Friday, February 15, 2008

Calvary Community Church

I wanted to post a brief description of Calvary Community Church, since it is being referenced in some of the posts on this blog.

Calvary Community Church has been used by the Lord to bless many believers in the Houston area and beyond. They have a very interesting history. Calvary started as a Southern Baptist Church. In the 1980’s, the pastor was feeling burnt out, and went through a season of seeking and crying out to the Lord. The Holy Spirit surprised Calvary with an intense time of manifesting Himself powerfully. They experienced healings, gifts of knowledge, and discernment between spirits, among other manifestations. Since they originally believed that the Holy Spirit no longer worked as He did in New Testament times, they were challenged to go back to the Bible and re-evaluate what they believed, in light of their experiences.

Calvary has been building up and encouraging fellow Christians for years through their Ministry Team Training conferences that they hold every few months. The first session, Foundations for Power Ministry, led by Steve Meeks, is a great day of hearing the incredible history of what God did at Calvary as well as being challenged by what the Bible says about how the Holy Spirit works. By learning how the Holy Spirit works, believers are challenged to live as disciples by actively ministering to, healing, and teaching others.

Calvary went through a season of the Holy Spirit being poured out very frequently. Steve likened it to God 'advertising' for the kingdom to come. He can do what He wants when He wants to. They continue to be obedient in ministering to others, leaving the work to the Holy Spirit - and He does as He desires.

The teachings at the Ministry Team Training's are Biblically grounded, and there is plenty of opportunity to ask questions. After the conference, there is the option of being ministered to through one of their prophecy teams. Their prophecy teams consist of two to four people, who pray and listen for a word from the Lord to share. It is encouraging to receive a word from the Lord that is meant only for you (and validating to realize that it has to be from the Lord because these people know nothing about you, but the message is very personal). It is comforting to be reminded that God is still present, powerful and intimately involved in our lives.