson happens to be retiring later this year, after having served in pastoral ministry for 50 years, 25 of them being at Shiloh. He is a graduate of the New York Theological Seminary and the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is quite an accomplished pastor and activist. Shiloh’s website mentions at least 20 new ministries that began under his leadership; everything from new music groups to outreach ministries of feeding, transportation, and health. He was featured in a March 4, 2021 Delaware News Journal article about doing ministry in the pandemic.
Rev. Dr. Johnson has also been active in many regional and national organizations. These roles include the economic development chairman of the Interdenominational Ministers’ Action Council, the board of directors of the Wilmington Senior Center, chairman of the board and founding member of the Marion T. Academy Charter School, and the board of the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board (MMBB). He has also served as an adjunct professor at the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s School of Christian Ministry and Wilmington University.
I know you’ll be blessed by his presence and message this coming Sunday, and thank you to all of you for the opportunity to visit and preach to his congregation.
In the spring of 2021, Calvary’s Board of Trustees decided to conform to current CDC guidance for COVID-19 precautions, whatever it happens to be, especially in regards to who should wear masks and when.
If someone were to ask me, “What’s the primary way your faith has changed or developed over the years?”, I think I would simply have to say, “God has kept getting bigger.” When I was a senior in high school I was dating a girl who was Pentecostal. You may know something about the worship style of those churches. I, on the other hand, grew up in a straight-laced Southern Baptist Church that didn’t add contemporary music until I was grown and moved away. So you can imagine my shock when she took me to a revival. Let’s just say I was disturbed. I said out loud to her, “This isn’t God. This isn’t what church is.” Since then, with the help of many teachers and authors, I have obviously learned that God is beyond any one particular form. But it is also true that God can be found IN forms. In other words, the myriad of styles, experiences and artistic forms all have the potential to communicate something powerful about God that mere words or sermons cannot. Recently, a church member shared a website with me, and it was one of those times that I found myself saying, “How had I not seen or heard of this?!” It’s a site hosted by the Biola University Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts. I’m not sure how long it has been around, but they say it was “founded on the belief that the interrelationship between contemporary artmaking, theology, and religious tradition holds much richer potential for exploration and study than it has yet received.” In particular, during the seasons of Advent and Lent, they put out daily devotionals that include poetry, visual arts, and music. These daily mashups for those seasons are so incredibly rich and diverse. In looking through last year’s Lenten season, I found much of it to be enriching, and pretty much each day challenged me to see God in a new way or through a new kind of artisitic expression. We have begun the season of Lent, and we are starting a new series called “Wherever He is Found: A Lenten series of encountering Christ through the arts.” We will be drawing on expressions I’ve found through this and other resources as we seek God wherever He can be found. The person who introduced me to the website said that these resources “made her heart sing.” We could all use some singing and nourishment right now. Come and seek God with us in worship this Lenten season. -Pastor Corey
Wherever He is Found: A Lenten series of encountering Christ through the arts. Read More »
